Damn Small Linux

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Not to be confused with DSLinux, a different Linux distribution for the Nintendo DS handheld game console.
Damn Small Linux

Damn Small Linux 4.0
Website www.damnsmalllinux.org
Company/
developer		 John Andrews, et al
OS family Linux
Source model Open source
Latest stable release 4.4 / June 9, 2008 (2008-06-09); 1 day ago
Kernel type Monolithic kernel
Default user interface JWM
License Various
Working state Current

Damn Small Linux or DSL is a free Linux distribution for the X86 family of personal computers. It was designed to run graphical applications on older PC hardware -- for example, machines with 486/early Pentium processors and very little memory. DSL is a Live CD with a size of 50 MB. What originally started as an experiment to see how much software could fit in 50 MB eventually became a full-fledged Linux distribution. It can be installed on storage media with small capacities, like bootable business cards, USB flash drives, various memory cards, and Zip drives.

Contents

[edit] History

DSL was originally conceived and maintained by John Andrews. The community now includes Robert Shingledecker, who created the MyDSL system, DSL Control Panel, and other features.

DSL was originally based on Model-K, a 22 MB stripped-down version of Knoppix, but soon after was based on Knoppix proper, allowing much easier remastering and improvements.

The full development history of DSL can be found on this page.

[edit] System requirements

DSL supports only X86 PCs. The minimum system requirements are a 486 processor and 8 MB of RAM. DSL has been demonstrated browsing the web with Dillo, running simple games and playing music on systems with a 486 processor and 16 MB of RAM. The system requirements are higher for running Mozilla Firefox and optional add-ons such as the OpenOffice.org office suite.

[edit] Features

The current version of DSL is 4.4, released June 09, 2008. DSL currently includes the following software:

DSL has built-in scripts to download and install Advanced Packaging Tool (APT). Once APT is enabled, the user can install packages from Debian's 'Woody' repository. Additionally, DSL hosts software ranging from large applications like OpenOffice.org and GCC, to smaller ones such as aMSN, by means of the "MyDSL" system, which allows convenient one-click download and installation of software. Files hosted on MyDSL are called "extensions". As of June 2008, the MyDSL servers were hosting over 900 applications, plugins, and other extensions.

[edit] Boot options

DSL boot options, called "cheat codes"
DSL boot options, called "cheat codes"

Boot options are also called "cheat codes" in DSL, Knoppix and Morphix. Automatic hardware detection may fail, or the user may want to use something other than the default settings (language, keyboard, VGA, fail safe graphics, text mode...). DSL allows the user to enter one or more cheat codes at the boot prompt. If nothing is entered, DSL will boot with the default options. Cheat codes affect many auto-detection and hardware options. Many cheat codes also affect the GUI. The list of cheat codes can be seen at boot time and also at the DSL Wiki.

[edit] The MyDSL system

MyDSL is handled and maintained mostly by Robert Shingledecker and hosted by many organizations, such as ibiblio and Belgium's BELNET. There are 2 areas of MyDSL - regular and "testing". The regular area contains extensions that have been proven stable enough for everyday use and is broken down into different areas such as "apps", "net", "system", and "uci" ("Universal Compressed ISO" - Extensions in .uci format are mounted as a separate filesystem to minimize RAM usage). The "testing" area is for newly submitted extensions that theoretically work 'as advertised', but may have any number of bugs.

[edit] Versions and ports

Release history[1]
Version Date
1.0 2005-04-13
1.1 2005-05-05
1.2 2005-06-07
1.3 2005-07-14
1.4 2005-08-02
1.5 2005-09-06
2.0 2005-11-22
2.4 2006-05-16
3.0 2006-06-20
3.1 2006-11-29
3.2 2007-01-18
3.3 2007-04-03
3.4 2007-07-03
4.0 2007-10-23
4.1 2007-12-02
4.2 2007-12-18
4.3 2008-04-22
4.4 2008-06-09

The standard flavour of DSL is the Live CD. There are also other versions available:

  • 'Frugal' installation: DSL's 'cloop' image is installed, as a single file, to a hard disk partition. This is likely more reliable and secure than a traditional hard drive installation, since the cloop image cannot be directly modified; any changes made are only stored in memory and discarded upon rebooting.

One can also boot DSL using a boot-floppy created from one of the available floppy images ('bootfloppy.img'; 'bootfloppy-grub.img'; 'bootfloppy-usb.img'; or 'pcmciabootfloppy.img') on very old computers, where the BIOS does not support the El Torito Bootable CD Specification. The DSL kernel is loaded from the floppy disk into RAM, after which the kernel runs DSL from the CD or USB drive.

DSL was ported to the Xbox video game console as X-DSL. X-DSL requires a modified Xbox. It can run as a Live CD or be installed to the Xbox hard drive. Users have also run X-DSL from a USB flash drive, using the USB adaptor included with Phantasy Star Online, which plugs into the memory card slot and includes one USB 1.1 port. X-DSL boots into a X11-based GUI; the Xbox controller can be used to control the mouse pointer and enter text using a virtual keyboard. X-DSL has a Fluxbox desktop, with programs for E-mail, web browsing, word processing and playing music. X-DSL can be customized by downloading extensions from the same MyDSL servers as DSL.

[edit] References

  1. ^ DistroWatch.com: Damn Small Linux

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Free software Portal

[edit] External links

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Linux distributions