Damn Small Linux
 Damn Small Linux 4.0 | |
| Developer | John Andrews, et al |
|---|---|
| OS family | Linux |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source |
| Latest release | 4.2.5 / 2008-01-28 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic kernel |
| Default user interface | JWM |
| License | Various |
| Official website | http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ |
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 LiveCD 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.
DSL name confusion
DSL is not to be confused with DSLinux (technically Nintendo DS Linux), which is a different Linux distribution for the Nintendo DS handheld game console.
History
DSL was originally conceived and maintained by John Andrews, but has grown into a large community project with many contributors[citation needed], including 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.
System requirements
DSL supports only X86 PCs. The minimum system requirements are a 386 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.
Features
The current version of DSL is 4.2.5, released January 28, 2008. DSL currently includes the following software:
- Text editors: Beaver, Nano, Vim
- File managers: DFM, emelFM
- Graphics: XPaint, xzgv (image viewer)
- Multimedia: gphone, XMMS with MPEG-1 and VCD support
- Office: SIAG (spreadsheet program), Ted (word processor) with spell checker, Xpdf (viewer for PDF documents)
- Internet:
- Others: DHCP client, SSH/SCP client and server; PPP, PPPoE, ADSL support; FUSE, NFS, SSHFS support; UnionFS; generic/Ghostscript printing support; PC card, USB, Wi-Fi support; calculator, games, system monitor; many command-line tools
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 December 2004, the MyDSL servers were hosting over 200 applications, plugins, and other extensions.
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.
Boot options
Boot options are also called "cheat codes" in DSL. Automatic hardware detection may fail, or the user may want to use something other than the default settings. 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.
Versions and ports
| 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 |
The standard flavour of DSL is the LiveCD. 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.
- 'dsl-version-embedded.zip': Includes QEMU for running DSL inside Windows or Linux.
- 'dsl-version-initrd.iso': Integrates the normally-separate cloop image into the initrd image; this allows network booting, using PXE.
- 'dsl-version-syslinux.iso': Boots using syslinux instead of isolinux; for very old PC's that cannot boot with isolinux.
- 'dsl-version-vmx.zip': A virtual machine that can be run in VMware Workstation or VMware Player.
- DSL-N: A larger version of DSL that exceeds the 50 MB limit of business-card CDs. DSL-N uses version 2 of the GTK+ widget toolkit and version 2.6 of the Linux kernel. The latest release of DSL-N, 0.1RC4, is 95 MB in size.
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 LiveCD 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.
References
See also
