Linux Format forums

[Guest]

Read the article and thought I would give a couple a go.

I have found the distros on the DVD, but after have scaned the "Disk Pages" section of the magazine and looked around the DVD I am a little confused about the isos.

In the Damn Small Linux folder there are two isos:

dsl-1.0.1-syslinux.iso
dsl-1.0.1.iso

what is the difference between them and which one do I want for a live distro? I had a look on the Damn Small Linux web site and they seem to lack the basic information of which iso does what.

I had a look on a websire about isolinx and just came away confused, obviously some short of work around for some issues.

In the puppy linux folder the iso is called:

puppy-1.0.1-mozilla.iso

what is the significance of the "mozilla" in the name?

Many thanks for any help.

[nelz]

The difference between the two DSL ISOs is the boot method they use, as far as I could tell. As you say, the DSL site is somewhat reticent on this matter, but the easy answer is to try both.
_________________
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Albert Einstein)

[fingers99]

From here
Despite Puppy's compact size, it is well appointed with full-fledged applications. The version that I am using to type this article comes with the Mozilla Suite. The Mozilla Suite features the integrated calendar, email, and web page composer, as well as Mozilla's very sophisticated email client. Two other versions of Puppy are available. One comes with Mozilla, while the other comes with Firefox.

So, I guess that the mozilla one contains mozilla.

[Guest]

I am not writing this after booting with "dsl-1.0.1.iso".

Apart from a screen flickering at 60Hz and the wrong keyboard mapping, @ and " swapped etc, I and up and running on the internet. I guess some boot options may fix this.

I like the way on powering down with DSL it prompts you to remove the CD, before powering off, something puppy does not do. On the other hand puppy gave me a option on boot to configure my keyboard correctly. Win some and lose some.

I do find Linux frustrating for a beginner as in this case, a level of knowledge is assumed, and it seems to be difficult to find out the basics, ie which iso to use?

Thanks for your help.

PS why when you reply on these new forums is not the Subject line automatically filled in?

[Guest]

Woops typo in last message:

'I am not writing this after booting with "dsl-1.0.1.iso".'
should read
'I am now writing this after booting with "dsl-1.0.1.iso".'

[dandnsmith]

The " and @ swapped is typical of presuming the keyboard to be US when you have a UK keyboard - not sure what the option might be for that.

The 60 Hz flickering sounds like another US special - again I haven't seen a boot option for that.
_________________
Derek

[fingers99]

[ChrisChambers]

Guest (1st post) says he is confused - me too.

Its the first time bought Linux Format mainly to try the Linux mini distros.I found the info in the magazine to limited for a Linux newbie.One difference for me is no DVD drive on this machine and i have the 2 Cd version of the magazine.So thanks for posts which i think give me enough info to get started.Ime going to burn an ISO image to CD and the distro files and see what happens with that.

My comment for the magazine editors is that the info in the mag refers to ISO burning for Gentoo and install discs.If they read their mag ISO and the mini distro's are not mentioned.Or have i missed something?.

I think to try the DSL and Feather distro's one Q is any advantage in either those for an old machine,500 Mhz AMD K6-2 CPU.I hope to install on HD eventually.Me ok partionining (i hope).

Thanks for your posts so far.I hope for your advice re which distro.And apologies for long post -its my age-!.

Chris.

[nelz]

The box on page 117 only refers to creating CD ISO images from the DVD, not how to burn them to CD. That information is in the Essential disc info section, on page 119.
_________________
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Albert Einstein)

[ChrisChambers]

nelz,
I had read p117 and p119 and that is headed create install cd's and does not make it clear if same applies for live cd's.neither does p119 refer to the mini distro's.ive no doubt that i am a newbie and imagine the magazine wants to cater for all including for those that are at the start of a learning curve.well i hope so.prehaps an occasional box out that really does deal from basics might help.i will say i have not done much cd burning anyway so that is most of the prob.

so ive had a go and no luck,2 cd's ive burnt from windows.i put the feather iso also whole of the feather file to cd and then closed to read on any computer.did same with dsl on another cd.neither worked.

its not bios settings since the ubuntu cd goes straight into the install routine.

so what ive done is empty one of the windows partition (hard disc was already partitoned into c d and e) and installed UBUNTU and that looks good...windows works same.going to search around now in ubuntu.ubuntu install is easy except found i had to delete the empty windows e in partitioning before ubuntu beleived it empty.

aside from not much experience with burning another prob maybe the windows cd burner.adaptec roxio v5 basic.going to see if ubuntu has a cd burner and try from that.i would still like to have a live Linux cd for feather and dsl and will be glad of any help or advice.

good luck, Chris.

[msnthrp]

LXF 68 has the lovely mini-distros section that piqued my interest. I read the articles on pages 34-39, then read the Coverdisc section. The articles say the mini-distros can be installed to a USB key and if the BIOS of another machine is set correctly (if the option is there), then you can boot from the USB key. But nowhere did I find any info on how to do it or which ISO shoul be used.

Reading the info at www.linux-usb.org FAQs did not help much since I want to use the USB key to boot to Linux on a normally Windoze machine. My problem now is to decide which of the different ISOs on the DVD are the ones to put on the USB key.

Any help would be appreciated.

Jim B.

[nelz]

Some of the mini-distros can be installed to a USB disc, and you'll find information in their documentation. Try booting from the CD and looking for docs, or looking on the web site. Feather Linux has a specific USB version on the discs.
_________________
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Albert Einstein)

[nelz]

[ChrisChambers]

Success,
Ubuntu burnt the DamnSmallLinux ISO real easy so now able to boot DSL from live CD no probs.Went back into Win98se and burnt Feather ISO using Adaptec Roxio.That ok also so can boot Feather from cd.

In earlier attempt mistake was formating the cd for data first.Thats no use.So learnt something new ie about iso images.

Both Ubuntu and Win98/Roxio os's had much same procedure which only for inexperienced newbies (me to) is something like;
Drag and drop eg dsl or feather mini distro file from LXF Cd to hard disc.
Open distro file and right click the iso file,follow the dialogue into cd burning.Use a new blank cd.Let the software do the work.
You may need to alter BIOS settings to boot CD first.

Its also a possibillity to create a damn small linux boot up floppy which may avoid the need to go into the BIOS or for those with some CD Rom drives which are incompatible.A bit about that in another post if i think that need exists.

Best Wishes and thanks to all especially to the mag LXF for some fine software,to Guest who started the thread,Ubuntu,(:DSL-)and Feather.
Chris.

[nelz]

You can use Smart Boot Manager, on the discs, to boot a Cd or DVD that won't otherwise boot.
_________________
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Albert Einstein)