Damn Small Linux - Not!

Peter · Joined: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 51

I used it. I loved it. I miss it. Will it make a triumphant return? Did it cause you more hassles than it was worth? Is there some technical limitation where it just wouldn't be prudent to use it on DSL-N? Was it just too ordinary with its mundane ability to write to all directories? Sorry to whine, but I use DSL (and now DSL-N) on a neolithic notebook. Even with the new kernel and GTK2 and all the other extras, DSL-N is "competent" and down-right fast. But, it would be nice if it didn't [i]have[/i] to pack everything up in backup.tar.gz when I shut down.
Again, sorry to complain. I really appreciate all the effort... The soup's great, I'd just like some crackers.

roberts · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Posts: 320 Location: OC CA USA

You should not have to pack so much into a backup.

Extensions being large and static should not be in a backup but copied once onto a persistent store with a mydsl directory or specified with a boot option mydsl=hda2

So unless you use a fat email client or otherwise generate tons of files in your home dir then backup shouldn't be that big.

Also the persistent home and opt should be working, this a hybrid sort of install where you have the benefits of being installed to a hard drive partition yet still have a bulletproof OS, with trivial updates. Just boot using the home=hda3 and/or opt=hda4 and /home and/or /opt will be setup to be persistent.

I strongly promote these new or DSL ways to use the OS.

The dsl-hdinstall script is still there but only the lilo option is presently working.
Not sure of its future at this time.

Peter · Joined: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 51

1. It's sad that I am absolutely addicted to spell checkers :)

2. This defiantly is superior to the hdinstall method, but some strange things happen if I leave a standard DSL cd in the drive when it boots.

3. Do you plan on expanding the frugal install script so that it will ask for /home or /opt mount points (and maybe even copy the contents of your backup file)?

On a side note, I was able to use dsl-hdinstall with grub, the only problem I had was that my cd, usb and floppy drives didn't seem to play well with the auto mounter.