DSL Embedded :: Differece between 5-way and DSL embedded

After attempting to set up a USB pen drive (Lexar Jumpdrive secure, 128Mb) using DSL embedded, I tried the tools and readme in 5-way. I am now thoroughly confused...What is the differece between setting up your pen drive using the 5-way tools and just making a directory on your pen drive and extracting the contents of dsl-embedded-x.zip to a folder on the drive?

My number one priority is to figure out how to get DSL to boot *inside* windows from my USB pen drive. It would be awesome if I could also boot off of it by changing BIOS settings to boot from USB, Boot inside of another Linux distro, etc...

Is there any way to accomplish this? I would really really appreciate help on the subject, as I am VERY new to DSL (just started trying to set this up today, in fact).

Thanks Much,

Jeremy Davis Pedersen

The EASY solution is to download DSL-embedded zip file and then unzip the contents into your USB drive.

Then double-click on the dsl-windows.bat icon and away you go.

Keep in mind that you need a fairly new computer (> 1Ghz in my opinion) in order to run DSL from inside MSWindows because the emulator will run DSL but it is MUCH slower than running it natively (IE: booting into DSL).

Basically:

DSL-embedded = A collection of DSL files and a virtual PC emulator called QEMU that allows you to run DSL from an emulated PC inside a host OS like MSWindows or Linux.

DSL 5-way = The same files PLUS the ability to boot natively into DSL when you turn on your computer.
5-way is harder to set up because it needs to make your USB drive into a "bootable" drive via a program called Syslinux. This program is used to boot linux in a similar manner as the MSDOS "bootdisk" command SYS A: does to create an MSDOS boot floppy.
It is also possible to boot the 5-way from other sources like a DSL boot floppy or a DSL livecd that activates the 5-way USB drive operating system and allows you to remove the cd from the tray.
In addition to being a little more complicated, the other common problem associated with 5-way and other "bootable" USB devices is that not all PC motherboards support USB booting. And the ones that support USB booting don't all use the same boot method. Some will boot a USB drive if it is set up to look like a USB superfloppy, other motherboards want to see a USB ZIP drive, and still others want to see a USB hard drive.
So this means that a 5-way will not always work with a PC even though the BIOS says "supports USB booting". So while the concept is very cool, the reality is that USB booting is very hit-or-miss right now. Hopefully the PC manufacturers will eventually settle on a "standard" way to boot a PC from a USB device but even then there are a lot of PCs already out there today so the "Standard" will only help with consistency for newly manufactured computers.

Thanks alot, that clears things up nicely. I have only one question left now. How do I set up 5-way? (the readme seems a bit outdated, although I have installed the tools necessary to complete all the tasks it details)

Better yet, how do I use a DSL liveCD to boot from my USB memory stick? (provided I have set up syslinux properly ;-P)

Thanks much,

Jeremy Davis Pedersen

At the boot: prompt, put in dsl bootfrom=/dev/sda1
(and that doesn't need syslinux to be set up properly... you're booting from the cd, but using the files from the memory stick.)

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/talk/node/73
(Hmmm, that needs to be in bold in a link at the top of the forums... (along with a note not to post questions in the blog :-)
(Haven't tried 5-way yet... I'll have a look.)

original here.