Networking :: Senao wifi card

That's the "Small" in Damn Small Linux.

Docs and the fullsize X server have been removed to save space.

You can always force them back in there by apt-get removing and then reinstalling the same package with apt-get install, but I think your best bet is to either:

1) Live with the limitations. Some of them, like the X-Server are actually BENEFITS for many people and not limitations. Why? Because the TinyX server is smaller and uses less RAM and disk space vs. full blown XFree86 or XOrg. But you need a VESA or framebuffer supported video card in order to use them.

2) Get Debian. It's probably easier to strip down Debian than it is to transmogrify DSL to look more like a stock Debian system.

Good Luck.

Quote (cbagger01 @ Feb. 23 2006,19:09)

Yes, I understand that it's meant to be small -- when I said docs, I was refering to the lack of docs anywhere -- like on the website. And I was hoping to be able to use TinyX, just very surprised that there's no configuration for it. I'll have to get XF86_SVGA I guess for this mono LCD.
So anyway, do you have any idea how to get the wifi working? I can't use apt-get or anything else until I get that working. I've not had much problem getting it to work before.

I am quite willing to live with its limitations -- but first of all, it has to work. If there's no X and no network, that's not limitations, that's dysfunctional. For this machine, I want a very small linux, otherwise being a 486 with only 20mb ram it's pretty much useless. I've been trying to get the uclibc and buildroot stuff to work for an embedded system, but so far that has only compiled with just the base system for me -- no pcmcia, no X, no hostap.

Unfortunately, I don't have a wireless card, so I can't help you there.

However, you can still manually install Debian packages without a network.

You can either burn them to a CD or use some other storage medium to transfer the files over to your computer. I think you can even add the cd drive mountpoint to your debian repository search list in /etc/apt/sources.list

If not, you can still manually install them by doing:

sudo su
dpkg -i name_of_file.deb

You can manually restore the dpkg configuration by downloading the dsl-dpkg.dsl extension from the mydsl repository and install it with:

sudo -u dsl mydsl-load dsl-dpkg.dsl

Also, it is fairly easy to extract/install Slackware packages because they are essentially tarballs, ie *.tag.gz

So you might be able to get the vga server from a slackware package and extract it.

Otherwise, you may need to swap the hard drive into a network-capable computer and do an installation and then swap it back to your original PC. Or you can temporarily install a wired LAN card into your original PC.

Good Luck.

original here.