subarus
Group: Members
Posts: 75
Joined: May 2004 |
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Posted: Jan. 14 2006,06:21 |
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I have been using DSL for awhile now. I used to carry a cd case full of livecds for various application scenarios ie. gis, games, servers, forensic, security, hacking & network analysis. Obviously there is no one size fits all livecd out there; well guess what, there actually is, its Damnsmalllinux, believe it or not.
Here are the list of show stopper problems I encountered in the past and the solution:
1) no wifi on centrino wireless, solution: download ipw2100 or ipw2200 extension. edit bootlocal.sh script to automate wifi
2) no wireless sniffers, had to use auditor, solution: apt-get kismet or download kismet extension
3) no internet privacy, had to use ELE, solution: download tor extension and switchproxy
4) no firefox version >1.0 for rss, had to use knoppix, solution: its in dsl 2.0
5) kismet not working with centrino, had to use orinoco or auditor, solution: download kismet latest tarball, use gcc1 to compile
6) fluxbox hang when on thinkpad after lid re-open to resume dsl2.0, had to avoid closing lid, c-a-del to restart fb, use dsl1.5, solution: use the dsl-2.0-syslinux.iso version instead of the isolinux version and the laptop wont go into standby
7) cannot send yahoo email with dsl 1.5, had to use opera, solution: use dsl 2.0
8) K3b stop working on dsl2.0, solution: learn to use native CDW, there is nothing it cant do
and the list goes on and on... the thing about dsl is, it continously improves.. and I believe anybody who are serious about modern computing should pay attention to dsl
ok. now for some suggestions for improvement:
1) documentation is a mess.
I had major problems with mkmydsl, its all my fault because I was too lazy to read properly. I never got to the part for .iso creation because I didnt type "OK" to proceed, but if the exit message care to say "script aborted, you type "fubar" instead of "OK", didnt your mother teach you how to read?", I would have proceeded to the next stage without a hitch.
After I finally created my precious custom mydsl livecd, the dang thang wont boot. ofcourse I saw the error message where DSL failed to change the file ownership but so what if I took notice, I dont know what to do with that information. It turned out that I had to provide the ext2 filesystem for the extensions and filesystem temp space..not vfat!! If the message said something to the effect of: Enter the your extension directory. (example /mnt/master): and make sure that its on a ext2 filesystem instead of vfat, or else you are going to waste weeks debugging why your custom livecd wont boot, and dont say I didnt warn you:
I realise all the debug information is available if I search the forum, but my point is all the agony could be avoided if the proper information is conveyed before the mistakes occur.
thank you.
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