DSL 2.1
Forum: Site News
Topic: DSL 2.1
started by: John
Posted by John on Jan. 10 2006,09:06
Well, we have 31 improvements for DSL 2.1. It has been a big effort involving several members of the community. On the interface side we have a lot of nice Lua-FLTK tools including an icon management and settings tool by Robert and a very handy UCI mount/unmount tool written by Mikshaw. Robert also revised a bunch of his scripts including the wordview GUI and our 'System Stats' GUI.System improvements include SATA boot time support, and improved RAM usage in 'toram' mode. There is a whole lot more going on here, so be sure to check out the < change log >.
As for applications, the biggest change is our replacement of FLwriter with Ted. Torsmo replaces asmem, wmcpuload, & wmnet to better support both
window managers. Also, to save space we replaced wmix and mount.app with functional but light Lua-FLTK apps.
There is much more going on, please see the < change log > for full details. Thanks you to everyone who helped for this release!
Posted by John on Jan. 10 2006,09:15
Here are some screen shots:< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-fb.2.1.jpg >
< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-jwm.2.1.jpg >
Posted by joer on Jan. 10 2006,11:04
DSL is like fine wine. It keeps getting better and better with age!
Thank You, John, roberts, and the community.
I have and keep learning from this tiny but mighty distro!
Posted by mcangeli on Jan. 10 2006,12:49
| Quote |
A new torrent has been uploaded. Name: Damn Small Linux 2.1 Size: 49.85 MB Category: Damn Small Uploaded by: mcangeli Description: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Damn Small Linux 2.1 has been released. From the changelog: "New SATA boot time support; new Icontool GUI controls many icon features; new docked.lua - Lua dock apps - mount and dMix replace mount.app and wmix; mew mount.lua - Lua GUI disk mount tool; new dMix - Lua GUI sound mixer; mew ucitool.lua - Lua GUI lists UCI mounts & allows easy deinstall of UCIs; new Torsmo replaces asmem, wmcpuload, & wmnet to better support both window managers; new Ted replaces Flwriter; new .xpdfrc - to support direct printing from Xpdf; new links - Lua links download wrapper; new added Thai keyboard support...." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can use the URL below to download the torrent (you may have to login). < http://linuxtracker.org/torrents-details.php?id=1224&hit=1 > -- LinuxTracker |
Grab the torrent and help seed!!
Posted by doobit on Jan. 10 2006,14:03
Excellent! This is the best small Linux in the universe.
Posted by topmate on Jan. 10 2006,14:48
Have just been given an old Dell Inspiron and was about to install 2.0 on it, glad I logged in to check to see if there was an update!Am grabbing the torrent right now.
Thanks to all involved for their hard work, dsl is by far the most useful distro out there.
Posted by John on Jan. 10 2006,22:10
John, the volume control in that Lua dock app isn't working, what's up with that?
Posted by John on Jan. 10 2006,22:12
Oh man! It looks like I left the old path to umix in there. Sorry about that, I promise it will be working in the next release.
Posted by MethodOne on Jan. 10 2006,22:41
I really want to burn DSL 2.1 to a CD, but I only have one left. It's tough deciding between burning DSL and KANOTIX.
Posted by cbagger01 on Jan. 10 2006,23:45
Buy more 
Posted by faroutscience on Jan. 11 2006,03:49
I"m running the new 2.1 on an old Dell Optiplex GX1 that was donated to my classroom. Runs like a champ!Did everyone notice that DSL is #6 on the Distrowatch top ten?
Another great effort by the developers!
Thanks, Jeff
Posted by John on Jan. 11 2006,05:30
We did a quick 2.1b release to fix that volume bug.
Posted by kx on Jan. 11 2006,15:30
Realtek ALC850 7.1channel AC'97 not workI've bought a Asrock motherboard:K8NF4G-SATA2 which use Realtek ALC850 7.1channel AC'97 audio codec, but this audio chipset seems cannot work in DSL 2.0 .
Can it work in DSL 2.1b?
Or how can I solve this problem?
Thx a lot!
Posted by stoneguy on Jan. 11 2006,21:30
| Quote (faroutscience @ Jan. 10 2006,22:49) |
| I"m running the new 2.1 on an old Dell Optiplex GX1 that was donated to my classroom. Runs like a champ! |
No surprise. Those were pretty good machines. I've got one that I replaced the HD, swapped in a DVD writer, and maxxed out the memory to 384MB. It'll even run XP now (slowly but steadily).
Posted by RoGuE_StreaK on Jan. 11 2006,22:19
So is the bittorrent 2.1b or 2.1? 'Cause I'm having a heap of trouble with ibiblio (usually takes an hour max, sometimes like 5mins, but left it overnight and had still only got about 20%!)
Posted by mcangeli on Jan. 12 2006,00:51
I'm in the process of downloading it now, it will be up on linuxtracker in about 15 minutes.Mark
Posted by mcangeli on Jan. 12 2006,01:01
A new torrent has been uploaded.Name: Damn Small Linux 2.1b
Size: 49.85 MB
Category: Damn Small
Uploaded by: tracker
Description:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUG FIX!!!
Damn Small Linux 2.1b has been released. From the changelog: "New SATA boot time support; new Icontool GUI controls many icon features; new docked.lua - Lua dock apps - mount and dMix replace mount.app and wmix; mew mount.lua - Lua GUI disk mount tool; new dMix - Lua GUI sound mixer; mew ucitool.lua - Lua GUI lists UCI mounts & allows easy deinstall of UCIs; new Torsmo replaces asmem, wmcpuload, & wmnet to better support both window managers; new Ted replaces Flwriter; new .xpdfrc - to support direct printing from Xpdf; new links - Lua links download wrapper; new added Thai keyboard support...."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can use the URL below to download the torrent (you may have to login).
< http://linuxtracker.org/torrents-details.php?id=1234&hit=1 >
--
LinuxTracker
Posted by Got a question on Jan. 12 2006,03:33
Whats up all just wanted to stop by and ask can I use DSL run it Live cd then go on a curropter windows 98 and Backup some important information and doc? Sorry for the N00b questions just starting out with Linux Distros 
THX
Posted by everman on Jan. 12 2006,06:22
Please start a new post for this question.
Posted by reidar on Jan. 12 2006,06:57
Thanks a lot to John, Robert and all the other contributors! 2.1(b) is an excellent new version of DSL!!! Really great!And personally I would like to thank you in particular for bringing back my dear 'Teddy'. Now we have a really good word processor again. Welcome back Ted!!!
Do I have to remind you how easy it is to create quality pdfs with Ted? Just write your document, choose print in the file menu, opt for print to file, fill in a file name. This will create a *.ps file. At the command line you just type 'ps2pdf *.ps', and there you have a very nice pdf file. If you want to check out the quality of the pdf file, just open it in acroread or another pdf viewer where you can zoom in really good. It's great!
But that was slightly off topic... Sorry :-)
Thanks again guys! Excellent job!!!
-r
Posted by dan_slack on Jan. 12 2006,19:23
You all do an excellent work! Congratulations!Although I am a slackware user I was surprised by the beauty of this small damn linux.
It took ages to run a live ubuntu cd, and just seconds for dsl 2.0 on an old PII with 128 Mb RAM. I'm not saying that ubuntu is bad... but dsl was brilliant for the work i had to perfom.
Thanks!
Dan
Posted by pr0f3550r on Jan. 12 2006,23:01
| Quote (dan_slack @ Jan. 12 2006,14:23) |
| It took ages to run a live ubuntu cd,(...)I'm not saying that ubuntu is bad |
_I_ instead want to say that Ubuntu is bad and incidentally that led me to DSL.
Posted by doobit on Jan. 13 2006,00:05
I don't find Ubuntu to be bad, but DSL is better. I just did a clean install of DSL-2.1b on my Toshiba Satellite Pro 480CDT. It's working great on a Pentium 233MMX with 64MB RAM. Can't do that with Ubuntu.
Posted by dmoc on Jan. 13 2006,00:43
I'm using embedded on winxp. How do I upgrade? I have tried simply replacing KNOPPIX but this doesn't quite work. Someone suggested I need to backup some files, if so which? Also, the notes mention usb support but from what I can tell qemu 0.7.2 is needed and it looks like the dsl 2.1a uses the old 0.7.0 version. One final question: I've tried at least one windows binary from < "QEMU on Windows" > but nothing seems to get me KQEMU functional. Has anyone managed embedded+usb+acceleration on any version of dsl (but preferably 2.1a)?
Posted by Desnu on Jan. 13 2006,05:56
Awesome version! I've been using version 1 and 2 for many months and loving it.I like everything about 2.1 except one thing: can I please remove the 'System Stats' GUI ?
If that's the correct description, I don't want the desktop to refresh every 5 seconds, and so I don't want the system stats along the right side of my desktop.
If you can instruct me how to do that, I would greatly appreciate it.
I've tried many things, including .xinitrc and other settings files and I can't seem to do it.
Posted by roberts on Jan. 13 2006,06:15
I think you are talking about torsmoit refreshes the screen and is called from .xtintrc
Just comment out that line or delete it.
Posted by dmoc on Jan. 13 2006,06:20
Haven't figured out how to upgrade keeping my existing config yet. However I have downloaded this excellent util: < QEMU Manager >. It includes acceleration, seems stable and completely removes the need for qemu included with the embedded dsl version. Acceleration works on both v2 and v2.1a! Main problem now is the network doesn't work even though I have configured it the same as I had it in v2. I can ping the interface from with dsl and have confirmed the config. Any idea?Also looks like qemu usb not supported on windows but can someone confirm this?
Posted by Desnu on Jan. 13 2006,10:06
thank you, Roberts. you were right, if you want to NOT show the system stats in version 2.1, all you do is comment out the line in .xinitrc that launches the torsmo process.:)
Posted by dmoc on Jan. 13 2006,13:18
Update: rebooting makes dsl/qemu freeze (qemu's monitor is still active). After quitting qemu and restarting I had lost my network settings but networking now works with defaults. Will change settings later and check again what was wrong (remember this is using the qemu that comes with QEMU Manager (see last post)).PS: do I detect a lack of feedback from dsl's creators?
Posted by hs7sv on Jan. 13 2006,13:57
If we select Menu --> WindowManager --> Restart, Fluxter will move to Upper-Left-Corner 
Posted by John on Jan. 13 2006,18:00
hs7sv, that will happen when ever you have Flixter lose, or not in a slit, and restart Fluxbox. However you could get it back by selecting "Full Enhanced Desktop" on the menu.
Posted by hs7sv on Jan. 14 2006,06:19
"Full Enhanced Desktop" works. Thanks
Posted by mikshaw on Jan. 15 2006,04:29
I really like the links wrapper...could be something to consider for more applications in the future (at least small ones that are easily retrieved through dialup). Something to consider, though...the script automatically downloads and installs the application without the user's consent. Maybe ask first, or have a variable set which controls whether or not to automatically install software.
Posted by MrBear37 on Jan. 16 2006,17:28
Guys,This weekend I took the time to download and install to the HD the 2.1b version of DSL.
I have used DSL now for a few years.. and it continues to be my distro of choice. The fact that it is so small that I can literally put it on anything that has a CD makes it a beautiful thing. I love the HD install script.. its just plain great. I love the work you have done with providing extensions as a workaround for the miniscule amount of issues involved.
You can count me amongst the faithful DSL users.. and know that I sing the praises of DSL every chance I get. Prime on my list of praises is the decided lack of bloat-ware that seems to be creaping into the Linux world. ( microsoft-itis) and the tiny Installed size making old hardware useable.
It truly is a beautiful thing. If I had the skills to help I would. possibly one day soon..
Peace,
Mark
Posted by Linuturk on Jan. 18 2006,11:31
*** Originally wanting to post in the Current Issues Thread ***I hope I'm not to late to comment.
I'd like to say the biggest attraction DSL has for me is it's size. As those of you on IRC know, I'm running on a slower machine. Another great thing about DSL is the Prism2 support it has. This is the ONLY distro that supports my Microsoft MN-520 out of the box. The ONLY distro. I would hate to see that support go away.
I am confident that these seperate releases won't be a bad thing. It's impossible to make something "one size fits all" I think a legacy hardware version, coupled with a new hardware version, and then a larger, prettier version are good ideas. I look foward to trying out the new version that isn't limited by the 50 meg quota. I'm also pleased there will still be the 50 meg version that I can carry easily on my usb stick.
I love your work and I am your faithful follower.
Posted by xiekke on Jan. 18 2006,20:13
how do you install DSL? I downloaded the dsl-2.1.iso that is shown on the first page and extracted all the files under "boot" and "KNOPPIX" on a disk, reboot comp and put CD as bootable, doesn't work......does it matter what kind of cd writing program you use?
Posted by mikshaw on Jan. 18 2006,20:24
Not really, but it does matter _how_ you burn it. You extracted the contents of the ISO and made a "bootable" dos disk...you might as well set a drink on that disk.The ISO is already bootable...it's an image of a bootable CD. If your burning softare has the ability to burn from disk image, use that feature to burn the ISO instead of burning the contents of the ISO or the ISO iteself to a data session.
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Burning_a_Bootable_CD >
Posted by xiekke on Jan. 19 2006,00:55
*thanx for the reply < http://linuxtracker.org/torrents-details.php?id=1224&hit=1 >
Is that the dsl ISO?
i downloaded it and in it were CFG Bin KDB files etc..
anwayz i burn the files in my disk using cd pro, and used option of Burning ISO files. enable the boot from cd in the setup, reboot the comp with the cd in rom, nothing happened, still went into windows. happens to my xp and 98
Posted by hs7sv on Jan. 19 2006,06:38
dsl-2.1-vmx works fine in VMware 5.5 but dsl-2.1b-vmx got the error message below:-| Quote |
| The virtual machine is using a hardware version that is not supported by this version of VMware Workstation. Please use a previous version of VMware Workstation to upgrade the virtual machine. For details, refer to our Web site at "http://www.vmware.com/info?id=100". |
Please kindly re-check and update. Thanks
Posted by Red04Bull on Jan. 20 2006,15:26
roberts,one thing i was wondering if it could be incorperated into the next RC and versions of DSL is with the frugal_install.sh would it be possible to allow installs to non-hdax(ex. hdb, hdc) so it could be done in runlevel 2 instead of firering up the GUI and doing it that way
thanks
Posted by half_steper on Jan. 20 2006,16:09
My DSL 2.1 doesn't work on on brand new comp where everything is connected by USB (mouse and keyboard isn't responsive, other words, i can't do anything), it worked fine on my old one where everything is connected by PS2 help:(
Posted by none on Jan. 22 2006,18:11
Is there a FLOPPY image that will work with easyboot? I want to add this DSL to my cd of winpe and herins.thanks
Posted by ghiggo on Jan. 26 2006,12:08
| Quote (half_steper @ Jan. 20 2006,11:09) |
| My DSL 2.1 doesn't work on on brand new comp where everything is connected by USB (mouse and keyboard isn't responsive, other words, i can't do anything), it worked fine on my old one where everything is connected by PS2 help:( |
I've the opposite problem with 2.1b!
on my fujitsu-siemens amilo laptop only works usb mices and my ps2 one works only if i move it while xserver is starting(very strange)! if i don't move it, or it starts with toram option, when fb is ready and i try to move the mouse some strange things appens like the dillo window disappears and there's no other way to gain system's control than ctrl-alt-canc
thanks for any help!!
ghiggo
Posted by doobit on Feb. 01 2006,13:53
There have been some issues with acpi and apm that may be affecting your computer. When you boot, use the cheatcodes dsl noacpi noapm and tell us if that solves the problem.
Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 01 2006,18:23
Also,some people claim that
noacpi
cheatcode does not work but,
acpi=off
does work.