DSL v3.4
Forum: Site News
Topic: DSL v3.4
started by: roberts
Posted by roberts on July 03 2007,05:22
DSL v3.4 is now released. Final change log:1. Updated MurgaLua to v0.4.1
2. Added libXft.so.2
3. Added acpid. Use boot option "acpid"
4. Added bcrypt. Dropped des
5. Improved emelfm for better CLI support
6. Fixed user umount Debian Woody bug.
7. Updated webdata to use bcrypt
8. Updated file backup/restore to use bcrypt via "protect" boot option.
9. New image has been added: dsl-3.4-initrd.iso
I took a little side trip while working on 4.0 to make a much asked for version of DSL.
dsl-3.4-initrd.iso version has the KNOPPIX image packed in the initial ramdisk. This means it is very easy to setup a PXE DSL server.
It also means the entire system always loads into ram. You will need 128MB ram for this version. It will boot as a typical isolinux version and thereby eliminates the scan for the KNOPPIX image. So, by producing this image I have tried to satisfy two areas of improved use.
Note: The embedded install scripts are not aware of the new initrd version.
Enjoy,
Robert
Posted by lucky13 on July 03 2007,09:03
Need to fix a couple links on the download page.dsl.geekery... Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)
< http://mirror.psunit... > Server not found
I was redirected when I went to www.geekery... and got 403 Forbidden when trying www.psunit... The rest of the links I tried were fine and I've downloaded 3.4. I'll burn it after I run.
Posted by lucky13 on July 03 2007,09:23
I couldn't wait to burn it. Great job, Robert.
Posted by sankarv on July 03 2007,09:56
Good Job. just informing...
the 3.4 version is not found in this mirror.
< ftp://ftp.oss.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/distributions/damnsmall/ >
there is a typo in date in this mirror.
< ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/current/ >
dsl-3.4.iso 51896320 Mon Jul 3 05:05:00 2006
waitin eagerly for version 4.0
Posted by roberts on July 03 2007,14:19
Thanks for the feedback. I have updated the website, removed bad links and updated info to version 3.4.
Posted by roberts on July 03 2007,18:53
I have just posted the first extension for the new initrd version of DSL.This extension is a slightly re-worked version of the Mattias Schlenker scripts.
It contains both a DHCP and a TFTP server.
It turns a booted DSL initrd version into a PXE server.
Can be run from runlevel 2 for a purely sever like environment.
pxedsl.tar.gz
You can find it < here >
Posted by brianez21 on July 03 2007,20:48
Thank you so much for making the initrd.iso version of DSL!! Now I have a great tool to add to the network bootserver. Keep up the great work!!
Posted by dare2dreamer on July 04 2007,06:59
Will there be a future version of DSL that returns to the previous method of not loading entirely into RAM? I know a lot of hardware I've put into use (and still have in use) that won't meet the new ram requirements.
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on July 04 2007,07:09
| Quote |
| Will there be a future version of DSL that returns to the previous method of not loading entirely into RAM? I know a lot of hardware I've put into use (and still have in use) that won't meet the new ram requirements. |
btw, some links in < http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/DamnSmallLinux/mydsl/ > are still pointing to ibiblio
Posted by curaga on July 04 2007,08:42
I tried this too. Nice to see the line "running dsl-3.4" along with no more line about automounter. Why weren't these mentioned in changelog?As DSL doesn't include locales, setting LANG to anything other than C or POSIX causes errors. I made a little patch to correct that, it also makes the default keymap for finnish fi-latin9. < Here >
Apply from /etc/init.d with patch -p0
Posted by roberts on July 04 2007,14:13
| Quote (dare2dreamer @ July 03 2007,23:59) |
| Will there be a future version of DSL that returns to the previous method of not loading entirely into RAM? I know a lot of hardware I've put into use (and still have in use) that won't meet the new ram requirements. |
Only the initrd (initial ramdisk) edition loads into ram. It is only dsl-3.4-initrd.iso that requires the increase memory. This initrd edition is primarily for those looking for an easy deployment of a PXE ready DSL image to be placed on a PXE server. I created this as a bootable isolinux image because it is also useful for systems that have increased memory and wish to avoid the searching for KNOPPIX image.
The others DSL editions remain as before.
Use dsl-3.4-syslinux.iso if your hardware will not boot from the isolinux edition, dsl-3.4.iso. There is no change in boot time memory requirements. These are the same as we have been using and should boot as prior versions of DSL.
Of course, on these standard editions, you can always use the boot option 'toram' to load and run from ram. The capability of running entirely from ram is nothing new for DSL.
Posted by roberts on July 04 2007,14:18
| Quote |
| I tried this too. Nice to see the line "running dsl-3.4" along with no more line about automounter. Why weren't these mentioned in changelog? |
Because I am forgetful. Should have been in the RC change log as they were adjustments I did early on.
Posted by lucky13 on July 04 2007,15:57
Robert,I noticed something peculiar when I booted 3.4 installed to hard drive (not frugal -- wanted to use this to test something) via dsl install at boot.
I usually use LILO but decided to try GRUB for a change. I selected the first GRUB line option and noticed when it started to boot that it the line included frugal even though it wasn't a frugal install. After booting, I went to mount a CDROM that I use for MyDSL extensions and it wouldn't mount at /cdrom. So I went through /mnt/auto to mount cdrom there. I started to wonder if I'd installed frugal so I looked at stats and saw that the partition is indeed 197.1 MB used with the rest free.
After editing menu.lst, I rebooted and all is well aside from those two mount points. I tried mounting a floppy. Same thing as the CDROM. It wasn't mounting at /floppy, but I could in /mnt/auto.
The most recent hard drive install I did was 3.1 (LILO, not GRUB) and I don't recall an issue like this. I don't know if you've changed dsl-hdinstall recently, but it's not a major problem and I've fixed it with a quick edit. Just thought you should know about it for future reference.
Posted by roberts on July 04 2007,16:37
There has been no change to the traditional hard drive install script.The embedded grub and its menu.lst used during install script is shared between frugal and traditional. The option frugal should be a throw-away for traditional.
Posted by mikshaw on July 04 2007,20:43
| Quote |
| The option frugal should be a throw-away for traditional. |
Posted by TuxDistro on July 05 2007,07:27
We posted the latest release of DSL on our site as a torrent for those that would like to use BitTorrent. A ton of people have downloaded so far and the seed/leech ratio has been good so far.< http://www.tuxdistro.com/torrents-details.php?id=375 >
we hope this helps with badnwidth.
Posted by humpty on July 05 2007,10:32
haven't tried any new version for a while now.i dunno if it's the woody bug or emelfm improved,
but emelfm mount/umount is working proper now.
Posted by Genecks on July 21 2007,10:45
Hey everyone!I haven't been using DSL for a while, but I've come across some scenarios during which I will need to use a very small Live-distribution.
At the moment, I'm having a problem with one of my ethernet cards. I've researched this, so I've got a couple questions about the new DSL.
Does it include forcedeth?
I'm using a MCP51 nVidia-type ethernet card, and I believe it only works with the forcedeth module.
Also, I'm really curious about this next one, because not finding out the answer sets me back a couple of days.
Is there any way of finding out if the forcedeth module is included in any of the other DSLinux distributions?
I really don't want to download all of them to find out.
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on July 21 2007,19:56
Genecks: that question about that has been floating around for some time... it's not included in DSL 3.4. You can use DSL 2.1b (2.4.31 kernel) or try DSL 4a1 (2.4.34.1 kernel)
Posted by andrewb on July 25 2007,00:53
I'm trying to get WPA working on a tp-link WN510G card. Is the version of mdawifi in madwifi.uci newer than that included in the 3.4 distribution of DSL? (i.e should I use the uci file or not?)I've tried ndiswrapper, but it fails with a bad driver (or invalid driver) message whichever of the drivers I use of the CD that came with the card.
--EDIT--
OK got ndiswrapper working - don't know why it just suddenly sprung into life, having failed several times before - it may have been that I included the full path to the inf file whereas previously I had been running in the directory containing the inf file & therefore not putting in the full path.
Posted by Alrasch on Aug. 09 2007,23:31
| Quote (curaga @ July 04 2007,04:42) |
| As DSL doesn't include locales, setting LANG to anything other than C or POSIX causes errors. I made a little patch to correct that, it also makes the default keymap for finnish fi-latin9. < Here > Apply from /etc/init.d with patch -p0 |
I am verz impressed bz the speed of DSL, even run in embedded mode. For now I use it like that from a 128 Kb USB stick, and for trzing to learn Linux, in VirtualBox under Windoye (I have had problems with the partition setting&changing but now its just a file for the hosting window$).
Sorrz to ask a noob question, but since several dazs I am trzing to convince DSL to use a german kezboard. That quote is the closest thing I could find to mz problem (and I even read the 78 pages forum help thread and as manz googled and wiki pages), but I do not understand where to put it or what to do.
(and sorrz for the switched Z and Y, thats what the kezboard does
Bz the waz, this is not urgent, but a little help with that would be appreciated.
Keep up that fine work!
Posted by curaga on Aug. 10 2007,09:19
Oh, just boot with "dsl lang=de" to make it have a german keyboard
Posted by Alrasch on Aug. 10 2007,19:41
Thanks a lot!
I finally can use my german keyboard (after finding out how to enter the "lang=de" and after finding out where the **** the "=" key is located on the US keyboard.
In my embedded (QEMU) version, I have managed to have it too now (& everytime at DSL bootup).
Since it is rather convenient not to have to edit the DSL boot parms every time when I'm booting it, I was looking (with emelFM & Beaver) where such an appropriate file could be found...
I have found something like the boot up menu in KNOPPIX/boot/grub/menu.lst, but since it says there
"kernel /boot/linux24 /root=/dev/hda2 ..."
while I'm using hda1, so I think it only seems to be an example...
Anyone any hint for me?
Maybe I have another misconception in thinking, since DSL is running from Ramdisk, I might be allowed to overwrite hda1 from which the Ramdisk has been loaded (ok, with sudo I expect, although I have to look up somewhere what the password is - but I guess it is written somewhere in the docs or forum).
By the way - I have had followed a wiki entry, so I have 60 MB hda1, 1 GB swap hda2 and about 4 GB hda3 for developing purposes.
(And I am a Linux newby, but am not coming from windoze although I am uncomfortingly using it... I am a mainframe assembler programmer)
Posted by lucky13 on Aug. 10 2007,21:39
| Quote |
| I have found something like the boot up menu in KNOPPIX/boot/grub/menu.lst....Anyone any hint for me? |
You can edit the file /cdrom/boot/grub/menu.lst as root to change that.
Posted by tinker on Aug. 11 2007,13:48
| Quote (Alrasch @ Aug. 10 2007,15:41) |
| Maybe I have another misconception in thinking, since DSL is running from Ramdisk, I might be allowed to overwrite hda1 from which the Ramdisk has been loaded (ok, with sudo I expect, although I have to look up somewhere what the password is - but I guess it is written somewhere in the docs or forum). |
I'm not sure that I understand this question completely but you don't need a password for user dsl to do sudo. User dsl by default has permissions for all with sudo.
If I have misunderstood, please ask again.
Posted by Alrasch on Aug. 11 2007,21:09
As far as I have understood, there are two users implemented. One called dsl, and one called root (a superuser I presumed). The user dsl has restricted privileges (standard user).I presumed that the command sudo would invoke root privileges... which I thought should be password protected (what's the security if anyone can do this on my system).
If this is not the case, then what is sudo for?
And more important: If it says "do ... as root" what am I to do then (or how)?
Looks as I have still a lot of basic stuff to learn (I was studying the DSL wiki before writing this. Well, life is what happens when you have other plans - I am now considering whether to make a more compehensive wiki for non-linux users
)
Posted by tinker on Aug. 12 2007,20:58
Alrasch,You presumed *somewhat* correctly as long as you are not talking about an install of DSL where one has added other users. In that case those other users would be restricted users, unless and until, one gave them more permissions. Otherwise, yes, just root and dsl but dsl is in the sudoers list with permission for all with no password necessary and root has no password so you can't log on as root, unless one has changed it to act differently DSL automatically logs you on as user dsl.
Sudo works on DSL just like it works on other GNU/Linuxes, gives root privileges for the session invoked by the command it is used with.
And, yes, there is some security risk with this, as there always is with the choice between "security" and "ease of use". However, when one boots a live CD that disappears from the system when one shuts down, a large part of the pertinent "security" comes from the person at the keyboard and who they let touch the system. Unless one has a persistent filesystem, even any successful attack would be gone at the next boot. Ports aren't open by default. Some of the current popular GNU/Linux distros always put the regular user in sudoers by default, while, for example, the Debian distro does not. There is considerable debate around the sudo command and security in the open source community, sometimes that debate becomes heated and we don't need to reproduce that here.
How to use it? As you appear to understand, sudo (do as root) foo (substitute whatever command you want to do as superuser). For example: if you entered in a terminal, sudo beaver, it would open beaver (notepad type application) as root, thus you could edit files that were owned by root.
It seems like you would be a good candidate for Robert's new book, where I imagine all the aspects of his choices for DSL are discussed. On the other hand, you're a coder, so you could probably discover all this on your own as I did.