User Feedback :: DSL 1.3.1

I downloaded 1.3.1 from two different sites and got the same md5sum
which follows:

42ada28253ca7f1fd05345f04c4be5d0 dsl-1.3.1.iso

This is not official, but I hope it helps!

I think the syslinux iso's are supposed to have better boot support for older (read 486/P1 etc?) machines. Don't know if you lose out on some features if you boot syslinux on a newer machine. From my very limited experience of trying both syslinux and the standard iso, I couldn't see any real difference, but I wasn't being ultra-observant.

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that the Syslinux boot image contains less driver modules than the ISOlinux boot image.

This is because the ISOlinux bootload does not have the disk space limitation that exists for the syslinux one.

This shouldn't be a problem for older computers because they don't need all of these fancy new drivers.

But this whole assumption of mine could be false.

Assumptions are correct.
Syslinux has the "embedded" floppy image that is limited to the 1.44MB. It, the boot.img is the same floppy image as bootfloopy.img and is found in the KNOPPIX directory. This size is very limiting for adding more modules. The isolinux version does not have this structure and therefore not as limited. The isolinux version uses the directory boot/isolinux/. Older computers most likely won't need the additional modules that are present in the isolinux version. Same goes for the bootfloopy.img. it is the same floppy image in the syslinux version. Again, those computer without bootable cdroms are the older computers and hence booting from a floppy drive is the same as booting from syslinux. Now, for newer computers, the isolinux version does offers more. If you have a newer computer try isolinux first.

original here.