DSL USB Files all ready to go! Save non-booting systems.

[Zimmer]

Hey I just got a DSL USB boot working finally and thought I'd email it to you if you want it once you get it unzip it to the usb drive. and format your drive as FAT32 and restart and your done. Enjoy!! Post your eamil and I email it. And scan it if you think it is a virus or Trojan its not!!!! But go ahead scan it.

[Sparda]

unzipping DSL on to a memory stick won't work. You need to install a boot loader as well.

Why would any one want to get it from a untrusted third party when they could download it from the owners and/or creators web site?

[digip]

unzipping DSL on to a memory stick won't work. You need to install a boot loader as well.

Why would any one want to get it from a untrusted third party when they could download it from the owners and/or creators web site?

QFE!

You need something like grub4dos and windows boot files to make a boot menu, or syslinux for usb drive setup. http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.p...ing_Flash_Drive

[Zimmer]

Yes that's why I posted it. It already has a boot loader and the files no reason to extract the files from the iso. Oh and just use some spam account I was trying to be helpful. Yes it does sound suspicious but I had a hard time setting it up with kernel Errors and everything. Ok. All you do is unzip this file to a usb drive and reboot it already has all the needed files.

[Sparda]

Yes that's why I posted it. It already has a boot loader and the files no reason to extract the files from the iso. Oh and just use some spam account I was trying to be helpful. Yes it does sound suspicious but I had a hard time setting it up with kernel Errors and everything. Ok. All you do is unzip this file to a usb drive and reboot it already has all the needed files.

You still need to install a boot loader.

[DingleBerries]

or just get it from a semi trusted party here...

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/01/02/all-in-one-usb-dsl/

[jollyrancher82]

Or just use Windows.

[digip]

If I am going to be booting off a USB key, I would want something a little nicer than DSL. Not that DSL isn't small or anything, but I have a key that boots both Windows XP and Backtrack 3 on the same key, with tons of extras, like virus scanners, disk tools for reparing, reading different file systems to copy files, image drives, etc.

UBCD4Win + Backtrack 3 gets the job done nicely. My next challenge is a USB Vista PE, but the disc I have to make it from lacks key files so I can't get it to boot without a full VIsta disc. OEM crap doesn't seem to work since its missing core files for VistaPE.

[Zimmer]

Obviously you don't understand or something. You don't have to give your email. Yes pendrivelinux.com has instructions but following them I got kernel and Boot errors sorry for this I was TRYING TO HELP!!!

What if the machine can't boot from windows do to its age.

[digip]

Obviously you don't understand or something. You don't have to give your email. Yes pendrivelinux.com has instructions but following them I got kernel and Boot errors sorry for this I was TRYING TO HELP!!!

What if the machine can't boot from windows do to its age.

Then you fix or replace it, but windows has nothing to do with hardware age or failure. Failure to boot, maybe, as it may have gotten corrupted or a virus, or a bad HDD, but other than that, I'd rather use my current setup with UBCD4Win and Backtrack.

[still learning]

QFE!

You need something like grub4dos and windows boot files to make a boot menu, or syslinux for usb drive setup. http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.p...ing_Flash_Drive

I tried the directions from the windows 1 example, i formated fat32, have the dsl-embedded on the usb, got to step 4 then it says to syslinux -ma F: or X: - the syslinix i have is a .zip file that i unzipped and it has no executable files it looks like the only files syslinux there from the fresh unzip are syslinux.doc (which assumes i allready have the exe file) syslinux.h, and syslinux.spec. Do i need to compile this or something?

thanks

[digip]

I tried the directions from the windows 1 example, i formated fat32, have the dsl-embedded on the usb, got to step 4 then it says to syslinux -ma F: or X: - the syslinix i have is a .zip file that i unzipped and it has no executable files it looks like the only files syslinux there from the fresh unzip are syslinux.doc (which assumes i allready have the exe file) syslinux.h, and syslinux.spec. Do i need to compile this or something?

thanks

ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions...eadme_first.txt

dsl-<version>.iso: the standard isolinux version, which is used for liveCD,

frugal, or traditional harddrive install.

dsl-<version>-syslinux.iso: boots using syslinux instead of isolinux,

used for some very old hardware that is no longer supported by isolinux.

Use syslinux version if booting fails with the standard iso.

dsl-<version>-embedded.zip: comes with qemu, for running inside of a host

Windows or Linux system.

dsl-<version>-vmx.zip: a virtual machine that will run in VMware or

VMware player.

frugal_lite.sh is our network install script and requires tomsrtbt linux:

http://www.toms.net/rb/

First Format the USB Drive using something like the HP USB Format tool and tell is to make the disk bootable:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechS...TX-UNITY-I23839 SKip this file, wrong HP USB utility. Let me find mine and I will upload it for you.

edit: correct USB HP Utility: http://www.twistedpairrecords.com/digip/HP_USB_BootKey.exe Do nto format the drive as NTFS! Use Fat or Fat32, preferabley Fat as it read and writes less often than fat32 and does not wear out the key as quickly(Or so I have bene told - Is this just a rumor?).

You will need a windows98 boot disk or the files saved to your hdd. You can get them from my site if you can't find any other sources. Make sure when using the HP tool that hidden AND system files are visible, as some these files won't be able to be seen in the folder: http://www.twistedpairrecords.com/digip/bootfiles.rar

The HP tool will put 3 important files on the drive to boot up into dos and make it bootable. When selecting to make it bootable, it will ask you for the sytem files, just point it to the bootfiles folder and it should format the USB drive accordingly. You should have command.com io.sys and msdos.sys on the usb key at this point. Not like a normal floppy with all the files from bootfiles folder!!

Now copy over your DSL files from the ISO/zip or whatever source you have to the USB drive.

Then add grub 4 dos (just unzip it to the usb drive) and make a menu.lst file to point to the kernel of DSL and set the RAMDISK size to boot into. https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...ckage_id=111982

2 things, open config.sys in notepad and change what it says to:

device=grub.exe --bypass --time-out=5 --config-file="menu.lst"

Then open menu.lst in notepad and add the setup for DSL as one of the boot options. Use the examples in the file help you get started. You should have something like:

title Load Backtrack
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz vga=normal max_loop=255 initrd=/boot/initrd.gz init=linuxrc load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=9999 root=/dev/ram0 rw
initrd /boot/initrd.gz

Granted, this is just an example, as I do not know what files DSL uses to boot since I am not running it. This was my setup for Backtrack 3. change the location/path to match what you unzip from the iso and adjust your ramdisk for your needs.

Save the menu.lst and make sure windows didn't add a .txt to the end of it. If it did, rename it to menu.lst. Had that problem the first time I tried to boot and grub couldn't find the correct menu.lst boot menu and I couldn't get things working, so word of advice, double check there aren't both a menu.lst and a menu.lst.txt file ;)

Then reboot with the key plugged in and set to the bios to allow to boot from removable media.

When the pc boots(if yours has the option) click escape or F10 to select the boot device. Select Hard drive and the usb key should be listed as one of the choices as well as your normal HDD.

You should see a brief win98 screen and then Grub should start with your option to boot DSL from the menu. If it puts you badk to a dos prompt, just type grub and it will reload the menu.

Syslinux is what you point to on the drive to boot on older hardware, I think, but not really sure how that works as I never used it directly other than what was already configured on live cd's.

Not sure of this works, but after looking at the DSL file, it uses Knoppix with the following settings. Add these to the menu.lst file and try booting with it:

title Load DamnSmallLinux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /isolinux/linux vga=normal max_loop=255 initrd=/isolinux/minirt.gz init=/etc/init load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=9999 root=/dev/ram0 rw
initrd /isolinux/minirt.gz

I get a kernel panic for the above on my pc, so I am going to try the following instead. If anyone knows the default grub setup for DSL, please let me know so I can test it out.

edit: got it to load. Only problem is DSL can't find my ethernet card, so DSL is fail for me. Other than that it boots just fine with the following

title Load DamnSmallLinux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /isolinux/linux ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=normal initrd=minirt.gz nomce noapic quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix knoppix_dir=/KNOPPIX frugal
initrd /isolinux/minirt.gz

Files I have on my usb key. I used an ISO with winrar to extract the files for DSL, not the embedded zip file!

J:\bootlace.com
J:\config.sys
J:\COPYING
J:\default
J:\grldr
J:\grldr.mbr
J:\grub.exe
J:\hmload.com
J:\menu.lst
J:\autorun.bat
J:\autorun.inf
J:\autorun.pif
J:\KNOPPIX
J:\isolinux
J:\files.txt
J:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX
J:\isolinux\boot.cat
J:\isolinux\boot.msg
J:\isolinux\f2
J:\isolinux\f3
J:\isolinux\isolinux.bin
J:\isolinux\isolinux.cfg
J:\isolinux\linux
J:\isolinux\logo.16
J:\isolinux\minirt.gz
J:\IO.SYS
J:\MSDOS.SYS
J:\COMMAND.COM

[digip]

After playing around with DSL it is pretty much useless to me, as I tried installing the drivers for my wireless card, and it doesn't even have anythign to compile the damn drivers with. No make command and no compiler, so I can't even get online with it. I couldn't even get it to find my sata drives to mount them, but then again, I am not the greatest with linux. For all the trouble I went through to get it to boot, I'd much rather have somethign more robust with working nic drivers and more common programs installed. Anyway, hopefully the above helps anyone wanting to try it on their pendrive.