[K12OSN] OT: Damn Small Linux (DSL) Question

[Robert Arkiletian]

On 5/4/06, Jim Kronebusch <jim at winonacotter.org> wrote:
> > DSL is great I make all my CS students buy usb sticks and put DSL on
> > them. The thin clients in the class become stand alone boxes so I can
> > teach them some sys admin stuff in Linux. They love it. I teach them
> > stuff like nfs, mounting local drives, ssh, scp etc.. They can even
> > use the vnc client (to connect to the server using their usernames)
> >  or even rdp. All their work is persistent. I pitch it as "Look at
> > my laptop" and I take out my usb stick. Huge cool factor. :)
>
> I will check out the DSL-N.  I have been unsuccessful booting from usb.  Do
> you have any instructions?  Maybe my hardware just isn't new enough to support it.
>
> At this point I was able to do everything I need in Knoppix after adding
> captive-nfs.  Very slick.  But I really like the speed of DSL and the ability
> to customize everthing and store those changes on USB.  Maybe the DSL-N is
> what I need.

If using usb sticks DSL-N is really meant for newer machines that have
the bios boot option USB-HDD. Old boxes don't have this boot option.
Regular DSL has the ability to boot the usb stick from a boot floppy
which has the kernel on it. While running DSL right click on desktop
and (I think) under tools find make usb boot floppy. The problem with
DSL-N is that the 2.6 kernel is too big to fit on a floppy. For the
sys admin stuff you are doing I think knoppix may be better. But for
kids DSL is great on old client boxes.
--
Robert Arkiletian
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