DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: Documentation
Green,
My view on documentation is that there is a lot of useful information in the forums/ Wikis on DSL, but it requires persistent searching to "connect the dots" and solve a particular problem. I have seen many posts where people either encounter similar problems to others or post on an issue that might have been discussed a year ago but is now lost somewhere at the end of one of the topics.
As an example, it took me four weeks of endless searching to get my combination of wireless card and laptop working when the solution was as simple as using DSL 2.1b which contains a more recent cardmgr version that works with older laptops. This sort of information should be easily available.
A structured document (maybe an extension of the current Wiki) that extracts this information and places it centrally would make things much easier. I have attached a document outline below. Like you, I have a day job and could not possibly take on this task alone but if there is some effort made to get everyone to contribute (in a structured fashion), either via a submissions page or giving access to editing Wikis, then it would be achievable.
Regards,
Jonam
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1. Introduction to DSL
1.1. Purpose of DSL (primarily to support older hardware?)
1.2. DSL Roadmap (so everyone knows where development is heading and where DSL has been)
1.3. DSL Flavours (embedded, LiveCD etc.)
2. Supported hardware (what has been tested on DSL based on forum/ web/ blog information)
2.1. Desktops
2.1.1. Motherboards
2.1.2. Video cards
2.1.3. USB support
2.1.4. Sound cards
2.1.5. and so on....
2.2. Laptops
2.2.1. .....Similar to Desktop but covering additional topics such as PCMCIA cards and power management.
2.3. Other platforms
2.4. Known issues (well known problems that cannot be solved or are slated for future fixes)
3. Getting started
3.1. Installation (all the different ways to get DSL loaded and working as per the Wikis)
3.2. Basic DSL use (navigating the screen, myDSL extensions and so on)
3.3. Connecting to the internet (basic guide with references to the various Linux networking Howto's)
4. Advanced DSL use (using shell commands, customising boot-up, setting wireless parameters)
4.1. Configuring DSL (what configuration files are there and what they can be used to do - reference to off-site information if necessary)
4.1.1. Boot-up
4.1.2. Screen setup (XVesa/ Xfree86)
4.1.3. Sound
4.1.4. Wireless (WEP, WPA)
......
5. Inside DSL
5.1. Applications
5.2. Linux commands included (no man pages but a one line description of each command and what it does). DSL varies from other distributions so this sort of information would be useful. Links to a man-page website included.
5.3......
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original here.