DSL Ideas and Suggestions :: Make it easier

I have read so many posts wikis and tutorials for installing DSL it is all too confusing to someone who doesnt have advanced computer experience. it is so frusterating going through a tutorial and it gives some vague instructions on something I have never done before. for example in one tutorial it says to download DSL and burn a boot disc So i do it following the instructions as closely as possible and then guess what the CD doesnt work and I have no idea what I did wrong and dont know where to find the answers.

My suggestion is to have someone generous and compassionate to take the time to make a step by step explanation that could be followed by a newb like me. if it says to burn the disc being able to click a link and see intructions on just how to do that would be awesome!

Chances are:

a) You created a data CD with the .iso as one of the files to place in, so you access your newly created CD and see the .iso file there. That is wrong.

b) Some arcane switch in your preferred CD burning application is screwing your DSL boot CD.

As there is no way to tell what program and version are you using to burn your CD or even if you tell chances are no one here uses that, your best bet in both cases is consulting the documentation and help files of your CD burning app.

An alternate way is looking at something like http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm

Or see the wiki: http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Burning_a_Bootable_CD

Quote (Moldy @ Jan. 26 2007,18:08)

My suggestion is to have someone generous and compassionate to take the time to make a step by step explanation that could be followed by a newb like me. if it says to burn the disc being able to click a link and see intructions on just how to do that would be awesome!

This presumes your computer can boot from CD. If not, you'll have to make a boot floppy using the boot floppy image.

1. Install a utility on your Windows computer like those that have been recommended in the wiki. I prefer this one so it's used in my example of how to get a working CD of DSL. ISOrecorder will give your right-click menu in WinXP an option to burn an ISO.
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

2. Download the DSL ISO you want from one of the mirrors. The "current" directory will give you the latest releases. Read the documentation to make sure you get the right version (isolinux for relatively newer hardware, syslinux for much older hardware) for your system.
http://damnsmalllinux.org/download.html

3. Pop a blank CD-R into your CD drive. Windows will ask what you want to do; exit that dialog box or click "do nothing."

4. If you downloaded to a folder, open Windows Explorer to the folder where you downloaded the ISO. If you downloaded to your desktop, you should have an ISO icon with the name of the file beneath it. Right-click on the ISO image. Scroll to "Copy Image to CD."

5. A dialog box for ISOrecorder will pop up. Click next or finish if everything is right (ISO location, CD drive, etc.).

6. It will start burning the ISO to the CD. Since DSL is 50 MB, it won't take very long. Your bootable CD should eject when it's ready.

7. Remove it if you have other things to do in Windows. Or leave it in, go to "start" and shutdown Windows. Click the "restart" with the CD in the CD drive and it will reboot into DSL.

8. Read the DSL cheatcodes when the boot logo comes on (F2). Use any that apply to your computer or just accept the defaults, which should work for most computers.

9. Go through the x-setup scripts. You need to know ahead of time if your mouse is USB or ps2 and what your screen resolution is and your keyboard layout. When finished, X will start along with fluxbox window manager. Read the information that opens in the Dillo browser. Your fluxbox menu is a right-click on an empty space on the screen.

10. You'll probably have a screwy-looking screen if you mess up your x-setup with too high resolution. If that happens, hit ctrl-alt-backspace and it will exit X and take you to a console prompt. Type xsetup.sh and go through the setup again using lower resolution.

Let me know if this is more helpful. If this is still too techy, consider ordering a CD from the site:

http://damnsmalllinux.org/cd.html

You can also read magiciso tutorials to learn how to create bootable cd.
http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-create-unattended-winxp.htm
http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-create-multi-os-cd.htm

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