Where's the Start Button? Connecting To The Net
How to Print What's a Daemon?
What About Windows? How to Cut and Paste?
Saving Your Configuration Administrator / Superuser / Root
Installing to Hard Drive myDSL - Seamless Extensions for DSL



Where's the Start Button?

The Start Button is just a way to bring up the menu. In DSL, just right click anywhere on the desktop. Then navigate the menus as usual. If you decide not to select anything and want the menu to go away, then left click on the desktop away from the menu. Enjoy exploring your new system.


Connecting To The Net:

If you have broadband and have a router that assigns your IP via dhcp, then you may already be on the net without having to configure anything. If you have a dialup modem, or your ISP requires a login, PPPoE then read on. For dailup, select System->Net Setup->dial-up PPP->config. Follow the on-screen prompts and give a name to your setup. Then to dial in select System->Net Setup->dail-up PPP->dial. Enter the name you gave the setup, and the system will dial in. Select hangup when finished. If you have PPPoE, select the DSL/PPPoE menu section. Use pon and connect and poff to disconect.


How to Print:

First, configure your printer by selecting System->Printing/lpd->configure a printer. Follow the on-screen prompts to test and install the printer driver. Once installed, you then must start the printing services. Select System->Printing/lpd->start


What's A Daemon?

A daemon is a process that provides services in the background; DSL provides several. Navigate to System->Daemons to see the list. There is an SSH server which provides a secure way to login and/or copy files to and from your DSL machine. NFS, network file system allows you to mount directories that may be provided to you from an NFS server. DSL also provides a complete web server (The Monkey Web Server). All the web server files are located in /opt/monkey directory. You need to access it as the super user root.


What About Windows?

DSL includes smbtree and smbclient programs. Smbclient works similar to an FTP program. Windows share name must be specified with the forward slash character "/" even though one usually uses the backslash "\" character.

Use smbtree to display which computer names are available.

Then to connect use:
smbclient //computername/sharename -U username
At the smb: prompt type help. The usual dir, get, put, mget, mput, and exit commands work like an ftp program.

Cut and Paste:

To cut and paste in Linux one simply highlights the text with the left mouse button and then press the middle button to paste. If you have a two button mouse you would paste by pressing the left and right button together. Cutting and pasting takes a little practice, but is very efficient after one gets use to doing it.. In the word processor Ted one would highlight the text and then press Ctrl+C to copy and then Ctrl+V to paste.


Saving Your Configuration:

After setting up your new system, you will want to save all of your settings. There is a file called filetool.lst. It is a simple text file of files and directories listed one per line using a full path that the user wants to save/restore. Use any of the DSL editors to change/update (e.g., select Scite, then open filetool.lst).

It is important to note that the entry /home/dsl/filetool.lst must NOT be removed from the filetool.lst as this provides for persistence for the filetool.lst that the user can keep updating as desired.

Also note that the capability now exists to boot and restore your setting with the use of the restore boot time option:

boot: dsl restore

These options together with a local .xinitrc provide the user with much more control of their preferred environment. For example, by editing the .xinitrc you can start up your favorite X-Windows programs. For the popular enhance, just remove the comment in the default .xinitrc. You can start non-Window programs by editing the .bash_profile and then adding it to your filetool.lst. You can even load addiitonal modules and system-specific required files by editing the /opt/bootlocal.sh file and then adding it to your filetoool.lst.

Optionally, you can choose the backup device. If you desire to backup to a hard drive, then select Specify Device, e.g. hda2. This will override the automatic detection for users with no usb pen drives or the desire not to use such. Using this option would require the boot up option of

boot: dsl restore=hda2

If you are a Mozilla Firefox user, then download Firefox as before, but now add the /home/damnsall/.phoenix to your filetool.lst and your settings including bookmarks will be saved/restored, even from boot up. And even if you only have a floppy!

Now, if you have a usb memory pen of large enough capacity, you can even add the entire /opt/MozillaFirebird directory to the filetool.lst and MozillaFirebird will be saved and restored.


Administrator / SuperUser / Root:

Each system requires some command to be run as the administrator. In DSL, such user is called root. To get root privileges to run a specific command, just proceed the command with the word sudo (e.g., sudo dsl-hdinstall).
To become the super user, then use the command sudo su. Normally, you should not run your system as root.


Installing to Hard Drive:

Although DSL was designed to be the best LiveCD, especailly when run with the "toram" option, many users will still want to install to their hard drives. Be aware that DSL is a work-in-progress and that there are currently no plans to have updates to be applied to hard drive-installed systems. Each new version would require reinstallation.

If you are planning to install and co-exist with Microsoft Windows, then note that this version will want to write the Master Boot Record (MBR). This may not work well with newer version Microsoft Windows.

The version supports US language only; it is based on knx-hdinstall. A lot of improvements are waiting to be back-imported from knx-hdinstall when time comes....

However, the hd installation boots with lilo and feels similiar to the cd version. Meaning, hardware auto detection still runs and also pick_your_resolution_in_here pops up...

Steps needed:
  1. Create a 250-300MB Linux partition with cfdisk (ec. sda2 )
  2. Execute sudo dsl-hdinstall and then enter the just created partition (ec. sda2 ). This will make a ext2 file system and copies the cd to it. A couple of specific changes are made after that (see end of script)
  3. You will be prompted to continue with mkliloboot - that will create an initrd with needed modules and setups lilo
  4. You will be prompted to reboot the computer.

After reboot, the system comes automatically up as booted from cd. You will be prompted to enter a password for root. You must pick a password of at least 5 characters. Then enter it again to verify that it is what you want. Then you will be prompted to do the same procedure for user dsl. Pick a password and enter it then re-enter it. The system will then proceed to a regular login.

The hard drive installation scripts should be used at your own risk.



myDSL - Seamless Extensions for DSL

Now liveCD users can easily extend DSL without the complicated re-mastering process. myDSL currently offers two ways to extend DSL.

The first method is to separate out the static parts of your filetool.lst. A good example is Firefox which many users have added to their filetool.lst. Firefox can easily be separated out into its own firefox.tar.gz. In fact any application that runs on the unmodified liveCD can now be separated out in this fashion.

Your second choice is to download from our selection of pre-configured DSL applications. These are designated with the .dsl extension.

Both of these types of "modules" or "plugins" can easily be saved onto external media, such as, a hard drive partition, a usb pendrive, or even on the root directory of the cdrom.

For tar.gz and .dsl files that are copied onto external media, there is a new boot time option.
For example:
a usb pendrive would use mydsl=sda1
a hard drive partition would use mydsl-hda2
The best news is that when a new version of DSL comes out, you don't have to do anything to keep your mydsl apps.

For those tar.gz and .dsl files that are copied onto the cdrom. The boot process seamlessly restores your favorite apps.The size of your myDSL is your choice, you can have a 64MB, 128MB, 210MB, or even all the way up to 700MB myDSL cdrom. DSL is the keystone to myDSL. When a new version of DSL comes out, just copy your additional applications to the root directory of the cdrom. There is no more need to redo a custom remaster to get your favorite applications on the live CD -- no more time consuming uncompressing, chroot'ing process, or accidentally making "coasters". There is even a mkmydsl script to help you make your "mydsl" cdrom.

New starting with 0.7.1 is the optional directory. Create this directory on the root directory of the cdrom or external media. Place your .dsl and .tar.gz into the optional directory for those applications that you do not wish to have automatically loaded. These would be the resource intense applications. myDSL will still generate an installation menu for easy installation.

Also new is the compressed iso files. These provide much savings of your ramdisk and "load up" very quickly. Now run OpenOffice on lower resource machines than the ramdisk based .dsl. These files are currently only supported off the root directory of the cdrom or external media.

Also available is the gnu-utils.dsl module that will allow liveCD users to have access to the full standard GNU Utilites.

For Debian packages, copy them into the optional directory. Also add the dsl-dpkg.dsl to have the Debian Package Management files restored. Then use the dpkg -i /path_to_deb_package to install under your control. Note: Using deb files will use substanially more of your ramdisk.