Damn Small Linux (DSL) is a discontinued computer

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

for the x86 family of

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tech ...

s. It is

free and open-source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

under the terms of the

GNU GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...

and other free and open source licenses. It was designed to run

graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows User (computing), users to Human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through graphical icon (comp ...

applications on older PC hardware, for example, machines with 486 and early

Pentium Pentium is a brand used for a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel. The original Pentium processor from which the brand took its name was first released on March 22, 1993. After that, the Pentium II and P ...

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

s and very little

random-access memory Random-access memory (RAM; ) is a form of computer memory that can be read and changed in any order, typically used to store working data and machine code. A random-access memory device allows data items to be read or written in almost t ...

(RAM). DSL is a

Live CD A live CD (also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system) is a complete bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than loading f ...

with a size of 50

megabyte The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix ''mega'' is a multiplier of (106) in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes o ...

s (MB). What originally began as an experiment to see how much software could fit in 50 MB eventually became a full

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

distribution. It can be installed on storage media with small capacities, like bootable business cards,

USB flash drive A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since fir ...

s, various

memory card A memory card is an electronic data storage device used for storing digital information, typically using flash memory. These are commonly used in digital portable electronic devices. They allow adding memory to such devices using a card in a soc ...

s, and

Zip drive The Zip drive is a removable floppy disk storage system that was introduced by Iomega in late 1994. Considered medium-to-high-capacity at the time of its release, Zip disks were originally launched with capacities of 100 MB, then 250 ...

History

DSL was originally conceived and maintained by John Andrews. For five years the community included Robert Shingledecker who created the MyDSL system, DSL Control Panel and other features. After issues with the main developers, Robert was, by his account, exiled from the project. He currently continues his work on Tiny Core Linux which he created in April 2008. DSL was originally based on Model-K, a 22 MB stripped down version of Knoppix, but soon after was based on Knoppix proper, allowing much easier

remastering Remaster refers to quality enhancement of sound and/or picture of a previously existing recording. Remastering may also refer to: *Software remastering Software remastering is software development that recreates system software and software appl ...

and improvements.

System requirements

DSL supports only x86 PCs. The minimum system requirements are a 486 processor and 8 MB of RAM. DSL has been demonstrated browsing the web with Dillo, running simple games and playing music on systems with a 486 processor and 16 MB of RAM. The system requirements are higher for running

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current a ...

and optional add-ons such as the OpenOffice.org office suite.

Features

, version 4.4.10 of DSL, released November 18, 2008, was current. It includes the following software: *

Text editor A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. Such programs are sometimes known as "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be u ...

s: Beaver, Nano,

Vim Vim means enthusiasm and vigor. It may also refer to: * Vim (cleaning product) * Vim Comedy Company, a movie studio * Vim Records * Vimentin, a protein * "Vim", a song by Machine Head on the album ''Through the Ashes of Empires'' * Vim (text ed ...

File manager A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to manage files and folders. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files include creating, opening (e.g. viewing, playing, editing or print ...

s: DFM, emelFM * Graphics: mtPaint (raster graphics editor), xzgv (image viewer) *

Multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradi ...

: gphone,

XMMS X Multimedia System (XMMS) is an audio player for Unix-like systems released under a free software license. History XMMS was originally written as ''X11Amp'' by Peter and Mikael Alm in November 1997. The player was made to resemble Winamp, which ...

with

MPEG-1 MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to about 1.5 Mbit/s (26:1 and 6:1 compression ratios respectively) without excessive quality loss, mak ...

and

Video CD Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The format was widely adopted in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the ...

(VCD) support * Office:

Siag Office Siag Office is a tightly integrated free software office package for Unix-like operating systems. It consists of the spreadsheet SIAG (" Scheme In A Grid"), the word processor Pathetic Writer (PW), the animation program Egon Animator, the text edi ...

(

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in ce ...

program), Ted (word processor) with

spell checker In software, a spell checker (or spelling checker or spell check) is a software feature that checks for misspellings in a text. Spell-checking features are often embedded in software or services, such as a word processor, email client, electronic ...

Xpdf Xpdf is a free and open-source PDF viewer for operating systems supported by the Qt toolkit. Versions prior to 4.00 were written for the X Window System and Motif. Functions Xpdf runs on nearly any Unix-like operating system. Binaries are als ...

(viewer for Portable Document Format (

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

) documents) * Internet: **

Web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

s: Dillo,

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...

, Netrik ** Sylpheed (

E-mail client An email client, email reader or, more formally, message user agent (MUA) or mail user agent is a computer program used to access and manage a user's email. A web application which provides message management, composition, and reception functio ...

) ** naim (

AOL Instant Messenger AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) was an instant messaging and presence computer program created by AOL, which used the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. AIM wa ...

(AIM), ICQ, and IRC client) ** AxyFTP (

File Transfer Protocol The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data ...

(FTP) client), BetaFTPD (FTP server) ** Monkey (web server) **

Server Message Block Server Message Block (SMB) is a communication protocol originally developed in 1983 by Barry A. Feigenbaum at IBM and intended to provide shared access to files and printers across nodes on a network of systems running IBM's OS/2. It also provide ...

(SMB) client ** Rdesktop (

Remote Desktop Protocol Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft which provides a user with a graphical interface to connect to another computer over a network connection. The user employs RDP client software for this purpose, while ...

(RDP) client,

Virtual Network Computing Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is a graphical desktop-sharing system that uses the Remote Frame Buffer protocol (RFB) to remotely control another computer. It transmits the keyboard and mouse input from one computer to another, relaying the ...

(VNC) viewer * Others:

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a network management protocol used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks for automatically assigning IP addresses and other communication parameters to devices connected to the network using a cli ...

(DHCP) client,

Secure Shell The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution. SSH applications are based ...

(SSH) and secure copy protocol (SCP) client and server; Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP),

Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet The Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) is a network protocol for encapsulating Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) frames inside Ethernet frames. It appeared in 1999, in the context of the boom of DSL as the solution for tunneling pack ...

(PPPoE),

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide ...

(ADSL) support;

FUSE Fuse or FUSE may refer to: Devices * Fuse (electrical), a device used in electrical systems to protect against excessive current ** Fuse (automotive), a class of fuses for vehicles * Fuse (hydraulic), a device used in hydraulic systems to prote ...

Network File System Network File System (NFS) is a distributed file system protocol originally developed by Sun Microsystems (Sun) in 1984, allowing a user on a client computer to access files over a computer network much like local storage is accessed. NFS, li ...

(NFS), SSH Filesystem ( SSHFS) support; UnionFS; generic and

Ghostscript Ghostscript is a suite of software based on an interpreter for Adobe Systems' PostScript and Portable Document Format (PDF) page description languages. Its main purposes are the rasterization or rendering of such page description language file ...

printing support;

PC card In computing, PC Card is a configuration for computer parallel communication peripheral interface, designed for laptop computers. Originally introduced as PCMCIA, the PC Card standard as well as its successors like CardBus were defined and devel ...

, Universal Serial Bus ( USB),

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...

support; calculator, games,

system monitor A system monitor is a hardware or software component used to monitor system resources and performance in a computer system. Among the management issues regarding use of system monitoring tools are resource usage and privacy. Overview Software ...

; many

command-line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive command (computing), commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invokin ...

tools DSL has built-in scripts to download and install

Advanced Packaging Tool Advanced package tool, or APT, is a free-software user interface that works with core libraries to handle the installation and removal of software on Debian, and Debian-based Linux distributions. APT simplifies the process of managing softwar ...

(APT). Once APT is enabled, a user can install packages from

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of De ...

's repositories. Also, DSL hosts software ranging from large applications like OpenOffice.org and

GNU Compiler Collection The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is an optimizing compiler produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages, hardware architectures and operating systems. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) distributes GCC as free sof ...

(GCC), to smaller ones such as aMSN, by means of the ''MyDSL'' system, which allows convenient one-click download and installing of software. Files hosted on MyDSL are called ''extensions''. As of June 2008, the MyDSL servers were hosting over 900 applications, plugins, and other extensions.

Boot options

Boot options are also called "cheat codes" in DSL. Automatic hardware detection may fail, or the user may want to use something other than the default settings (language, keyboard, VGA, fail safe graphics, text mode...). DSL allows the user to enter one or more cheat codes at the boot prompt. If nothing is entered, DSL will boot with the default options. Cheat codes affect many auto-detection and hardware options. Many cheat codes also affect the GUI. The list of cheat codes can be seen at boot time and also at the DSL Wiki. You can also Run PartyDisk on DSL.

The MyDSL system

MyDSL is handled and maintained mostly by Robert Shingledecker and hosted by many organizations, such as

ibiblio ibiblio (formerly SunSITE.unc.edu and MetaLab.unc.edu) is a "collection of collections", and hosts a diverse range of publicly available information and open source content, including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics ...

and Belgium's BELNET. There are 2 areas of MyDSL: ''regular'' and ''testing''. The ''regular'' area contains extensions that have been proven stable enough for everyday use and is broken down into different areas such as ''apps'', ''net'', ''system'', and ''uci'' (Universal Compressed ISO - Extensions in .uci format are

mounted Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...

as a separate

file system In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one lar ...

to minimize RAM use). The ''testing'' area is for newly submitted extensions that theoretically work well enough, but may have any number of

bugs Bugs may refer to: * Plural of bug Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters * Bugs Bunny, a character * Bugs Meany, a character in the ''Encyclopedia Brown'' books Films * ''Bugs'' (2003 film), a science-fiction-horror film * ''Bugs ...

Versions and ports

Release timeline

Flavours

The standard flavour of DSL is the

. There are also other versions available: * 'Frugal' installation: DSL's 'cloop' image is installed, as a single file, to a hard disk partition. This is likely more reliable and secure than a traditional hard drive installation, since the cloop image cannot be directly modified; any changes made are only stored in memory and discarded upon rebooting. * 'dsl-''version''-embedded.zip': Includes

QEMU QEMU is a free and open-source emulator (Quick EMUlator). It emulates the machine's processor through dynamic binary translation and provides a set of different hardware and device models for the machine, enabling it to run a variety of g ...

for running DSL inside Windows or Linux. * 'dsl-''version''-initrd.iso': Integrates the normally-separate cloop image into the initrd image; this allows network booting, using PXE. As a regular toram boot, requires at least 128mb ram. * 'dsl-''version''-syslinux.iso': Boots using syslinux floppy image emulation instead of isolinux; for very old PCs that cannot boot with isolinux. * 'dsl-''version''-vmx.zip': A

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/ emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized har ...

hard drive image that can be run in

VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox (formerly Sun VirtualBox, Sun xVM VirtualBox and Innotek VirtualBox) is a type-2 hypervisor for x86 virtualization developed by Oracle Corporation. VirtualBox was originally created by Innotek GmbH, which was acquired by ...

, VMware Workstation or

VMware Player VMware Workstation Player, formerly VMware Player, is a virtualization software package for x64 computers running Microsoft Windows or Linux, supplied free of charge by VMware, Inc., Archived version; the page as of 2016 is about VMware Workstat ...

. * ''DSL-N'': A larger version of DSL that exceeds the 50 MB limit of business-card CDs. DSL-N uses version 2 of the GTK+ widget toolkit and version 2.6 of the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ...

. The latest release of DSL-N, 0.1RC4, is 95 MB in size. It is not actively maintained. One can also boot DSL using a boot-floppy created from one of the available floppy images ('bootfloppy.img'; 'bootfloppy-grub.img'; 'bootfloppy-usb.img'; or 'pcmciabootfloppy.img') on very old computers, where the

BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the ...

does not support the El Torito Bootable CD Specification. The DSL

kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine lea ...

is loaded from the floppy disk into RAM, after which the kernel runs DSL from the CD or USB drive.

Ports and derivatives

DSL was ported to the

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by th ...

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...

as X-DSL. X-DSL requires a

modified Modified may refer to: * ''Modified'' (album), the second full-length album by Save Ferris * Modified racing, or "Modifieds", an American automobile racing genre See also * Modification (disambiguation) * Modifier (disambiguation) Modifier may ...

Xbox. It can run as a Live CD or be installed to the Xbox hard drive. Users have also run X-DSL from a USB flash drive, using the USB adaptor included with

Phantasy Star Online ''Phantasy Star Online'' is an online role-playing game (RPG) developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega in 2000 for the Dreamcast. It was the first online RPG for game consoles; players adventure with up to three others over the internet ...

, which plugs into the memory card slot and includes one USB 1.1 port. X-DSL boots into a X11-based GUI; the Xbox controller can be used to control the mouse pointer and enter text using a

virtual keyboard A virtual keyboard is a software component that allows the input of characters without the need for physical keys. The interaction with the virtual keyboard happens mostly via a touchscreen interface, but can also take place in a different form ...

. X-DSL has a Fluxbox desktop, with programs for E-mail, web browsing, word processing and playing music. X-DSL can be customized by downloading extensions from the same MyDSL servers as DSL. Linux distributions derived from Damn Small Linux include Hikarunix, used for a CD image that runs the game of Go released in 2005, and

Damn Vulnerable Linux Damn Vulnerable Linux (DVL) is a discontinued Linux distribution geared toward computer security students. It functions as a tool for observing and studying vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel and popular user space software. It is available as a ...

Live USB

Live USB A live USB is a portable USB-attached external data storage device containing a full operating system that can be booted from. The term is reminiscent of USB flash drives but may encompass an external hard disk drive or solid-state drive, tho ...

of Damn Small Linux can be created manually or with applications like UNetbootin. See List of tools to create Live USB systems for full list.

Status

Due to infighting among the project's originators and main developers, DSL development seemed to be at a standstill for a long time, and the future of the project was uncertain, much to the dismay of many of the users. On July 8, 2012, John Andrews (the original developer) announced that a new release was being developed. The DSL website, including the forums which were once inaccessible, were back, as well. The first RC of the new 4.11 was released on August 3, 2012, followed by a second one on September 26. The damnsmalllinux.org site was inaccessible again sometime in 2015 to February 2016. As of March 27, 2016, it was again accessible for some time, but as of February 10, 2019 was inaccessible yet again. As of 2021 it was accessible.

References

External links

Damn Small Linux website

USB DSL tutorial
*
DistroWatch interview

Archive.org's DSL ISO Archive

Reviews

OSNews review (2004)OSNews review (2011)

{{Linux distributions Knoppix LiveDistro Light-weight Linux distributions Live USB Debian-based distributions Lua (programming language)-scripted software Lightweight Unix-like systems Linux distributions without systemd