DSL Talk

There's a reason this post doesn't allow comments, I dont want to start an OS flamewar.

Well, as many of you know I haven't used linux in an official capacity since circa 1996. Well NOW ITS 2005! And Since I broke up with my girlfriend in early December '04, I've been puttering around with DSL since, well, I dont have steady sex anymore, and the girls I'm dating I'm not really interested in getting too serious with...which leaves me lots of time to get to know my puppy, and DSL better! So one thing I've noticed, is that while 5 months ago you wouldn't have caught me alive (or dead, for obvious reasons) running linux, i really enjoy working with/hacking/drinking with DSL. I can't seem to grasp any of the other mainstream non-livecd versions though...but thats nay what this post is about anyway...

Greetings from Wyboston in the United Kingdom. I'm doing a stint here in the UK teching PDA and cell phone forensics. The people here have been lovely and very kind. And the food at the facility has been fantastic...I'm at least five pounds heavier than when I arrived.

I went to Cambridge over the weekend. Very nice...heres some pictures if you want to have a look

http://www.chimpproject.com/UK/index.htm

Not the greatist pics only had a one mega pixel camera.

Anywho the company I'm doing the subcontacting with has decided to go with DSL as their forensic OS...they should be ported over soon...I'm now busy writing a beginning linux course for Law Enforcement.

Take this with a grain of salt, whomever you are if you read this.
For the record, NO, I am not offended by the posts regarding 'newbs,' 'noob's,' or whatever. Yes, I consider myself a newb. Anyone on the irc channel knows that. I have given myself the role "constant newb" to keep the old timers on their toes. As I've stated elsewhere, I think that some of the folks who've 'been around a while' reallly do not have a clue what it's like to be a run of the mill newb. Those who excell at things Linux quickly lose the newb feeling and become old hat at scripting and remastering, etc. What I think is missing are those that don't warm up to this Linux thing as quickly as the old timers do/did.

The newbie flood is happening because the project is in two magazines this month -- CPU Magazine and Linux Magazine. A lot of the folks who read CPU Magazine are not that familiar with Linux.

It seems to be happening in the forum, here, the IRC channel, and what you guys aren't seeing is what's happening in my inbox. I am getting a lot of questions like, "How did you make Damn Small Linux?". How do I answer that? Or the even more frustrating, "why don't you add Gaim?" type emails.

I am grateful that our community project is getting so much attention. The newbie flood is a small price to pay for what we gain, but it does put a little strain. I think what happens when a project like this gets a lot of exposure the passing crowd swells up and then diminishes to a more natural state, but we end up retaining a few out of the group who become valuable contributors. So, it is really a good thing in the long run.

There was a newbie in channel that wanted to know how to get ALSA to load on boot for DSL via LILO, and I tried to get him to find it on his own...but he wouldn't/didn't and was pissed off because I said I could help him...but then I forgot about him! I remember JP saying 'thats evil, tronik' when I told him I would help him...Anyway...This ones for you, newbie.

edit /etc/lilo.conf and added these options to append for your dsl boot.

append=" alsa -and anything else you want to be passed at bootup- "

Don't forget to rerun lilo -v to reload it and reboot!

if you can't find this, the

If you want to capture the output from a command line session you might like to use the script command.

dsl@box:~$ script
Script started, file is typescript
dsl@box:~$ date
Wed Jan 19 15:26:43 EST 2005
dsl@box:~$ Script done, file is typescript

You hit CTRL+D to stop the recording and you will find a file called 'typescript' in the local directory that contains a log of what was recorded.

If you want to be able to replay these files then you need to record timing information as well as the typescript. Use the -t option to do this...

dsl@box:~$ script -t 2> timing.log
Script started, file is typescript

I have an addiction to DSL. I need it. I get a warm tingly feeling every time distrowatch lists it.It shall be running on my box within the hour. i am glad the extensions work in ff now

noob question(s): what makes up a 1.0 release?

Okay, I know I said I'm very anti-flame (when it's not deserved) but sometimes it just needs to be done.

Hi! DSLInfo is an infobot on our IRC channel #damnsmalllinux (irc.freenode.net)

The greatest enjoyment i've gotten lately comes from people who use DSLinfo...Why, you ask?

For starters, n00bs come into the channel and ask a question, and DSLinfo responds...Then they start talking to him like he's a real person...Thats not bad...but it is funny!

DSLinfo, still there?

Of course he didn't know ;\ but now he does! and knowing is half the battle!

In any case, if you want to help, you can program him too...If you logon to our IRC channel and say 'something is xyz' and someone asks 'something?' or 'what is something?' or 'dslinfo, something?' DSLinfo will reply with what you told him it is...that, sometimes, can be more helpful than a human, when a human isn't around. ;)

I just wanted to offer another practical use for DSL. I work for the Canadian Red Cross where budgets are always tight. During a disaster, though, we need LOTS of computers. One solution has been to acquire donated computers, some of which are pretty old. DSL, though, turns the worst of them into modern machines. Someone said that a computer is only as old as its software. I agree, and DSL is giving me free access to quite a few "new" computers.