How to Install Damn Small Linux On a USB
originated by:Stephen Waines, Brandywine, Horses4Ever, Flickety (see all)
This how to explains a step by step procedure to install Damn Small Linux (DSL) onto a memory stick (USB Card, "Thumb" or "Pen" drive) in Microsoft DOS or FreeDOS.
editSteps
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1Open the DOS Command Prompt.
- Click on the "Start" button, on the Windows taskbar.
- Click on "Run" and place your cursor in the text box.
- Type in cmd.exe and press Enter on your keyboard.
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2Save any files you might need from the USB drive, either through windows or the command-line:
xcopy /e /i X:\* \tempbackup
Note: for here and in the steps below, replace X: with the actual drive letter of your USB drive. -
3Format your USB Card as FAT32:
FORMAT X: /fs:FAT32
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4Download a zipped archive called syslinux from kernel.org.
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5Unzip the archive to a directory.
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6Run Syslinux by typing syslinux -ma X:. (Make sure to be in the correct directory on command prompt. It would be C:\win32 if you extracted the files to C:.)
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7Download the latest archive (dsl-embedded.zip) from a Damn Small Linux mirror site.
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8Unzip the archive to a directory.
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9Copy all the files from the DSL directory to the root of your USB drive.
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10Restore any files you saved from the first step
xcopy /s \tempbackup\* X:
rmdir /s \tempbackup -
11Restart and boot from your USB drive.