It seems that I am in some sort of retro-mode. As Linux on the desktop is getting bigger and better, with more apps, more sleek looks (Galaxy, Keramik and Blue Curve for example) and more idiot proof, I am going onto simpler, more condensed stuff. The big distributions are nice, but I really do not need all the applications that come with them all the time.
I am very promiscuous when it comes to flavours of Linux. My first installation was RedHat 6. I used Mandrake for a long time, briefly ran SuSE, Gentoo and Slackware and eventually settled on Peanut. I have never worked with Debian or Knoppix, DSL’s ancestors. Experiences with Peanut taught me that using a thin, less GUI-driven distro, is a good way to learn. This to me is comparable with switching to vi after having used Kate extensively.
I jumped on the DAMNSmallLinux (DSL) bandwagon around version 0.4.7, after reading an interview with the distro’s author, John Andrews on Distrowatch. The aim with this tiny distro is to keep it under 50 MB in order for the ISO image to fit on one of those credit card-size mini-disks. A pocket rocket. You can carry the whole thing in your wallet, and work in your familiar surroundings on any PC. John started with a stripped-down rework of Knoppix, and developed the rest around that.
What you get is:
FluxBox window manager, Xbase utilities,
emelFM and MC file managers,
Dillo patched and Links Hacker browsers,
a script to download and install Mozilla FireBird 0.7, selectable from the menu,
Naim instant messaging and IRC, Sylpheed email client,
Ted-gtk word processor, ABS spreadsheet, Xpdf PDF viewer
Xzgv picture viewer, Xpaint image editor,
SciTe, nVi, Zile (Emacs clone), nano (pico clone) text editors,
Perl 5.8.0, Tiny C Compiler,
VNCviewer, Rdesktop, ssh, sshd,
Monkey web server, SQLite database server,
XMMS with mp321 and ogg123 (CD and mpeg video),
TuxNES, Oneko and Xpacman,
and much more including all the usual command-line tools you would expect. Details of apps and packages can be found on the site: www.damnsmalllinux.org
Hardware configuration
My no. 1 system is: Epox motherboard, 1GHz AMD Athlon Thunderbird, 256MB RAM, 32MB Riva TNT2, LG Studioworks 17 inch, nondescript external modem. I have a 10GB Seagate in the box as hdb, affectionately called dataslave, where my documents, files, downloads and so on live. The primary hard disk is in a removable bracket. In this way I can run several operating systems in turn and access all my files no matter which primary disk I booted. At the moment I have that other operating system and Peanut Linux on a large disk each, and DSL on an ancient 1GB hard disk. I don’t think I have ever had more than one OS on the same disk at once.
My no.2 system is an Intel P120, 48MB RAM, 2MB S3 Virge, 4.3GB Seagate, nondescript rest. I use this box for testing purposes and fooling around. DSL does better on this box than any other OS has recently and, in fact, has revived it into a very usable basic system again.
Live CD
The first kick I got out of DSL was the fact that I (a dial-up user) can, for the first time, download the ISO and burn my own CD.
I booted the live CD. After auto-configuring the devices, networking and so on, the user is asked to choose between Xfbdev and Xvesa, resolution, USB or PS2 mouse before starting X. This script can be invoked again later by typing xsetup.sh. I laid eyes on Fluxbox for the first time. Now, after having used it for a few months, I think it is the most comfortable desktop I have used.
I think it is partly contributable to my oldish, mainstream hardware, but I was fortunate enough not to be confronted with any hardware compatability issues. Everything just works! Kudo’s to John. I have picked up from reading the forum that some users, especially with older laptops, have display problems from the word go. There is a new howto section in the forum with details for fixing such problems. There are boot prompt options available, such as typing fb800x600.
DSL is booted with a pre-configured default user, damnsmall. If you need to run a command as root, you simply type sudo [command]. If you want to stay root for as long as the shell session is open, type sudo su. The root password is unknown to the user, but if you need to login as root, type sudo passwd, supply a new one for root, and then you can use the command su root.
Selecting “Enhance” from the menu will display desktop icons, a desktop pager and the Slit. This is something I have never seen before. The Slit displays a network load monitor, a CPU load monitor, a memory and swap usage monitor and, the best innovation I have seen in a long time, a mount app. With this tool, when working in the X environment, you can select your device and mount it with a few clicks, instead of at the command line.
For users of the live CD, there is built in a function to save your configuration files to floppy or USB flash drive. This can be selected from the menu. To restore your configuration files at subsequent boots, type knoppix-restore at the boot prompt.
Hard-disk install
I do not have much more to say about running the system from the live-cd, as I run DSL installed on hard disk. I have been told that installing defeats the object, after all, the distro is meant to go where you go, carried in your wallet. Nevertheless, I found it to be so excellent that I am running it on both my machines. All the time. But, as John is quick to point out, DSL is not a one man show. Robert Shingledecker is responsible for most of the recent improvements in the hard disk installation process. There is a page on the DSL site where you can find out about other contributers and their work.
To run Damnsmall from hard disk, the initial boot up process is the same. Once you are logged in as damnsmall and in fluxbox, you are ready to run the install script. I use cfdisk to create disk partitions. My my 1GB disk looks like this:
hda1 Primary 1083 MB
hda2 Extended / 827 MB
hda5 Extended swap 256MB
To invoke the install, type: sudo dsl-hdinstall
The install script asks whether you have a partition of at least 200MB created, and to specify where it is. Then the install process starts. It does’nt take very long, then you are presented with the option to configure LILO. I understand that there have been problems with dual-boot users’ master boot records being overwritten here. Watch out. Once again, see the forum for details. Next is reboot. It is the little things that count. During this reboot, the CD tray opens and you are prompted to remove the disk and hit enter.
After new boot from hard disk, you are requested to enter a new password for root and damnsmall. Then you are automatically logged in as damnsmall. To create a user for yourself, type sudo adduser [username].
My swap partition was automatically configured and activated upon the next boot. If however, yours was not, you need to make a swap partition and activate it like so (replace hda5 with your partition name):
mkswap /dev/hda5
swapon /dev/hda5
The Slit should now show your swap partition usage. Very nice.
If you sudo vi /etc/lilo.conf, you will see that there is an entry in the first line which looks like this:
VGA=791
This number represents the framebuffermode during boot. Default works for me on both my machines, but you may need to change the number. Look in the howto forum for details. The foolproof option is VGA=normal. The cool thing is that if your system fails to boot from hard disk because of a bad value here, you may be able to boot from CD, mount your root partition and edit this file. The command lilo needs to be run after editing this file before you reboot.
The auto configuration of hardware process happens at each boot. This is not a problem for me because it really happens fast.
Fluxbox is really nice and intuitive, and comes with a couple of themes. My optical scroll mouse works fine. The message of the day will display everytime you boot. You will also have to select enhance from the menu each time. To fix this, edit the file .xinitrc in your home directory. Uncomment “enhance”, and comment out the “motd” line.
I was able to mount my dataslave (hdb1) with the mount app. No problems. But in order for a normal user to access the FAT32 disk correctly, I had to edit /etc/fstab and add:
/dev/hdb1 /mnt/hdb1 vfat users,iocharset=iso8859-15,codepage=850,auto,umask=0,defaults 0 0
I always copy the config file I am about to change, like fstab, lilo.conf or .xinitrc to [filename].old before editing the file. Who knows what may go wrong.
I am now able to listen to MP3’s on hdb1 using XMMS. Typing knoppix toram at boot will enable live CD users to listen to an audio CD while running DSL in RAM. You need more than 50MB RAM, of course.
My work requires me to use MS Office documents, so OpenOffice.org is the ideal solution for me. I installed it from the normal binary .tar.gz from their site. Unpack the files in /tmp. Then as root, run ./setup -net in /tmp/OOo_1.1.0_LinuxIntel_install/
The normal install storyboard is run. When asked where to install, I specify /usr/local/OpenOffice/
Then you can do a workstation install as normal user by tuping ./setup in /usr/local/OpenOffice.
I now want to create a desktop shortcut for OpenOffice. You must have a link file and an icon file in /home/walter/.xtdesktop. For the link file I copied one of the others, and I had an icon from a previous distro. I name them ooffice.lnk and ooffice.gif. Edit the .lnk file and insert the correct caption, icon filename and executable. Now for the tricky bit: you have to specify the position on the desktop. I placed it relative to the one above and the one next to where I want it. It takes a bit of trial and error. Here is what my ooffice.lnk file looks like:
table Icon
Type: Program
Caption: OpenOffice
Command: soffice
Icon: /home/walter/.xtdesktop/ooffice.gif
X: 218
Y: 359
end
I fooled around with xterm a bit in order to see what different configurations look like. To change xterm background colour, I edited xterm.lnk by adding -bg lightgrey. X must be restarted in order to see results. If you select to exit Fluxbox from the menu, and find yourself in command line mode, type startx. I also wanted a different prompt. I changed the .bashrc file in my home dir. Where the entry PS1=’\u@\h:\w\$ ‘was, I changed it to PS1=’\w\$: ‘. Once again, I first copied .bashrc to .bashrc.old, in case I ever want to revert to the old version.
I have always been used to kppp. Spoiled ? The dialup in DSL is very cool, it uses wvdial. A little bit of configuration in two steps is required.
Select modemconfig from the menu. Here you specify on which port the modem is connected, ttyS0 = com1 and so on.
Next, choose pppconfig from the menu. Two files need to be edited with vi here, but the process is explained well as you go along. The first file for editing is wvdial.conf, which has a symbolic link in the /etc directory. This is fairly simple. Change phone number, user name and password. Two tricks in this file: insert a line with set Modem = /dev/ttyS0, else you may have to run the modemconfig script after every boot. Also insert a line with Init = ATM0 to set the modem speaker to silent.
The next file I found a little harder. In the file pap-secrets, you have to insert your ISP user name and password under the OUTBOUND section. This worked with a bit of trial and error.
There you go. Now just select wvdial from the menu. A terminal opens up and you can see the dialup and authentication as it happens. To log off, type Control-c in the terminal.
On the forum there is a thread about the security of DSL. I am no security expert, so I will just report that the daemons are off by default, the menu options are there to start/stop them easily as required.
Conclusion
Damn Small Linux is my everyday, do everything distro. It has revived my old PC, and runs very well on my no. 1 box. I think it will go a long way. DSL has a vibrant forum on the site, and a I obtained some of this review’s content from there, and often refer to it. Check it out for new tips and tricks. Thanks to John and his contributors for the distro, and thanks to all the users that very patiently post solutions and explanations on the forum.
Keramik might be the ugliest thing i have ever seen. It’s the reason why i have never given kde a chance.
Umm, so use a different theme then? KDE comes with lots of them; Plastik seems to be the leading choice now, and will be included in 3.2.
I think it’s a risky business proposition to run the “0.x” release of any distro in a production environment. If the reviewer really wants a slick and fast OS, maybe he should pick a distro that has passed the 1.0 stage (Vector, Crux, …).
I think it’s a risky business proposition to run the “0.x” release of any distro in a production environment. If the reviewer really wants a slick and fast OS, maybe he should pick a distro that has passed the 1.0 stage (Vector, Crux, …).
Version numbers are completely arbitrary, especially in Open Source Software. 1.0 does not a stable release make. From my experience, most commercial software houses inflate their version numbers and release too early, while most open source projects deflate their version numbers and release very high quality software.
An excellent example of this would be GAIM, which is currently at 0.74 and has been quite stable since the 0.5x series.
I think as long as the distro is adequately tested prior to usage in the production environment it should be fine to use no matter what version number it has.
the slit is just a place to run windowmaker dockapps, go grab the wmfire and wmMatrix dockaps for some eyecandy.
Ahh pure quality.
Informative clear and well documented of what you have and used.
Thank you for a clear idea of what there is.
I have a p200 that I was looking at reviving. DSL and Feather are on the live cd test plans as is deli. But my one concern is the lack of package manager. It would be a nice touch if these were compliant with apt-get, after all not all software is as easy to install as open office.
But a great review. I will be looking deeper, and thanks to your comments I know where to look.
Thanks.
If you want apt-get, just use straight Debian. Then “apt-get install (your wm here) ted sylpheed dillo …etc” I have a AMD 400MHz running Debian with XFCE4 and it is more than usable – even speedy, so if you went even lighter with a 200MHz (say twm
just kidding) you should have a fast enough desktop.
I too have been concerned with the amount of bloat linux is gathering as it goes on. My linux distro of choice (for various reasons) Redhat has balloned into a 4+ Gig install with everything. I don’t really have the patience to go through each bundle grouping to get rid of the software i will never use. This is why NetBSD has been my new favorite OS for some time. Full X86 bootable image on a 3″ CDR is nice to have. I am glad to see this apporach to linux.
I hate reviews w/o screenshots.
I hate screenshots without a review…
It’s not that you don’t know the password, but there is no password.
…Works just fine under DSL. I use it regularly.
G.
4 GB HD space is worth less than $4.. so why should you care? Unless your time is completely worthless, when these 4 GB (and the distributions that install them) save you only an hour you made quite a good deal.
In a few years we will have cheap terrabyte disks… who cares about a GB more or less? The important thing is to manage all the storage (and maybe to make use of it
, not to have even more free space.
I have two 60GB disks and I have a hundred or so megs free
Need all the space I can get for downloading anime!
In a few years we will have cheap terrabyte disks…
A few years != Now
The important thing is to manage all the storage (and maybe to make use of it
, not to have even more free space.
True, but I think that the OS shouldn’t be greedy, all that extra space should be for the user’s data. Still of course, I’m OK with distros taking up a few gigs as long as I don’t have to keep downloading more software 🙂
Plenty of screenshots on http://www.damnsmalllinux.org
4 GB HD space is worth when you live in a subdeveloped country where your choices for getting any linux/BSD/whatever, an internet conection or even an old computer at all, are as high and varied as getting those $4 you talk about. And I guess I am not the only one in that enviroment here.
“4 GB HD space is worth less than $4.. so why should you care?”
That’s a very Microsoft-esque way of thinking. Our goal should be to create an OS that’s efficient and uses disk space appropriately, rather than just eating up room because it’s there. Elegance, efficiency and cleanliness are important, and trying to keep a system’s footprint down leads to a better end result than just throwing in anything possible.
Developers who care about overhead and size usually create the cleanest and most efficient software. Those who assume everyone won’t mind filling their 80G drive with redundant files usually end up with bloated and bug-ridden apps.
Very well stated thanks for replying for me. 4GB’s of junk and bloat is the issue not the 4GB’s of space.
4 GB HD space is worth less than $4.. so why should you care?
Because it’s a lot of data, a lot of complexity, a lot to backup, restore, and install.
Simple example:
I was installing DNS on my machine at home, and decided to use djbdns.
I downloaded it, and I thought something was wrong. It downloaded instantly. I barely had my finger off the mouse button. Why? The source distribution is 84KB.
This compares to the 4.5MB source distro for BIND.
Not to get anywhere near the djbdns vs BIND debate, but if the systems offer equivalent functionality, there is much to be said for having the smaller one.
Smaller files == faster files. Faster install, faster recovery, faster backup.
So, really, how much is your time worth anyway?
I wish there was a book entitled “Linux For Windows Hackers” or somesuch. I am a pretty comfortable windows guy, but whenever I read threads about linux my head spins. This stuff makes very little sense to me. I’ve picked up what apt-get is, and I did a search just now for djbdns, but since windows already does all the DNS work for me, I don’t understand what dns software does for me. All the wacky filenames and super-truncated terms baffle me.
I wish I could at least be reasonably knowledgeable. But right now I feel like a lost monkey in search of his goatsmilk lozenge.
I am writing this from Firebird installed on DSL (Running from the 50MB cdrom).
It seems to work really well.The VESA drivers for X bombs on this GeForce2 MX card but other than that it is swell.
Why can people not get it into their heads that not everyone can afford ‘a couple of hundred dollars’.
For some people ‘a couple of hundred dollars’ is a year’s wage.
That is the point Mark.
But I could pick up a 486 for free from my school (yes they give old computers away) and install linux, and still do everyting i do in windows but free of cost. That’s a few hundred bucks in my pocket from the computer and another hundred or so for XP, which is quite a bit of cash for a poor college student =)
Three reasons points, Mark:
<HEAVY>
I live in a third-world country, and many children’s future may be influenced by something like this – revival of old hardware. If you bother to read the DSL forum, you may learn something about just that. I don’t think you know what poverty and people with no future prospects look like.
</HEAVY>
Secondly, it’s a hobbyist/enthusiast thing that you obviously don’t understand.
Third, it is cool to show your friends you can do fine without that other OS they are so dependent on ;-).
This is very impressive, wonder if it uses compression as would seem nessary.
Are there any intermediate size distros inbetween Knoppix & DSL that fit on a 157MB ~3″ CDROM ?
Could a semi stripped down Knoppix or Morphix be squezed on to a 157Mb CDROM and targeted specifically for SOHO use and still provide either a compact KDE or Gnome, Mozilla or Firebird, and a good office suite. I dare say OOo 1.1 at some 60MB install is too big.
Thanks if anyone could expand on this
Brian N
I was a skeptic…that it until Thanksgiving weekend. I downloaded/burned the ISO…and without EVER having used a “Knoppix-like ISO” before, tried it in my 133 MHz Compaq laptop. It was great! The old machine actually seemed fast again (LOL). Even with its 33.6 modem, it handled the web very well. The part that I enjoy most is the ability to save your configurations on a floppy to expedite re-start. But, what I didn’t like is that on my version, the online radio worked, but it was “pre-set” to an IP that required braodband connections to listen.
Main distro? No. Handy BACKUP distro? You bet!
John
For those wishing to learn more about Linux without having to spend months learning (and unlearning) bits and pieces of information off the Web, there are now some good alternatives.
My favourite is the recently published book “Moving to Linux – Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye!”, by Marcel Gagne’, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-321-15998-5. This book is perfect for the person who already knows their way around one of the popular commercial OS’s, and who wishes to learn how to use Linux. It’s well written, comprehensive, informative, and filled with useful screenshots. It’s also surprisingly up to date for a book on Linux, for instance the screenshots are of KDE 3.1 (Linux evolves so fast that most Linux books are out of date before they hit the bookstore shelves). List price is $34.99 USD, about what the average basic boxed-set Linux distro costs.
Marcel Gagne’ is one of the most popular writers for Linux Journal, among other things. He is unusual among technical writers in having a sense of humour and writing entertainingly while still being technically accurate, complete, and understandable.
By the way, Gagne’s book is KDE-centric; if you’re a Gnome fanatic this may not be the book for you, but then again, if you’re a Gnome fanatic, you’re not part of the target audience for this book.
My second suggestion is a slightly older book, “Linux in the workplace”, written by SSC, No Starch press, ISBN 1-886411-86-7. This book (published in 2002) reads more like the typical computer book, which is to say it’s not exactly a fascinating page-turner, reading more like a dictionary than like one of Shakespeare’s works. However it does contain a great deal of information in one place, complete with lots of screenshots. This book too is KDE centric, though of course the screenshots show a somewhat older version of KDE. I’ve forgotten what I paid for it, and there is no list price printed on the cover, but I believe it was in the $35 range also.
To anyone wanting to learn to use Linux, but bewildered by all the newsgroup posts about sendmail, bash, bind, sylpheed, kernel versions, crontab files, and all the other Linux arcana, these books are a breath of fresh air. They do not presume you are a Linux fanatic, or that you want to know every detail of how your OS/distro/filesystem/kernel works. They simply show you how to effectively use a Linux distribution running the KDE desktop to get your day-to-day work done. Of the two, I much prefer Gagne’s book, not only because it is more current, but also because it is more fun to read and therefore more likely to be useful to you. (Few people have the intestinal fortitude to read a book they don’t find enjoyable).
-Gnobuddy
hey you’re just in luck… visit http://www.slax.org ,its a mini distro with KDE and its just 180MB.. its got loads of other apps aswell ! try it out..
Bye,
Jassi
How does damn small use icons in fluxbox? Fluxbox doesn’t have icons, what magic is this?
I, too, am a Windows person who has run linux for a little over a year now. I’d spring for a dictionary of linux-ese or linux-speak right now.
djbdns and BIND are DNS daemons(server), not the client.
“Now in 0.4.3 we have desktop icons! This is possible because of the fantastically small XtDesktop X Windows desktop icon manager by Dmitry Ovechkin.” — http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/notes.html
Thanks very much Jassi
This Slax live CD is Slackware based. Since the Slax site provides scripts for users to make own custom live CDs, I must try this.
Thanks again
Brian N
Hi all
just about that question about an intermediate between DSL (50MB) and the 200MB plus distros
well there is Flonix which is like a slightly bigger DSL with more multimedia suport built in and is about 64MB
It also can install to HDD and it has a nice Media Centre type frontend you can use for a home made set top box (it even suports TV cards!)
Personaly i love Slax and would love it to have a quick install to disk button like Morphix light does
Incidentaly Morphix light is great on 486 systems itself!
oh and as for disk sizes? Here in Uk I have only seen 30mb and 50mb credit card sized disks then it is the 3 inch circular 185 or 210 sized disks
I have never heard of 157 mb sized disks
my personal opinion on what distro for old hardware is dependent on disk size:
200mb = DSL
200mb to 500mb = Flonix
500mb = Morphix light (or Slax if it can be installed OK)
500mb to 1000mb = Vector
These arent exact! just some rough guides I use with linux.
Then again i have put win95 on a 486 laptop under 100mb HDD.
winME on a laptop with 800mb pentium100 using “98light” to strip out explorer and “lightstep” as shell etc this runs old version of office 97 fine.
I have even put win3.1 on an old laptop 386 with “calmira” as a front end so it looks/behaves like win95 in under 40mb and it runs wordperfect8 fine.
so whatever your old hardware there is some operating system you can use with it at a decent speed be it microsoft or linux. (I prefer linux obviousely or i wouldnt be here)
I just got a new Sager 5680 notebook (www.pctorque.com) last Friday. It’s a monster machine for a notebook(3.0 Ghz/w HT, 1 Gig Dual-400 ram, ATI Radeon 9600 Pro Mobile..), so I can install basically whatever I want on it, but this distro looks to be perfect for my old IBM thinkpad 380ED that is still very useful and served me well during the lean times. It’s great to see that fluxbox has desktop icons now. Fluxbox served me well too. It’s good to have minimalistic live distros like this. It sucks when you can’t run the newest stuff, but it’s good to know there are distros out there that can make the best experience. By the way, Dillo is still the fastest browser I’ve ever seen. Go Dillo!
the biggest problem i have with most distros is what they have installed. for example knoppix has cdrw programs and dsl does not but knoppix has gigs of crap i don’t want, if i could have it my way i would make a distro like dsl with a easy to use self mod app/script. so any newbiie can add his(or her) fav apps/crap/settings to a iso and burn without the need to really know how to use linux.
i have 512mb ram on my system and i would like have a distro small enough to boot from cd and copy itself to ram letting me uses the cdrw drive for more important things (dvd/divx/mp3/burning) [sVen]
I’ve used DSL and like it a lot. Amazing how much is packed into a modern distro with only 50 meg. I can be online within 10 min of popping in the cd, very few distros offer that.
As far as mini cd distros, there is LAS, but this is oriented towards security. Maybe there is a small morphix. I’m getting a small 486 or PI laptop to tinker with, will put DSL or zipslack or something like that on it.
I started using Linux (Debian) about 5 years ago on several 486’s. It is amazing how useful old PC’s can be , also in desktop setups (when installed RAM is not too low). But, installing took a lot of time (half a day?) on these old machines, not talking about finding the right(=lightweight) applications and the tweaking afterwards – being a newbie back then.
Still being found of “lightweight” (and Debian – however dissatisfied with the long release cycles), I tried DSL yesterday on a Celeron 700 with 128 MB RAM. It provides a nice desktop (why didn’t I found out XtDesktop before?) and it flies with only about 20 MB RAM consumption.
With a DSL script simular to the knoppix knx-hdinstall (a great time-saver when installing Linux for friends!), old hardware can be put to use again without investing tons of time. And that’s just great!
Thank you DSL for bringing back the fun into low spec computing!
Jorg
You can tell this guy knows nothing about Debian. Install the binary of Open Office? Lucky you ran into no dependency problems. Always, but always, use apt-get. apt-get openoffice.org will get you the suite PLUS any dependencies. Please, you are using Debian here. Don’t ignore its superior package management system. That would be neanderthalish. apt-get needed some minor fixing in earlier DSL’s (< 5.0) before it would work (“dpkg reconfigure apt-get” or something like that), but after that minor fix, it worked normally. But be warned: do not, I say DO NOT, apt-get any xwindows stuff or you’ll hose your xvesa – which DSL uses. I found this out the hard way.
this writter does miss some of the wonder that is DSL
and yea you can break the xserver with apt-get
but ive used apt-get to add tons and tons of stuff to my install with no issues at all.
DSL rocks my world
I said in the review that I haven’t used Debian or a derivative before DSL. And unfortunately is it no good to try apt-get properly in a country with very expensive monopolised dial-up.