Downloading Linux from FTP?
 

Im not too well versed eith FTP sites, is there any advice to help me navigate around and know what i'm downloading? For example I wanted to download Damn Small Linux but I was overwhelmed with all the folders. I think I know which ISO I wanted, but there were like 3 variations of it. One was dsl-4.4.10initrd.iso the other was dsl-4.4.10.iso and the other was current.iso, so idk which.. My gut tells the dsl-4.4.10.iso is the standard which im looking for, but I would like to know what the other variations are for (btw I know what initrd is, but not how it relates to this iso download) Also if I may ask one more question is it possible to wget threads here on LQ or any site for that matter? (like all pages of a thread) Thank you

you are aware that "dsl-4.4.10" is from 2008

http://distro.ibiblio.org/damnsmall/current/

it is 8 years old

why such a old and unsupported operating system
are you putting this on a PRE 1995 computer that only has a 1 or 2 gig drive and 64 k of ram ?


there is a slightly newer version
dsl-4.11.rc1.iso
http://distro.ibiblio.org/damnsmall/release_candidate/

ftp-- firefox can use this also and so can MS windows and internet explorer

ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/d...ase_candidate/

but this Release candidate ( early TESTING ) never went farther since 2012

Gotta agree wtih John VV here. DSL is dormant, haven't had a release in 8 years, their last BETA release was even 4 years ago. If I were you, I'd find another distro to go with, nowadays it's not hard to find specialty distro's designed to be as small as possible but still have the ability to do <whatever>.

I assumed it was that good, like as in stable.. But if it's been abandoned then nvm... I'm looking for lightweight secure distro to use a proxy in a VM. I was looking at Puppy Linux but it logs in as root, so I guess if it does that then its not really secure?

a secure OS on a vm

look at CentOS 6.8 or 7.2

or

Debian 7 or 8

or the one but together by TOR
https://tails.boum.org/

Many distro's offer a wide array of files. You will have to read up on the various files before you go to the download page usually. Sometimes you can guess the one you want by it's name. The home pages or faq pages or looking at distrowatch.com for clues or reading forums or other pages to decide what you may need.

The most important thing to know is the architecture of your machine (32- or 64-bit) and to pick the appropriate variety. You can install a 32-bit OS on a 64-bit machine, though I wouldn't recommend it, but not vice versa.

Other than that, a web search for how to pick a linux *.iso file will turn up a number of useful links--too many for me to presume to pick just one to recommend.

The best advice I can give is to pick a mainstream distro (OpenSUSE, Mageia, Mint, Debian, Slackware, one of the *buntus), then stick with it for a while until you get the hang of things. I would avoid a distro that seems to exist solely because its maintainers are fans of a particular desktop configuration (EnlightenmentOS would be an example of this AFAIC), though I'd make an exception to that statement as regards the *buntus.

Don't get hung up on what desktop environment to use. You can always install a different one and try it out; multiple desktop environments can exist quite happily on the same Linux install. Slackware comes with six, three desktop environments and three window managers, out of the box.

Just my two cents.

What this has to do with desktop choices?

Damn Small Linux is fully usable. Just download the stable version, upgrade the Kernel if you need to. The rest you need to do manually anyways, in either scenario. So just do whatever you need to update it manually.

GCC for example. And then add whatever software you want, also manually.

Alternatively you can also use for example Debian 7 (pre-systemd) netinstall distro. It comes with a bare minimum and you can install whatever you want on top of that.

Member response
 

Hi,

You could use LQ's Download Linux to select a ISO to fit your hardware and needs.

This Sticky: Newbie alert: 50 Open Source Replacements for Windows XP provides a good list of distributions that could meet your requirements.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
:hattip:

Unbelievable. The OP wants to run a proxy in a virtual machine. Does anybody even read OP posts?

Member response
 

Hi,

Yes, I did read the OP and to use the directed advice will provide that member with a list of ISO to install to the VM. Get off your high horse. We are trying to aid someone with their inquiry and to get to a potential Gnu/Linux that will be useful to that member's usage within the VM.

EDIT: The OP could then configure to suit the needs once installed.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
:hattip:

Thanks for this, I also came across Clear OS

Thanks for the advice I should of tried a search like that but didn't come to mind.. I'm afraid however those distrobutions are to demanding on resources for me to have multiple instances running at the same time.

There is more, for instance https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Se...nsparent_Proxy

Thanks for the tips man I'll definitely check those out!

Yeah I'll definitely look in pfsense too I know a lot of people use it, just not sure how it works but I guess its time to learn, thank you!

I heard it not good idea to use a distro without a dedicated security team.

Member response
 

Hi,

You could look at; Security Onion Introduction and Installation which is Ubuntu based but you can get the idea on how to setup; IDS (Intrusion Detection System); Setting up your Linux Proxy server then you can look at LDP Howto;
Plus you can find more helpful information at TLDP.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
:hattip:

Security Onion does look pretty sweet, and I knew of hips, hids, and nids but never lids ;)Thanks once again!!

Almost every distro can run a proxy.

You could look to a site like distrowatch.com and search for the terms that you are looking for.

I'll put in a vote for Untangle.

True, but dedicated distro comes with much less cruft.

Why? Damn small Linux is pretty much only the Kernel, GCC and some GNU components. All those parts have their own dedicated security teams and are updated individually (also for security related issues).

Damn Small Linux is fine to just start the computer and provide the basic GNU environment. Then you can update it as mentioned and build anything you want on top of there. For example adding SELinux and a KVM based Virtual Machine running in a secure environment.

It depends on the purpose. I assume the purpose of Damn Small Linux was to have a minimal environment to run a Virtual Machine that can be setup relatively easily and quickly. If you want a more update system, with less manual tasks once installed, with better fundamental security, which is still minimum Gentoo is a far better alternative. But it will take time to set up correctly, but provide you with what you need in form of a minimal environment where you can build a virtual machine.

But a basic Gentoo system is much larger than Damn Small Linux.

Gentoo can be pretty small if you put portage elsewhere, NFS for instance.

Good points I may reconsider DSL somewhere down the line then, but I really like Gentoo because I heard its the closest distro that resembles BSD...

Interested to hear the similarities between Gentoo and *BSD. Have a link, or any input on the subject?

https://www.over-yonder.net/~fullerm...s/bsd4linux/04 There you go (chapter4 is where he talks about it) it has to do with the portage tree being being alot like BSD where they both build programs from source instead of binary packages....

Well, for the initial question:

ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/d...adme_first.txt
http://distro.ibiblio.org/damnsmall/...adme_first.txt

Those kind of explains why there are multple versions. Most times I look at the file size, and date/timestamp. For small things, you might download them all when in doubt. Otherwise the newest and largest is a good first guess.

Gentoo can be hardened.

Thanks for the resources ill give them a read, im actually planning to implement GRsecurity/PaX once I becme skilled enough