How to Install Damn Small Linux on a USB Card

For computer users that prefer to run in a Linux operating system to do their computing it is possible to carry your own bootable Linux operating system on your USB Card or drive that will start on any computer that can boot from a USB device. Users that have the experience to work in Linux find that it is more versatile and controllable than Microsoft Windows platforms.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Download all the files needed to run Damn Small Linux. These files include the most current Damn Small Linux embedded file, which will be in a zipped archive file.

2. Backup all necessary files from your USB card or drive. You will be restoring these files after installing the Linux system on the card or drive.

3. Format the USB card from the Windows environment and format it as a FAT32 file system. Linux needs this type of file system and cannot work on a NTFS type drive.

4. Unzip all the downloaded files for Linux into a directory on your Windows system. Then copy all these files to the root directory of your USB card.

5. Set the BIOS to boot from the USB device. Plug your USB card into the system and reboot. Your system should boot from the USB card and start up in Linux. The Linux version you are running is a very limited version. Should you have the space on the card or drive, you may transform it to a full Debian Linux environment with ease. There are only a few applications included due to the size limitation of this version. This version was an experiment designed to find out how small a system with limited applications was possible under the ceiling of 50 MB.

6. Install any applications that you want to have access to on a routine basis. You can use the USB just like a hard disk but obviously with a smaller capacity.