How to install “Damn Small Linux” in Virtual Box

The process for this is pretty straight forward. The website makes the install seem like it much harder than it should be.

I am going to assume you have Virtual Box already installed.

Files needed:

1. Virtual Box
2. Damn Small Linux (DSL) iso

These files are hosted on my MEGA account. You can get the files from the original sites but this post will use these items.

When you open Virtual box click “New” icon.

Name the VM. I am calling mine DSL-inside.

Change the size to: 2GB and click “create” button.

Select the new VM and click “Start“.

You will ask what you want to boot off of. Select the DSL iso file.

Hit enter to boot into the Live OS.

Click on Terminal.

You will now need to create 2 drives:

1. hda1 – App 128MB Swap drive
2. hda2 – DSL location 2Gb (83MB smallest)

Type these commands to open the partition manager.

sudo -s
cfdisk

This will open the partition manager. You will be asked to zero the HD table. Say “y“es.

You will need to select the free space and create a new partition. Use the left and right arrows to select “New“.

Will will need to make a primary partition

Select 128MB. This is the recommended size for the swap partition (HDA1).

You will need to create this partition at the beginning of the drive.

Select the remaining free space. using arrows select “New” to create the data partition (HDA2).

Will will need to make a primary partition

Use the default which should be the remaining space. (2018.97MB)

Make HDA2 bootable.

Finalize and write the partitions to the hard drive.

Confirm the writing to disk by typing “yes“.

Type these commands:

        sudo -s
        swapoff -a    swapoff is a critical step, make sure you do it.
        mkswap /dev/hda1
        swapon /dev/hda1  [If you get "device or resource busy" here, ignore it.]

Run the HD install by running this command:

sudo -u root dsl-hdinstall

Select HDA2 to install DSL to. Follow the rest of the prompts.

Proceed with Bootloader (y)es and tell DSL to use (G)rub.

You obviously don’t have windows install so say “n“o.

You will need to create a password for two users:

1. root – Super User.
2. dsl – Normal Linux user.