live usb for dell laptop

[cfli1688c1]

i got a spare dell laptop that does not have a harddisk. I would like to use it with a usb drive. I current have the zorin os 9, which fits on a 1gb usb. the problem is that zorin does not recognize dell wifi out of the box. I need to install the broadcom driver for it to use wifi. Is there a live usb distro that has the broadcom driver buildin that i can put on a usb drive?

** thank-you for all posted with very helpful information.
**
** I was digging thru my harddrive, and come upon kali linux, tried it out, it looks to have support for dell laptop wifi. It also fits in 1gb usb drive. so, i will stick with kali for now. again, thank-you.

 

[Peer]

You can use Ubuntu 18.04 is has got perisistence, so you can install drivers.
EIN 8GB USB drive is the best choice for it.

 

[cfli1688c1]

do you know of anything that can fit in 1gb usb drive?

 

[Peer]

Not with perisistence.

 

[cfli1688c1]

none that has the bcmwl kernel build in?

 

[Peer]

I do not think so.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Hello @cfli1688c1 and welcome to linux.org

What you ask may be a steep order to fill, but I can make a couple of suggestions.

• antiX - maybe - is supposed to support bcmwl OOTB (out-of-the-box)
• Porteus - likely

You will need to do a lot of homework for this yourself, as it would be extremely time-consuming for any one of us

I would start with Wikipedia here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-weight_Linux_distribution - and bear in mind that while that page has been edited as recently as 3rd October, I cannot establish that all the information is 100% current.

If you are not familiar with the DEs (Desktop Environments) available under Linux, read here - https://renewablepcs.wordpress.com/about-linux/kde-gnome-or-xfce/

I would expect that something like LXQT would be the best fit.

Porteus also has the advantage of having a Persistence option. I have not used it for over 3 years, but found it very good at the time.

At that time, it also had the capacity to be loaded into RAM, as is also common to

• Puppy Linux

Both Porteus and many Puppies are based on Slackware.

For Porteus system requirements, see http://www.porteus.org/info/features.html - and expand the text options where appropriate.

Broadcom is regarded as being the most problematic of wifi options to install and maintain, so you may need you lucky rabbit's foot in your pocket.

I am very busy around here, as you may see, but if I can assist further I will try.

Good luck

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

BTW (by the way) tell us how much RAM you have, if you know it.