JBHoren
Group: Members
Posts: 4
Joined: June 2006 |
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Posted: Sep. 07 2006,20:12 |
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Indeed. I just (this very morning) installed DSL-3.0.1 on my old Compaq Elite LTE 4/75cx, with 16MB RAM and an 810MB hard drive. Here's how I did it.
1. Download a copy of Tom's Root Boot (from http://www.toms.net/rb/) and follow the instructions to create a bootable 3.5" floppy diskette, which will provide you with a runtime version of GNU/Linux which resides in a RAMdisk. NOTE1: if this is the ONLY computer you have, then download the version for MSDOS, and create the GNU/Linux floppy from it. NOTE2: make sure to move that little sliding tab, to make the diskette read-only. NOTE3: make sure that your wired/wireless network card is supported by this runtime GNU/Linux; read the FAQ carefully and check!
2. Decide if you REALLY WANT to give the entire 810MB drive to DSL. If you do, then (re)boot the laptop from the tomsrtbt floppy diskette -- make sure that your network card is fully-seated in the PCMCIA slot before you (re)boot!
3. When the laptop has finished booting into GNU/Linux, eject the diskette and log-in as root.
4. You need to repartition the hard drive. At the prompt, run "fdisk /dev/hda" -- I suggest you divide it into three partitions: swap, "target", and "source". I created the first partition (/dev/hda1) as 100MB and changed the type to 82 (Linux swap); the second partition (/dev/hda2) as 300MB (default type is 83 (Linux); and the third partition (/dev/hda3) as the remainder of the drive (approximately 400MB).
5. Create Linux filesystems on the second and third partitions. At the prompt, run "mke2fs /dev/hda2"; when that has finished, run "mke2fs /dev/hda3". Create a swap "filesystem" on the first partition. At the prompt, run "mkswap /dev/hda1".
6. Create temporary mount points for these partitions. Change directory to /etc/mnt. At the prompt, run "mkdir hda2 hda3 iso".
7. Verify your network connectivity. I am assuming that you have a DSL modem, and that your wired network card is directly connected to it. Check the Ethernet configuration, by running "ifconfig eth0" -- does it show an IP address in the 192.168.x.x family (as most will)? Check the routing, by running "route -n" -- does it show your modem's internal IP address as the default gateway (UG)?
Assuming that your DSL modem has an IP address of 192.168.1.254:
If the network card's IP address shows 1.1.1.1, give it a temporary static IP. At the prompt, run "ifconfig eth0 down", then run "ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0 up", then run "ifconfig eth0" and check the results.
Set the default route. At the prompt, run "route add default gw 192.168.1.254". Check the results, by running "route -n" -- you should see two lines, of which the bottom one will have "UG" in the Flags column.
Edit /etc/resolv.conf so that the "nameserver" line reads "nameserver 192.168.1.254"
Verify your network connectivity; see if you can ping your DSL modem. If you can, see if you can ping www.horen.org.il (that's my website). If you have full network connectivity, go to the next step; if not, get help.
8. Mount the "target" partition. At the prompt, run "mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2". Verify that it is present; at the prompt, run "df" -- you should see an entry for it.
9. Change directory to /mnt/hda2. Download the DSL iso image and the bootfloppy image. NOTE: I find that the Ibiblio site is nearly impossible to pull from, so I use the mirror in Ireland!
At the prompt, run "wget ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors....o" -- it's going to take a long time, so brew and drink some coffee, or whatever. Once the DSL iso image is downloaded, pull over the bootfloppy image. At the prompt, run "wget ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors....g" (which should take only a minute or so).
10. Create the DSL bootfloppy diskette. Put a 3.5" diskette into the floppy drive and format it. At the prompt, run "fdformat /dev/fd0". Once the diskette is formatted, copy the bootfloppy image onto the diskette. At the prompt, run "dd if=bootfloppy.img of=/dev/fd0" When the bootfloppy has been created, eject it, and make sure to make it read-only!
11. Mount the DSL iso image. At the prompt, run "mount /dev/hda2/current.iso /mnt/iso -t iso9660 -o loop=/dev/loop0" -- the runtime GNU/Linux will see it as a CDROM!
12. Mount the "source" partition. At the prompt, run "mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/hda3".
13. Copy the DSL iso contents onto the "source" partition -- this is a two-step procedure. At the prompt, run "cp -r /mnt/iso/KNOPPIX /mnt/hda3" When this is done, run "cp -r /mnt/iso/boot /mnt/hda3"
Now comes the difficult part. If you're computer is like mine, 16MB RAM is just not going to be enough to run DSL in graphic mode. So... we make an "end-run".
14. With the DSL bootfloppy in the floppy drive, at the prompt run "reboot". When the DSL splash-screen appears, type "dsl 2" and press Enter (this runs DSL at init-level 2 -- command-line, not graphical).
15. Now you're ready to manually install DSL. As root, at the prompt, run "/usr/sbin/dsl-hdinstall" and follow its prompting. Remember: install DSL onto the "target" partition, /dev/hda2
Answer "y" to multi-user; answer "y" to bootloader, and choose GRUB (g), NOT LILO.
When the hard-drive installation is finished, remove the bootfloppy and reboot the system. What you do with the third partition (/dev/hda3), once you've successfully installed DSL onto /dev/hda2, is up to you.
Credit to u2musicmike for code snippets from frugal_lite.sh (see posting in this forum from gigi1234 for more information)
Now, if I only knew the minimum amount of RAM for running DSL in graphic mode... I can boost this beast to 24MB or 32MB (@$30 or $50, respectively) -- hardly seems worth it, but all of my buddies with their 17"-screen Dells and Toshiba laptops running Windows XP come to ME with their problems, and I'd be even happier to shrug my shoulders AND show 'em DSL on a 9.5" screen... ya know what I mean?
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