Damn Small Linux - Not!

fletch229 · Joined: 26 Apr 2006 Posts: 2

hey i'm a total newb to linux i have a live cd of dsl-n a2 and it works fine on my desktop but when i try to boot it from my laptop it says that the kernel won't sync and kills the initializion i'm running an ibm thinkpad 600e any ideas

roberts · Joined: 17 Apr 2006 Posts: 320 Location: OC CA USA

Possibly your laptop is not able to boot an isolinux type cdrom.

This means that isolinux is not limited to a boot floppy sized image.
A 2.6 Kernel based system with unionfs abiliity does not fit within floppy size.

Some usually older computers are only able to boot cdrom images that have a boot image limited to the size of a actual floppy, ie. syslinux type cdrom. This emulates booting from a floppy then transfer control to the actual cdrom files.

Hence DSL-N can only offer the isolinux based cdrom and not a syslinux version.

If your laptop has this limitation, and it also has a floppy then Smart Boot Manager may work for you.

fletch229 · Joined: 26 Apr 2006 Posts: 2

thanks i don't think that the isolinux boot is the problem i can boot ubuntu,kubuntu,& knoppix live cd's fine and the dsln live cd is good as it works fine on my desktop if you have anny other ideas please let me know i think the idea of dsl and dsln is incredible and really want to get it working on my laptop

papakanush

I've tried both dsl-na2 and dsl-na4, and they both boot up just fine on my IBM Thinkpad R40.

typhon · Joined: 25 Jun 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Germany

Hi,

i have a similar problem runing dsl-n0.1RC1 on a thinkpad 600x (hardware details see below). It does not boot up in dsl or expert mode, only failsave works. The boot process stops quite at the beginning (still before reaching the first option in expert mode). The failure message is like this :

Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!

I tried some bootparameters, like acpi=off, pci=bios, vga=normal and all the no{*}-parameters from the help section, but it does not help. Knoppix runs flawlessly on the same machine (with acpi=off and nodma).

Any ideas?

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Hardware details:

IBM Thinkpad 600x
CPU: Pentium III (500MHz)
Chipset: Intel i440BX/ZX
RAM: 448MB (SDRAM)
Video: Neomagic MagicMedia 256ZX (AGP)
Audio: Crystal SoundFusion CS46xx (PCI)
Drives: IDE HDD, ATAPI CDRW/DVD

typhon · Joined: 25 Jun 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Germany

P.S.

I just tried the "small" DSL on the same computer, and it runs fine, so the problem seems to be specific to the "big" version. I would be really happy to get DSL-N running on that machine, so every help would be appreciated.