User Feedback :: Loading DSL on a laptop with 2 gig

I am trying to Install DSL on a Toshiba tecra 520 Laptop , with 2 gb hardrive space and 64 mb of ram.

It was originaly set up with windows 95, but got formatted so is now very empty.

I downloaded the CURRENT.ISO and burned it to a cd, then I made the bootfloppy.

the floppy driver is an external driver.

well to make a long story short, its like this:

I turn the laptop on... Memory Initialize 32512KB......then:
Invalid system disk
Replace the disk, and then press any key.

i put in the bootfloppy, and the dsl cd

then the dsl penquincito logo comes up with this below:

DSl is based on Knoppix Debian Linux Technology.
Press to begin, F2 and F3 for boot options.
Boot: *I put in* dsl fromcd

Then it starts loading, and ther below it says loading linux24 or somthing like that. and the little dots that go to the right go about this far =

loading linux24..........

then it says

Boot failed: please change disks and press a key to continue.

..........................................................

That is the farthest I can get it to go, and im kinda fed up with it....

...If anyone knows any way to get it to work please post it.

Thanks

Is your cdrom an external device to this laptop?

If you look at your burnt (recorded) cd, do you see several files only only the single .iso file? How did you record the image?

Quote (roberts @ Jan. 02 2007,02:10)

Is your cdrom an external device to this laptop?

If you look at your burnt (recorded) cd, do you see several files only only the single .iso file? How did you record the image?

My cdrom is set up so i can either have it inside the lappy and have the floppy external, or i can switch them around.

And yes my cd is the right format...(i tried it out on a win-xp and it worked fine)...there are like 4 files on it.

So, obviously you have a non-bootable cdrom drive and currently no OS on the hard drive.

Is the hard drive still formatted for DOS/Win95?

Do you have a dos boot floppy that you can see the files on the cdrom?

If so, we can do a poorman's install into a small dos partition and then do any type of DSL into a much larger partition. You will need to partition the 2GB drive into a small, say 128MB dos partition formatted and leave the remaining for the DSL install.

From a dos boot copy the KNOPPIX/ folder from the cdrom to the top level of the dos partition. You should end up with c:\knoppix\knoppix

You only need this file copied.

Then try booting from the DSL boot floppy.

This is what we call a poorman's install.

Once we get this working then from a poorman's install you can install DSL into the larger unused partition and then change the dos partition to a swap partition,

I am a noob when it comes to linux or working with any OS files really.

But Ill try to answer to the best of my ability.

I dont know about the harddrive being formatted for DOS/win95, all I know is that some of the essential windows files got deleted off of it, and then the c:/ drive got formatted, so aparrently there is nothing left on it exept the bios.

(there is drive C:/ and drive D:/, D is like 198 mb, and is empty. and C is about 1.7 GB )

As for having a boot floppy, I dont. And am not totally sure where to get one, but if thats the only way to do it I will find one somewhere.

The cdrom is not bootable as you say, but when I put the bootfloppy in, shouldent that boot up the cdrom?

Also, is the bootfloppy what has the penguin logo on it where it gives you to option to boot, or push f3 or f2 for more options? Because that is as far as I got, and I could hear the cdrom working during that time, when it was loading that up.

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