HD Install :: Frugal vs. Debian

OK, let me backup a little. I have an oldish machine with 96megs of RAM and a 300ish Mhz pentium 3. I chose DSL for this reason.

My question is not really about speed or efficiency but features. One feature in particular: file persistence.

hi everyone.

I'm new to DSL and seeing your skill in makes me ask this.
I have a Compaq Armada 1700 PII 233 Mhz / 96 Mo / 3 Go HD / 8139 RTL eth1 / 8180L RTL eth0
I don't know what DSL version dl for, and what install choose ?
In the future I would like to have permanent install of softs I add. How is it possible ?

Sorry if my questions are badly formed, I'm frenchy (newbie) too.

Here is how I did my HD debian type install:

booted the cd in dsl 2 mode
run cfdisk to make partitions:
hda1: 150M for swap
hda2: rest of the hard drive space

mkswap /dev/hda1
swapon
mke2fs /dev/hda2

reboot in dsl 2 mode

sorry I am on a different pc and forgot the name of the script but do:

ls -a /usr/sbin/*.sh

I think it might be grub_install.sh

I installed to /dev/hda2 and the install script makes persistant directories for everything and all of the settings stay on the hard drive usually in the home/dsl directory. On first boot after install dsl prompts for setting passwords and then mouse and video settings for starting X.

I have a compaq armada pII266 96M and a debian install works great.

after the hd is partitioned (don't think you need to reboot with linux, that is only required with dos) run the command

sudo dslinstall

and this will give all the install options. Alternatively run

sudo dsl-hdinstall

choose whichever boot loader you would like (lilo or grub) and eveerything should go OK.

After you restart all changes are permanent so if you load a dsl using mydsl the changes will stay and you won't need to reload it again (also you can't uninstall it unless you go through and undo the changes manually). Make sure your swap partition is created with cfdisk or fdisk before you install or you will have to do it again (can do the mkswap any time but the partition needs to be there).

Having the hd install (debian type install) frees up your ram which, like me with limited ram, you will want during normal operations.

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