HD Install :: Hard drive installation problems



I got my Damn Small Linux Linux to work as a live CD. It booted up nearly flawlessly - the only hitch (and a small one at that) was the video mode error, which didn't seem to matter as I just hit the space bar to continue.

Last night, I tried to install Damn Small Linux to my hard drive. Unfortunately, it didn't install properly. While I agreed to the deletion of the data in existing partitions (created in my Fedora Core 1 installation), space in the partitions ran out, and many files didn't install.

To make matters worse, my computer would no longer boot up Damn Small Linux as a live CD. (I have no idea whether the CD or the computer was at fault.  I did mess around with the old Fedora Core 1 partitions, though.  Is there any way I can tell if a CD is bad?) So I ended up having to reinstall Fedora Core 1 just to connect to the Internet.

Was there something I was supposed to do before installing Damn Small Linux? I assumed that it would wipe out everything that was already on the computer and allow me to start out fresh.
Quote (jhsu @ Mar. 18 2007,11:43)
I got my Damn Small Linux Linux to work as a live CD. It booted up nearly flawlessly - the only hitch (and a small one at that) was the video mode error, which didn't seem to matter as I just hit the space bar to continue.

This isn't a problem since it defaults to xsetup.sh so you can configure mouse, resolution, keyboard.
Quote
Last night, I tried to install Damn Small Linux to my hard drive. Unfortunately, it didn't install properly. While I agreed to the deletion of the data in existing partitions (created in my Fedora Core 1 installation), space in the partitions ran out, and many files didn't install.

How big are your partitions? Which type of install did you attempt? For DSL, you may want to repartition in a manner consistent with DSL's size and for the kind of install you want ("frugal" installs the ISO to the hard drive and "hard drive" is a traditional system). A frugal install would use a swap determined by your particular RAM and needs,  a bootable / partition of 55MB, and a persistent /home and /opt of however much space you want to dedicate (three partitions). A traditional hard drive install would require the swap and another bootable partition for the system (two partitions).
Quote
To make matters worse, my computer would no longer boot up Damn Small Linux as a live CD. (I have no idea whether the CD or the computer was at fault.  I did mess around with the old Fedora Core 1 partitions, though.  Is there any way I can tell if a CD is bad?) So I ended up having to reinstall Fedora Core 1 just to connect to the Internet.

Was there something I was supposed to do before installing Damn Small Linux? I assumed that it would wipe out everything that was already on the computer and allow me to start out fresh.

No, it shouldn't do what you don't tell it -- you have to set your own partitions if you want them changed. It sounds like you tried installing to an existing partition without knowing its size (or type?).

The first thing I would do is run cfdisk (or fdisk) to see your partitions and decide what I really want to do with respect to repartitioning. Make damn sure you know exactly what you're doing when you partition your drive with respect to sizes, bootable toggles, swap, types, etc. If you repartition your swap, you'll have to do mkswap and swapon for it before any Linux distro recognizes and uses it.

Finally, and this is a personal preference, I usually run a wipe utility right before I start over and install something by itself to a hard drive. You don't have to do that, but it's helpful if you want to get rid of everything -- MBR and all -- and eliminate any potential problems down the road and start totally from scratch. You can find utilities like Darik's Boot and Destroy available online if that interests you. Don't run a wipe utility like that if you have data you need to save because it will be irrevocably destroyed.
Quote (lucky13 @ Mar. 18 2007,12:03)
Quote (jhsu @ Mar. 18 2007,11:43)
I got my Damn Small Linux Linux to work as a live CD. It booted up nearly flawlessly - the only hitch (and a small one at that) was the video mode error, which didn't seem to matter as I just hit the space bar to continue.

This isn't a problem since it defaults to xsetup.sh so you can configure mouse, resolution, keyboard.
Quote
Last night, I tried to install Damn Small Linux to my hard drive. Unfortunately, it didn't install properly. While I agreed to the deletion of the data in existing partitions (created in my Fedora Core 1 installation), space in the partitions ran out, and many files didn't install.

How big are your partitions? Which type of install did you attempt? For DSL, you may want to repartition in a manner consistent with DSL's size and for the kind of install you want ("frugal" installs the ISO to the hard drive and "hard drive" is a traditional system). A frugal install would use a swap determined by your particular RAM and needs,  a bootable / partition of 55MB, and a persistent /home and /opt of however much space you want to dedicate (three partitions). A traditional hard drive install would require the swap and another bootable partition for the system (two partitions).
Quote
To make matters worse, my computer would no longer boot up Damn Small Linux as a live CD. (I have no idea whether the CD or the computer was at fault.  I did mess around with the old Fedora Core 1 partitions, though.  Is there any way I can tell if a CD is bad?) So I ended up having to reinstall Fedora Core 1 just to connect to the Internet.

Was there something I was supposed to do before installing Damn Small Linux? I assumed that it would wipe out everything that was already on the computer and allow me to start out fresh.

No, it shouldn't do what you don't tell it -- you have to set your own partitions if you want them changed. It sounds like you tried installing to an existing partition without knowing its size (or type?).

The first thing I would do is run cfdisk (or fdisk) to see your partitions and decide what I really want to do with respect to repartitioning. Make damn sure you know exactly what you're doing when you partition your drive with respect to sizes, bootable toggles, swap, types, etc. If you repartition your swap, you'll have to do mkswap and swapon for it before any Linux distro recognizes and uses it.

Finally, and this is a personal preference, I usually run a wipe utility right before I start over and install something by itself to a hard drive. You don't have to do that, but it's helpful if you want to get rid of everything -- MBR and all -- and eliminate any potential problems down the road and start totally from scratch. You can find utilities like Darik's Boot and Destroy available online if that interests you. Don't run a wipe utility like that if you have data you need to save because it will be irrevocably destroyed.

< How big are your partitions? Which type of install did you attempt? For DSL, you may want to repartition in a manner consistent with DSL's size and for the kind of install you want ("frugal" installs the ISO to the hard drive and "hard drive" is a traditional system). A frugal install would use a swap determined by your particular RAM and needs,  a bootable / partition of 55MB, and a persistent /home and /opt of however much space you want to dedicate (three partitions). A traditional hard drive install would require the swap and another bootable partition for the system (two partitions). >

I thought I got rid of the old partitions by booting up on Damn Small Linux and using root privileges to rm and rmdir hda, hda1, and hda2 in the mnt and dev directories.

< No, it shouldn't do what you don't tell it -- you have to set your own partitions if you want them changed. It sounds like you tried installing to an existing partition without knowing its size (or type?). >

How do I get rid of all partitions?  I couldn't figure out how to use cfdisk or fdisk.  I'm not interested in saving anything on the hard drive, as I've already backed up the files I need to save to a CD.

What hard drive wipe program do you recommend?  How do you verify that everything has truly been wiped out?  How do I install it?  So far, I have yet to install software that didn't already come with Fedora Core 1.  Do I wipe the hard drive while I'm in Fedora or DSL?  I've never tried to wipe a hard drive before.
You didn't remove anything by doing that. You can search google for the man pages for cfdisk and fdisk. Neither is particularly difficult, you just need to know what you're doing before you get started. Either of those will let you write the partitions you'll need. DSL doesn't write partitions on its own. And you'll need to manually mkswap and swapon so you can use your swap partition.

When you start cfdisk, you'll need to be root. If you are already root, leave out the sudo part at prompt:
sudo cfdisk /dev/hda

You'll see your current partitions. You can delete them, add new ones, change types, make bootable, and write them. You need to figure out how you want your partitions set up BEFORE you get started. A good rule of thumb -- but not set in stone -- for swap is twice the RAM you have. If you have a lot of RAM, you probably don't want to waste that much space on  your hard drive unless you run lots of GUI apps at the same time (or pretty large ones that require a lot of memory paging). If you don't have much RAM to start with and you think you'll need a bigger swap, make it as big as you think you'll need it.

Let's say you decide to clear all the partitions and make hda1 your swap partition. You'll add the partition, enter size, and change its type to "82 Linux Swap/Solaris" -- you'll have options when you click the option to change type or you can enter 82 and get it over with.

If you choose to use the rest of your drive for DSL, you'll make another partition (hda2) using the rest of the drive. You need to toggle it bootable before you write and exit.

Once you have it set up so hda1 shows up as Linux swap and hda2 is toggled bootable and it's in the proportion you want, you can write the partitions. It will ask to verify that you really want to do that. Apparently you do so enter "yes."

Once it's done, exit and reboot using the live CD. From there it's fairly straight forward. You'll have to (as root again) mkswap and swapon -- using the example above from the console or a terminal:
sudo mkswap /dev/hda1
sudo swapon /dev/hda1

(Leave sudo off if you're running root console or root terminal.)

Then you can install DSL to hard drive using the menu option. Using the example, you'll want to install it to hda2. Using that example, go ahead and choose LILO for your boot loader.

Re wiping drives: I mentioned Darik's, which is what I use. You can run the live CD and download Darik's at the following address; then use the floppy tool to install the image onto a floppy. From there it's just a matter of booting the floppy and selecting which option you want. It will prompt you (briefly!) to remove the floppy before it starts its passes, but you can leave the floppy in throughout the process. It shows its progress throughout the wipe and it will let you save a log at the end if you want (I don't know why you'd want one).

Depending which option you run, it could take about an hour or a day (or longer for more passes) -- depends on your hardware. The "quick" option is usually sufficient unless you're decommissioning a drive and want to insure it's totally clean before you toss it. Read the manual/FAQ first, okay?

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

original here.