HD Install :: can't install DSL!! :'(



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it said it needed 200MB of free space on the partition.

There are two basic installation options: frugal and hard drive. Both go to the hard drive; frugal doesn't mean you're losing anything. The frugal install puts the ISO -- the whole ISO image itself in its ISO form -- on its own partition (the other partition you should set up for frugal is for a persistent /home and /opt because you the ISO will be read-only and you probably want a place to store your settings, files, extensions, etc.). The hard drive install is a typical Debian-like installation that goes to one partition with a normal read-write directory structure.

There are benefits for using either and you'll find proponents of both here (I'm a proponent of both, though the machine I use DSL on the most has a traditional hard drive install).

The frugal install is the one that requires 50ish (55-60 is safer in case the ISO ever goes a little over 50MB). The traditional install is what you tried. You could've just as easily installed it to the other Linux partition you said you made.

As fas as the partitioning issues you've had go, I have no experience using zboot. You should be able to exit cfdisk using the quit command on its little menu. From there, do either a normal shutdown (then boot again) or reboot:
sudo reboot
sudo shutdown -h now

Try rewriting your partitions using cfdisk, reboot (using the command above), installing DSL whichever way you want, then reboot (which it should do on its own if you do a hard drive install). If it doesn't work, please copy down and paste back here the fdisk -l /dev/hda info after you write the partitions. I'm starting to wonder the condition of your hard drive, if your hard drives are jumpered correctly, if you have something on the MBR that's messing things up or causing some kind of conflict (zboot's boot manager, perhaps? let's deduce the rest first), if your partitions are suitably sized for Linux, etc.
I suppose hdb is your zip drive perhaps...

I'd suggest _not_ using frugal for your setup (due to low memory).

Make sure in cfdisk you "Write" then, as lucky13 suggested, "Quit" then reboot.  If you still have no partitions, my only guess is that you have faulty hardware...?
:p

I think I finally got it!!! :D

I got it to the desktop showing icons and all, but I haven't tried rebooting since then, so yeah.. it 'should' be working right, though.

What I did was repartition using 2 partitions (the linux and linux swap) in cfdisk, then I exited and used sudo reboot. Then I tried the fdisk check thing, and it showed both partitions with the * next to the main one. Then I did the dsl-hdinstall and went from there.. then I used the Lilo boot thing instead of Grub.. and it didn't say "Missing operating system" this time! :D

I wasn't sure what some'a the options I had to go through were.. but it made it to the desktop.. so I'ma go mess around with it, try restarting the computer and whatever else and see if it all works right.

I'll update here if somethin' messes up.. but let's hope it don't.

THANK YOU!! To everyone who helped me!! :D I really appriciate you guys takin' your time to help me through this, I couldnt've gotten it installed without you.
I was hoping I wouldn't have to post in this thread again, but I'm confused... like, DSL boots now, and I can get to the desktop ok. But every time I boot, the desktop is different.

The first time, it had a weird lookin' background, but it showed the system stats in the top right corner and it showed the icons in the top left corner.

Second time I booted, it asked for me to make a password for root.. but the keyboard wouldn't work. Well, it worked 'cause I could hit NumLock and the light would come on.. but it wouldn't let me type anything.

The third time, it showed the weird background (black and white lined looking background).. showed the system stats, but no icons. I changed the background to the light blue color, then rebooted.

The fourth time, it had a darker background (not the one I changed it to, but it looked better than the original).. and also, no icons nor system stats were shown.

One of the times that I booted DSL (I forget which time), I clicked or right clicked on something for the icons and I clicked "Show Icons" (I think), but they didn't show up even after that. Is there something wrong with it, or do I just need to set up some stuff to get it to stay the same whenever I restart the computer?

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I know this's all AFTER the HD Install.. so if I should create a new thread somewhere else about this, please let me know.

EDIT: I restarted the computer again and it went back to the original background, it showed the icons and the system stats.. but there was also a little box with some buttons and somethin' else in it.. I think it said "unmounted" and something else on the buttons.. then the mouse stopped working and the keyboard did too.. NumLock didn't even work (the light on the keyboard didn't turn on).

:(

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I made a new topic for this since it's off of the original topic now..
http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....390;r=1


Thanks. :)
Hit ctrl-alt-backspace. This will take you out of X to console. Type:
xsetup.sh

Then enter the settings you need for your mouse and monitor.

EDIT: Oh, another thread... nevermind
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original here.