HD Install :: How to Install DSL in VMware 6



Installing DSL to VMware 6

* I am assuming you have downloaded and installed VMware.

Download DSL .ISO image (I am using dsl-3.4.iso):
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub....ent.iso

1. Create new Virtual Machine in VMware with the following settings. NOTE: When prompted in VMware i chose custom as I want to mount this as a server in VMWare v1.0.3 and virtual machines created in Workstation6 mode are not comptible, so choose Workstation5 if you plan to use as a server.

- Select Guest OS type as Linux -> Other Linux 2.6.x Kernel
- Give it a name e.g. "DSL"
- Choose the number CPUs
- Choose the memory amount (I have used as low as 64MB but depending on what you want to do you will need more, e.g. OpenOffice requires 384MB)
- Choose Network type (use bridged is possible)
- Select I/O adapter types (just click next)
- Create new virtual disk
- Virtual Disk Type (IMPORTANT - Make sure you choose IDE and NOT SCSI as you will have problems)
- Specify Disk Capacity - WARNING - It is painful to increase the disk size at a later date, so bigger is better in this case
- Specify Disk File name - I usually rename it to something smaller than the default long name e.g. DSL.vmdk

2. Configure you new Virtual machine

- You should now see your new virtual machine in VMWare
- Click Edit virtual machine settings
- Remove any un-necesary items e.g. Floppy drive, Sound (if you have no sound card)
- Click add and select CD-ROM
- Select Use ISO Image
- Browse for the DSL ISO image you have downloaded and select it
- Click OK (make sure you see the check box "Connect at power on") so that the Virtual Machine boots from the ISO image

3. Start your Virtual Machine

- You should now see the Boot screen for DSL
- Hit enter, DSL will boot
- once you see your desktop, click "ATerminal"
- type "sudo -s" enter
- type "cfdisk"
- Select "Y" when asked Do you wish to start with a zero table
- You will now see your cfdisk applicaton. Use the arrow keys and select "NEW"
- Select "Primary" then select the size (by default it will be the entire HDD space you sepcified in VMware - I used the whole amount - some say leave space for a swap drive)
- Select "Bootable" (you see the word "Boot" under the Flags coloumn)
- Select "Write"
- When prompted with a (Y/N) type "YES" and hit enter. Once completed you will see the message "Wrote partition to hard disk"
- Select "QUIT"
- now back at the command prompt type "mkfs /dev/hda1". This will prepare the hard drive file system ready for installation. (this is not necessary, you can skip directly to the next step if you wish)
- now type "dsl-hdinstall"
- you will be prompted for the target drive type "hda1" and press enter
- you will then be prompted for multiuser logins (Y/N) - I choose "N"
- Select "N" for ext3 filesystm (unless you know what its for)
- Select "Y" to continue. You should see "The copying of system files has been complted"
- Select "Y" when asked "Proceed to install a boot loader"
- Type "g" for GRUB (Unless you specifically want LILO) - NOTE: This is case sensitive, it will default to GRUB otherwise
- Type "Y" when prompted for reboot
- You will see DSL shut down and press "Enter" when prompted
- At the VMware screen, Stop the Virtual Machine (hit the red stop button) and click edit and select the CD-ROM device that points to your VMware image .iso file
- Click remove and start the Virtual machine again.
- You should be prompted to enter a password for the "root" user and the "dsl" user.
- If it starts and you see your DSL desktop you have succesfully intalled DSL ! Congrats!


Please note, Im an abolute noob when it comes to Linux, so maybe there is a faster way to do this, but the above worked for me and I hope it will help others. BTW, DSL has to be the fastest linux distros out there. Please make a donation, however small.
Cheers,
Phez
phez, that's a fantastic tutorial!  I followed it to the letter and installed DSL in VirtualBox, which I assume is the same as VMware.  I wish there were more tutorials in LinuxLand like yours, because it was clear and it worked!  Can you write up a tutorial for installing Adobe Flash?  I follow the Adobe website's instructions for all 3 types of download, and never get past the terminal message, "no such directory."

original here.