Loading DSL on a laptop with 2 gig

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: Loading DSL on a laptop with 2 gig
started by: win95 2 dsl

Posted by win95 2 dsl on Jan. 02 2007,04:33

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

Posted by roberts on Jan. 02 2007,07:10

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?

Posted by win95 2 dsl on Jan. 02 2007,20:27

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.

Posted by roberts on Jan. 02 2007,20:57

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,

Posted by win95 2 dsl on Jan. 04 2007,20:08

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.

Posted by win95 2 dsl on Jan. 04 2007,22:00

Hey,
I got it to go a little farther.

After doing "dsl fromcd"

It said "loading linux24" and all that.

then It went to where there is a little penguin up in the far top left corner and it says:
"welcome to DSL"
built using knoppix Technology.

Dsl comes with no warranty, to the...BLA BLA BLA!

then it says in red letters:

Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry.
Dropping you to a (very limited shell.
Press the reset button to quit.

then in regular white lettering:

Additional builtin commands available:
cat mount umount
insmod rmmod lsmod
Knoppix#

thats all.....

....I guess the reason that I never got that far is i had a bad floppy...
also i downloaded a DOS boot disk.. with that it lets me see C:/ D:/ A:/ and all that crap. but apparently there is nothing in it.

Posted by win95 2 dsl on Jan. 04 2007,22:26

Soooooo, cool!
Ok thanks man!
I got the dos floppy going now i have control over the system.
but the problem is i dont know how to control it:D .so, if you could explain it step by step how to copy that KNOPPIX folder thing, then I would be much obliged...Because on this DOS mode i dont know how to access the cdrom.
...Will I still have to make another partition, or can I just use D: ?it is 347 MB FAT16.
thnx man! If i get this going, it will be soooo cool.

Posted by roberts on Jan. 04 2007,22:30

You are at the point that we know the boot floppy seems to be working as expected. The failure to find the knoppix file would indicate possibly a non-standard, i.e., non-ide cdrom drive interface, possibly scsi or some proprietary or it may indicate the cdrom drive is malfunctiing.

As for the DOS boot floppy, many times you can get one with cdrom support see www.bootdisk.com. What we are trying to determine is if you can see the files on cdrom from DOS, and therefore copy the knoppix/knoppic to c:\ or even d:\

Posted by win95 2 dsl on Jan. 05 2007,00:33

I still cant figure it out

Posted by toadkiller on Jan. 05 2007,13:54

How about a USB thumbdrive? Do you have USB on the computer and a thumbdrive?

I'm also a total noob, so I won't advise further.

Posted by win95 2 dsl on Jan. 05 2007,18:51

It does have a usb port but I dont think it works.

I do have a usb flash drive

Posted by win95 2 dsl on Jan. 05 2007,22:45

Ok...I have full access to the DOS editor.:D

But I dont know how to use it

I Figured out fdisk.exe, and created a 128 mb partition fat-32 in the harddrive.

Now what?

Also I bought a bunch of floppys (new ones).

Now what?

Posted by win95 2 dsl on Jan. 07 2007,03:14

Roberts, Thank you sooo much for all the help.

I finally got it going.

I guess I just kept trying and kept trying and kept trying, and finally I got it.

I think my main problem was a faulty floppy drive.

Now I got it booted and need to do a harddrive install ( I dont know if I will be able to get it to boot off the cd again).

Thanks again.