install questionForum: User Feedback Topic: install question started by: gnuts Posted by gnuts on June 28 2004,17:19
Hello, I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro 430CDT with 16M ram, P1, 1.2G. During install from boot floppy it works up until "creating directories and symlinks on ramdisk" at which point it flashes a message like "unable to handle kernel ... request..virtual..." and scrolls off the top of the screen. the bottom of the displayed info is off the bottom of the screen. Do I not have enough RAM? I'm many hours into what will hopefully end up being a positive first linux experience, please help. Thanks.
Posted by AwPhuch on June 28 2004,19:25
do you have a swap partition on your system...With only 16meg ram its going to be very very slow going...and without enuff elbow room linux will grind to a halt...well maybe not a halt but it will be unGodly slow... Try running win98 on 16meg of ram and no swappage!! Brian AwPhuch Posted by gnuts on June 28 2004,23:49
I did make a linux and a linux swap partition, I am trying to wean myself off MS products entirely, Is there a better distro for my experimental computer?
Posted by cbagger01 on June 29 2004,01:47
Is your swap partition active?type: free inside an Xterminal and see if the total memory listed includes RAM size + swap size If not, your swap partition needs to be activated. Posted by AwPhuch on June 29 2004,04:37
I would stick with DSL on that particular laptop Disable all unused ports in the bios...play with the bios settings until it will accept the kernel... Also if you are using a boot floppy make sure its a good floppy...sometimes bad floppys will still burn the image but will crap out when it reads it Brian AwPhuch Posted by gnuts on June 29 2004,20:33
There is currently no OS on the machine, and as yet I don't know how to open an Xwindow, though I've read about it. Thanks, I'll fiddle with the Bios and figure out if my swap is active or not.
Posted by ke4nt1 on June 29 2004,21:15
No, the 'bios' won't help you with your 'swap'...Backtrack thru the thread, and try this.... 1.) Check md5sum on your downloaded file you got from DSL. >> from linux - type 'md5sum damnsmall-0.7.1.iso' << >> from windows - try WinMD5.exe - a free download << 2.) open the iso, and get the boot.img file... 3.) make a new boot floppy onto a FRESH NEW FLOPPY DISK. Not an old one, not a slightly used one, fresh outta da box. ..... ( this solves so many boot challenges. ) 4.) Boot from floppy, and when you get to the welcome screen, start DSL with the command 'dsl 2' and see if you can get to a prompt... If you can get this far, we can help you with your swap. If not, we try something else.. 73 ke4nt Posted by gnuts on June 30 2004,20:37
so a friend showed up with a similiar laptop and I borrowed her extra 32mb of ram and it installs just fine. thanks for the assistance
|