Help Installing DSL on a CF Card

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Help Installing DSL on a CF Card
started by: kcw118

Posted by kcw118 on May 08 2006,03:00

Hi,

I'm having some trouble installing DSL onto a CF Card. I have a Dell Inspiron 7000 Laptop and I've installed DSL onto the HD so I know DSL runs on my laptop. I basically followed the instructions posted under the topic: < image for a cf card >, but it's not working for me. When I turn on my laptop, it says "Operating system Not Found".

Here's what I've done so far:

- I replaced the laptop's HD with a 4GB CF card installed in an IDE-to-CF adapter.

- Booted DSL from the CD and ran cfdisk: deleted the exiting partitions on the CF card and created a new single linux (type 83) partition. I wrote the partition table to disk and formatted the cf card.

- Next I shut down the system and booted up DSL from a CD with the "install" option, and selected "5. Frugal Lilo Compact Flash Install".
- I entered the following at the prompts:
-- Enter target partition to hold image: hda1
-- Intall from [L]iveCD .... : l
-- List boot options... : <return>
-- Choose language... : <return>
-- Do you wish to specify a default restore partition? n
-- Use default Xvesa settings, Xvesa? : <return>
-- Do you wish to specify a different partition for myDSL? n
-- Format the target partition /dev/hda1? y

- The install seems to go OK, and it prompts me to remove the CD to reboot. But when it reboots, it says "Operating System Not Found".

- I also tried booting with the options "dsl norestore base" and doing the install from the desktop > tools > installs > Frugal Grub Install, but got the same thing.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Posted by anaconda on May 08 2006,07:11

If your CF-card is pretending to be a hard-disk (in IDE slot), then shouldn't you use the install to hard-disk. Instead of install to CF?

I dont know. I have only installed to usb-CF reader. And I used the install to USB-HDD. Worked fine.

Posted by hs7sv on May 08 2006,10:07

You should use Frugal install for CF but you need to prepare CF with cfdisk first. This is a sample if you want 2 partitions:-
hda1 - ext2 (DSL boot image) ~ 75-100 MB
hda2 - ext2 (Backup/Restore, MyDSL and data)

You can format the partitions in aterm as Root:-

Code Sample

mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda1
mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda2

after formatting, reboot and make Frugal Install.

Note: I think the problem was on formatting step. Lilo may make something in boot record.
You may try this way: cfdisk ... Fomat ... reboot ... Format ... reboot ... Frugal install.
If it is not success, you may start over from cfdisk again.

Good luck

Posted by kcw118 on May 10 2006,13:29

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried reformatting from scratch, and tried both lilo and grub, but it's still not booting. When I reboot from the CD, mount the CF card and go to the /mnt/dev/hda1 directory, I have (under the lilo install):

KNOPPIX
boot
lost+found

Under the boot directory I have:

boot.0300
lilo.conf
linux24
map
minirt24.gz

I think that the files are there after the install, but it's a problem with the boot strapping. How do I tell what's in the MBR? Is the MBR cleared when I do a cfdisk?

What else should I be looking for to help diagnose this problem? Thanks in advance.

Posted by hs7sv on May 12 2006,08:09

I think there is something in boot record because of Lilo. You may try this way:-
- Use cfdisk and delete all partitions on /dev/hda ... then Reboot
- Re-check partition with cfdisk ... pls make sure it is empty ... then Reboot
- Use cfdisk and make new partition ... 1 or 2 partition(s) ... up to you ... then Reboot
- Use Aterm as root and mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda1 ... Format partition(s) ... then Reboot
- Do GRUB Frugal Install ... then Reboot
Good Luck

Posted by IAN442 on May 17 2006,22:44

im stuck and i cant seem to find where how to run cfdisk so i can set up the two swappable sections of the CF card.

Posted by hs7sv on May 18 2006,01:34

use aterm as root, then type cfdisk

Note: CF Card has limited writing time. You should not use swap partition in CF Card.

Posted by IAN442 on May 19 2006,14:16

did not use swap but got grub 1.5 load error when loading down into the cf card.

Posted by nmivector on May 20 2006,00:58

Is hda1 ACTIVE?

Posted by IAN442 on May 23 2006,01:46

mine was set to active

yes it was but got GRUB loading errors.