Downloading and Installing DSL using ONLY a floppy

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Downloading and Installing DSL using ONLY a floppy
started by: new_linux_user

Posted by new_linux_user on June 17 2005,05:56

Hi all,
I am an extremely inexperienced Linux user. However, I just acquired an IBM ThinkPad 750Cs, with 160 MB HD (I'm not sure on the ram or processor, sorry ). I want to put DSL on the machine, but the problem is I only have a floppy drive. I Saw the guide that is available at the following url:
<http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/install_from_floppy.html>
I can't seem t download the right file for the job. Every dsl.iso file I download has the KNOPPIX file inside. This file is way to big to ever fit on a floppy, so i am stuck at that spot. Could anyone please help me?? Exact file names and instructions would be a godsend to me right now.

Posted by Merlyn on June 17 2005,08:50

Hi,

I too am inexperienced Linux user. My laptop is a 486DX with 16Mb RAM and 1Gb disk space. It currently runs Windows 95. It has a CD-ROM drive and a floppy drive. It can boot from the hard drive and the floppy drive. It cannot boot from the CD drive. Also the floopy and CD are removable and either one or the other can be in the machine at a time. I do not have any cables that allow both to be connected.

Is this installation (< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/install_from_floppy.html >) possible for a newbie?

Thanks for any advice

Posted by Caspar_s on June 20 2005,14:59

new_linux_user - follow points 4 and 5 on that page.
Rar takes the big files and compresses them and breaks them into different, floppy sized files.

Merlyn - you need the boot floppy - it will be MUCH quicker than the floppy method - once you've booted using dsl toram, install to harddrive (frugal means quicker upgrades) and you should be fine.

Ooops - can't have both connected.... copy all the files off the cd onto the harddrive, and then use the boot floppy. dsl fromhd=hda1 or wherever you put the files.

Posted by irkab1rka on June 21 2005,00:48

Merlyn,

I guess you can split your harddrive into two partitions using pqmagic, and then run the livecd from bochs or vmware by configuring it to use the raw partition and finally install it to that partition and then create a boot floppy to run it.

Due you are not a matergodexpertoflinux (neither am i

, and its a very complicated process i do not recommend you to do it.

Better to ask a friend to run the livecd for you and you should try to boot from network using bootp server if it is possible.

Posted by new_linux_user on June 21 2005,01:53

Quote (Caspar_s @ June 20 2005,10:59)

I did the WinRaR thing, but for some reason they still don't fit on my floppies. I think I might need to transfer the files in DOS instead of windows, otherwise they won't fit. I am not sure if this will work. At least I know what I should do, its just a matter of getting it to work... any suggestions anyone???

Posted by Caspar_s on June 21 2005,17:29

what size are the files? When you create it in split archives you can set the size.
And how much space is on your floppies?

Posted by Merlyn on June 21 2005,18:32

Thank you for the comments.
As I'm really new to Linux a lot of what you said, doesn't make sense (yet).

I'm going to go away and look as much up as I can and I'll yet you know how I get on. First "boot floppy"

Thank you!

Posted by new_linux_user on June 21 2005,20:12

Quote (Caspar_s @ June 21 2005,13:29)

what size are the files? When you create it in split archives you can set the size.
And how much space is on your floppies?

My floppies are normal 1.44 MB floppies, however they only are 1.38 in reality (after formatting them). Well, when I put them in the WinRaR archive, I got this drop down menu, one of which was 3.5 inch floppy preset size. Now that I go back in and look, I found out that I am actually able to type in a specific size if I want to!!!!

Thanks for all the help, showing me the light of this WinRAR program

I already have the boot floppy made, so I just need to copy over these rar files, then unRAR them, and run the boot floppy.

Is there anything I need to know about unRAR? I will need to transfer that program over as well? Will I need to place it anywhere specific so that I can unRAR the other rar files? What else should I know after I get the files over to the laptop??

Posted by AwPhuch on June 21 2005,21:18

Sorry..i missed this last time

< My rework of floppy install howto >

look at the < Floppy Install for 0.8 and higher distros >

Hope that helps

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on June 22 2005,05:05

Also, you can get a 44-to-40 pin IDE adapter for just a few bucks at your local fry's or compusa.

Then you can do the frugal install on another box and then move it back to your lappy.

-J.P.

Posted by AwPhuch on June 22 2005,18:28

Quote (SaidinUnleashed @ June 22 2005,01:05)

Also, you can get a 44-to-40 pin IDE adapter for just a few bucks at your local fry's or compusa.

Then you can do the frugal install on another box and then move it back to your lappy.

-J.P.

This is quite true...also is a good tool for rescuing crashed copies of XP and any M$ product on a laptop (other than using livecd dsl with samba.dsl to offload important data, then wipe heh)

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by purple_ghost on June 24 2005,01:10

Additional question on how to do a floppy install for me, a newbie.

How do I create the floppies using a Windows 95B OSR2 system? I assume you will tell me the name of one program to do this. Exactly where should I find the programs to download for use with this. (Can you provide a link?)

Should I have started another thread?

Thanks.

Posted by new_linux_user on June 24 2005,04:52

Alright,
So I got all the files copied over to my Thinkpad. I tested them with unrar, and replaced the necessary files until they all tested OK. Then I started the unrar process. It goes swimmingly until it gets to the file "boot/isolinux/boot.msg", and it gives me the error:
"Not Enough Memory
Program Aborted"

Does anyone know what this means and what I should do?? I can almost taste the end, I just need to get past this!

Posted by skaos on June 24 2005,11:39

Given that your laptop has a 160 MB disk, I would guess that your laptop at best has a 486 processor with 8 MB ram. That simply isn't enough to run DSL in graphical mode. You could try to write "dsl 1" (without quotes) at the "boot:"-prompt. This should boot you into single user and command line. If that doesn't work, download and install Basic Linux (http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/) and run the following two commands to find processor and memory:
more /proc/cpuinfo
free

Posted by new_linux_user on July 12 2005,04:39

Quote (skaos @ June 24 2005,07:39)

OK,
So I boot it using the "dsl 1" command, and it tells me it found 17,400 kb of memmory and a 486 processor. I am assuming this should be enough to run it in graphical mode, which is why it is wierd that it dowsn't work that way. After it ran all the tests, I got a command line "root@tty1[/]#". So this must be the command line version of DSL.

Ok, so that version works. Does that mean that I won't be able to run in graphical mode ever? Is there something else I should try? Once I get to this command line, I am unsure on how to proceed. What kind of tools, etc, will I be able to use, and is it even worth it? Maybe there is some other distribution that would work better on my lappy? If there is some magical way to get DSL to run in graphical mode, I would extremely satidfied.

Posted by Zenpho on July 18 2005,09:04

I have an old laptop with no floppy disk drive, no CD drive, no USB port, no PCMCIA port, no network socket.

Here's how I installed Damned Small Linux onto it:

* Take out the harddisk from the laptop.
* Connect it to a desktop machine with a homebrew 44pin to 40pin + Power connector.
* Make sure the laptop harddisk is connected to the primary IDE channel.
* Make sure the CD Drive is connected to the secondary IDE channel (some laptop HDs dont have master/slave switches)
* Boot DSL from the CD.
* Perform a Harddisk install.
* Reinsert laptop harddisk into laptop
* Rejoice