*lots* of DSL questions from a linux newb
Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: *lots* of DSL questions from a linux newb
started by: mrfngolf
Posted by mrfngolf on Jan. 15 2005,19:15
Please bare with me as I'm just venturing out of the windows world for the first time...I just received DSL to use on an older machine: 200Mhz processor, 64MB ram & a 1.2 gig HD. I believe it's booting up ok as I follow the prompts and it continues to a final screen that launches a page that explains some things. My main issue is that the Page, Screen and Type have horrid settings.... The default screen is a dark blue & the mouse pointer arrow is the same blue with a very thing black outline.... it's d@mn near invisible. The info page is black with the same horrid dark blue type. The only way to even see it is in a pitch black room, any light and you might as well be looking at a blank screen. Not to mention the type size is EXTREMELY small. I have however happened across by accident the pop-up menus by right clicking the mouse. However they don't seem to doo too much..... well at least not in my hands.
What I'd first like to know is there any way to re-set the screen & type colors.... I'd be perfectly happy if the screen were white (or some other very lite color) and the type were black (icons as well). That would make things very readable. From there I guess my next issue would be to figure out how to configure things to be able to use it to connect to the internet.
All suggestions and help is greatly appreciated......thx.
Posted by cbagger01 on Jan. 15 2005,22:04
Hmm...try booting with this command:
dsl xsetup
and then choose the xvesa server and try out a few different resolutions and color depths.
My first suggestion is to try 800x600x16bit
Posted by RoGuE_StreaK on Jan. 15 2005,22:22
The colours don't sound right - check out the screenshot on the home page, it'll show you what it should look like.A guess is that your graphics card doesn't like the defult setup. Try booting with "dsl vga=normal" or "fb800x600" (no quotes on either). Or press F2 at the boot options prompt to get the full list of what options you have.
By default, DSL boots into 1024x768 resolution. You're probably better off using 800x600 if that looks too small. Might want to try a lower colour depth too, like 16bit or 24bit. Using 800x600 instead of 1024x768 may fix the colour issues, if not, changing the colour depth as well may do the trick.
Once you're in DSL, you can change the "style" of the desktop (the background and menu colours) by right-clicking the desktop, go to "Desktop / Styles", and you'll get a whole list of styles you can choose from. Or later you can download and add other styles, like the "rogue" theme!
Posted by RoGuE_StreaK on Jan. 15 2005,22:23
damnit, bagger got in before me!!
Posted by mrfngolf on Jan. 16 2005,04:02
Thank you both.....Success! Did the f2 key and fb800x600x16.... I can see the page now. I did a little exploring but would like to focus on 2 things before checking out the rest of the programs.~ If possible I would just like to load DSL to the hard drive. How would I go about that?
~ I want to set the computer up for the internet. I checked out the icon named DSL Panel and clicked on it and the tab labeled "Dial up". Am I on the right track?
Posted by tjm4fun on Jan. 16 2005,08:48
when you right click on the desktop, then in the menu click on apps, tools, install to hard drive.i should the guide you thru the install.
Even tho I jsut did ithis, I can;t remember exactly what happens during tthe install.
If you can partition the drive, set about 800 meg to a linux partition and the balance, 400 meg to swap.
if there isn;t an option to do this, I would seriously suggest you reboot the cd, open a root shell, and use cfdisk to delete all your presnt partitions, if you don;t care what'son the disk, and creat a 800 meg primary, type 83 (linux) and th ebalalnce to a swap (type 82) partition.
Then re run the hd install. install lilo when it asks to the mbr.
you should then have a functional hdd install with TONS of room to add apps as you need em.
Posted by two_black_dogs on Jan. 16 2005,14:58
| Quote (RoGuE_StreaK @ Jan. 15 2005,16:22) |
Once you're in DSL, you can change the "style" of the desktop (the background and menu colours) by right-clicking the desktop, go to "Desktop / Styles", and you'll get a whole list of styles you can choose from. Or later you can download and add other styles, like the "rogue" theme! |
RoGuE_StreaK, that sounded like a plug.
Where can I view or download the rogue theme you mentioned ?
Posted by mrfngolf on Jan. 16 2005,17:43
Well here's where I'm at......A few weeks back I did a complete wipe on the hd and then did a low level format. I don't believe that sets any partitions, so unless setting the partition for DSL & the swap can be done thru DSL pop up menu I'm kinda stuck. I'll look around but I don't think I have a bootable disk/dos anywhere. Not too mention I don't believe I've fdisc'd anything in the last several years.
I'd like to have it installed on my hd but it looks like I might just have to be content running it from the cd....
Posted by two_black_dogs on Jan. 16 2005,19:12
I've not done a HD install, but if DSL runs and you can get web access, your're not too bad off. Here is the HowTo:
< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-hd-install.html >
It mentions cfdisk and fdisk, neither or which I've used, but both of which DSL has, and searching the forum for these as keywords yielded a HUGE amount of results. This should hopefully get you pointed in the right direction.
You might also want to post your current predicament in the HD install category with the word partitioning in the title. That could get your problem more exposure to people with better answers.
It's not a solution, but hopefully this helps some.
Posted by RoGuE_StreaK on Jan. 17 2005,00:26
| Quote (two_black_dogs @ Jan. 16 2005,09:58) | ||
RoGuE_StreaK, that sounded like a plug. Where can I view or download the rogue theme you mentioned ? |
'Twas!
It's in the MyDSL repository off the main DSL page, under "themes". Just follow < this link >, lots of themes made by fellow DSLer's. Or if you install Whitebox (from somewhere else in the repositpry?), this should let you easily tweak theme colours, backgrounds, etc. without having to try to figure out the text file structure...
Posted by dmslowlnxusr on Jan. 17 2005,02:33
mrfngolf, i hope you don't mind a little company, I'm right about where you're at. I just got dsl the other day & have been running from the CD on this old compaq presario: pentium 1,150Mhz, 32MB RAM, 1.4GB HD, so was looking for a small os. dsl runs better than the couple of others I tried so would like to install to HD too. I'm also new to linux. I've been using libranet on my desktop box for about 7 or 8 months.It's a good debian based distro with an easy installer;[plug] but too big to run very well on this old laptop. I also wiped the HD & so was able to play around with cfdisk without any worries about lost data,I think I made my swap partition 250 MB, so may need to make it bigger( from what I read from replies to your post) I type in fb800x600 at boot to get a "viewable" X.To the forum: from my first browsing here I can see dsl has a great, "friendly" forum, reminds me of the libranet forum,another big selling point for any distro, and an absolute must for newbies like me. I'll be following this thread(& probably posting some "dumb" questions, since the "slow" in my nickname applies to my brain as well as my computer Thanks in advance for future help, wk
Posted by dmslowlnxusr on Jan. 17 2005,04:39
dsl rocks!! I did my install & as I said libranet installs easy, but dsl was EASY. I left my partitions like they were:/= hda1=1200MB +/-
swap=hda2=250MB +/-
everything looks great so far!!
mrfngolf: I'll be interested to hear how your exploits go.
wk
Posted by mrfngolf on Jan. 17 2005,06:38
Hello dmslowlnxusr..... I was gunna say I welcomed the company but it looks as tho you only slowed down long enuff to say howdy before moving ahead of me. *lol* now it looks like you can give me some advice along with these other knowledgeable users. As I mentioned earlier I only did an "auto" low level format thru the bios, I have not idea if it partitions anything. Guess I'll just have to play around with it and see what happens....... worst case is I have to re-do a low level format again. Maybe I sould put the install to hd on hold for a bit and try to get it to connect to the internet.
Thx for the help and suggestions thus far everyone......
Posted by dmslowlnxusr on Jan. 17 2005,07:51
to get to cfdisk double click on xterm & type sudo cfdisk this should show what partitions you have. since you have no data to lose you can play around some. That's what I did. There's some help there. I think just tab to delete, hit enter & it should show your whole drive as free space. then tab to new & you will be able to make your first partition(hda1) the size you want (you had some suggestions in earlier replies on that) & the type(primary) file system(linux-ext2) & make it bootable. Then tab to new again & make the other partition (hda2) swap. Then tab to write, enter & I think that's about it. I may not remember all the details & am not so brave to look around there now that I've got something of value to lose, hehe. You might want to wait for some more knowledgeable people to post in case I remember wrong. The installation process is mostly automatic, other than picking passwords, etc. The dialup connection was easy for me because the whole thing is exactly the same as my other linux distro(libranet) & I've done it a bunch of times. I struggled with that a little the first time, until I got the info from my ISP. I use earthlink & had to get the DNSnumbers from them since it's "/static"/ If your ISP uses "dynamic" I think you don't have to enter anything there. Post again if you have any more questions , maybe somebody smarter will correct my musteaks, haha & have fun!! wk
Posted by mrfngolf on Jan. 18 2005,16:42
Thx everyone..... I now have DSL installed on my old computer. Next step is to figure out how to get online using it, but that's a different topic thread. 