DSL on a Zonbu MiniPC

Forum: DSL Embedded
Topic: DSL on a Zonbu MiniPC
started by: Bidi

Posted by Bidi on Jan. 31 2008,21:49

First off, let me say that I didn't even know this account was still active... I haven't been in here in the longest time (DSL 0.9.1). So I'm a little rusty on DSL.

Anyway, today I just ordered a Zonbu MiniPC (cost me $290 with a coupon) and I would like to install DSL on it. I was reading up on it, and there might be a problem, Zonbu doesn't have a CD drive or any drives for that matter except for a bootable CF Card (it comes with a 4GB card, but I plan on using a spare 256MB card for this install). From what I understand, Zonbu recognizes the CF Cards as HDDs, so I should be able to do a HDD install of DSL, however I can't boot DSL from a CD drive in the first place.

So my question is, does anyone have any ideas on how to install DSL in these circumstances? I do have a CF-to-USB adapter (I think) don't know if I could do a USB drive install and then just boot from CF this way.

Thanks

Posted by chaostic on Feb. 01 2008,04:20

A usb drive install is a frugal install, while a HDD install unpacks dsl into a fully writeable linux distro on the hd. Frugal is the way to go for CF drives.

Easiest way of doing it is install frugal to the cf on a cf-to-usb adaptor, or booting the minipc with a usb to ide adaptor and a cdrom. (The latter is easier imho, due to grub and lilo issues I've come about)

Posted by Bidi on Feb. 01 2008,16:07

I think I'll go with the CF-to-USB choice since I actually have that adapter.

Would it be possible to do this install through dsl-embedded and qemu? I've never tried it with a usb stick, so I'm not sure how well it works. I'll give it a shot anyway, I'll post back if I have problems.

Thanks for the reply though, that's exactly what I was looking for.