cannot cfdisk so i cannot install

Forum: HD Install
Topic: cannot cfdisk so i cannot install
started by: johnos

Posted by johnos on Feb. 15 2006,02:59

heres the story
i am using vmware workstation 5.5 on windows xp
i have a virtual machine set up on it using the dsl image and it has 2 SCSI hardrives, the original and default HD is 500m and i want to install dsl on that, i also have another 1.5g secondry drive, i dont mind not using that drive and only using one bigger drive.

i have taken two screen shots, the first has a shot of the shell with the error message i get and a settings window for vmware workstation with the settings for the default drive (SCSI 0:0) and the second has what ive typed into the shell and also the settings window

by the way ive been following this guide
< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/talk/node/64 >

i can make the hard drive/drives IDEs if i need to.
also do i need to mount the drive first maybe?coz i cant remember how to do it but i could figure it out pretty quick.

any help will be much appreciated (im on an old laptop so it cant really handle much when using vmware workstation and i like DSL so i dont really want to install ubuntu on this computer)

cheers

Posted by johnos on Feb. 15 2006,03:11

actaully i think i will only use one hardrive until i run out of space/need a second hardrive for some other reason
also because this is only a temp thing untill i get on to my main computer i dont really need any swap space because i wont be using it heavily, just as something to do and so i can start learning more about linux

cheers

Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 15 2006,05:27

FYI,

SCSI or USB hard drives are located at places like

/dev/sda
/dev/sdb
etc...

IDE hard drives are located at:
/dev/hda
/dev/hdb
etc...

Posted by johnos on Feb. 15 2006,06:29

ok, thanks for that, i may change the drives to IDE.
and do i have to mount them before i can us cfdisk?

Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 15 2006,06:35

No.

In fact you DON'T want to mount a disk that is being repartitioned, if you can help it.

Posted by johnos on Feb. 15 2006,06:53

cheers dude
much appreciated, going to bed now, will post results tomorrow when i get the chance

Posted by spoody_goon on Feb. 16 2006,17:31

If you want to partition a disk with little or no effort, I suggest using a install disk from Slackware or Mandriva. Quick, simple, specific, done.

Posted by 300c_pilot on Feb. 25 2006,02:24

I have had the exact same problem only with Fedora 4 as the host os. When I changed the client drive to IDE everything worked fine.

Hope it helps.