need ehlp with partitioning and harddrive instal
Forum: HD Install
Topic: need ehlp with partitioning and harddrive instal
started by: searayman
Posted by searayman on Feb. 25 2006,21:34
i have a real old ibm thinkpad that windows just dosent work on anymore. So i discovered linux live cd's anywho i used slax for a bit but it was way to slow. Now i am onto dsl and love its speed compared to slax. anywho now i want to get dsl onto the computers hardrive so i can download things like gaim and save documents to the drive. I have no lcue how to do the partition stuff, and am not a computer expert. I just fool around with computer sin my little spare time. Also i would just kie to "nuke" this computer to becaus eit is a possibility that i coudl have installed windows on this twice, and that might be realy eating the ram and memory. I realy i have no clue since i have just been doing trial and error with this computer. So please explain to me in english that i a noncomputer geek can understand. ALl i want to do is get dsl on the harddrive, so i dont need the cd anymore, and so i can save my settings and such.
thanks!
Posted by larkl on Feb. 26 2006,20:46
Well,You can find a lot of info using search. I'm not sure that DSL is the best distro for a non-computer geek, but some would argue with that I'm sure. Here's my notes from a frugal install, might help:
< install >
Posted by lovdsl on Feb. 27 2006,08:17
If you are new to linux and partitions you may try BASIC LINUX 3..it is a two floppy disc set that loads to ram and can be installed to hd. similar to dsl.it is very simple and allows you to fdisk and play with partitions and swap files..then do a hd install..it includes X an older gui.if you can do that then dsl is much easier..you will already have the drive partitioned and a swap file and know a few commands..dsl is a better choice for actual use...good luck< http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/ >
Posted by searamyan56 on Feb. 27 2006,22:20
larkl i read your thing and it seemed helpfull but when i get to the boot screen i see the dsl logo and it say slike press f2 and f3 for boot options. anywho i try to do cfdisk like ur guide says and all i get is it saying " could not find kernal image: cfdisk"
Posted by larkl on Feb. 28 2006,00:21
Did you enter DSL 2 at the boot screen and let it boot?
Posted by searayman on Feb. 28 2006,01:03
i typed it in at the book screen, an di also tried typing it into the terminal thing when i am in dsl.
Posted by searayman on Feb. 28 2006,01:04
i typed it in at the book screen, an di also tried typing it into the terminal thing when i am in dsl
Posted by starcannon on Feb. 28 2006,18:31
| Quote (searayman @ Feb. 27 2006,20:04) |
| i typed it in at the book screen, an di also tried typing it into the terminal thing when i am in dsl |
At the logo screen type
| Code Sample |
| dsl 2 |
A boot process will happen then you will get a blinking cursor.
type:
| Code Sample |
| cfdisk |
make a Swap partition that is twice as big as the amount of ram you have, and finally make 1 more Everything Partition that uses up the rest of the hard drive.
write the partition table and exit cfdisk.
on a piece of paper make a note of what your partition names are. You'll need it later.
Now type
| Code Sample |
| swapon |
Okies reboot with CD this time though be sure to press F2 look through the list and type
| Code Sample |
| dsl whatever options you need |
At the desktop
| Code Sample |
| right-click goto-->Apps-->Tools-->install to hard drive |
Anyway hope that helps. I only did 1 hd install for dsl, I prefer frugal, but hd is a great way to get the hang of it. Frugal is nice cause if your experimenting and bork your system you can do a reinstall that leaves all your good stuff in place , you know email, custom sh scripts you painstakingly learned to write, book marks etc... a reinstall for a frugal user is painless and takes about 5minutes, more if he spaced out on Oh Brother Where Art Thou and forgot to tyep "dsl 2" at the logo screen
GL hope that was helpful
Rob
Posted by searayman on Feb. 28 2006,22:11
afte ri go to apps tool sthen install and i answer the questions, the dos box thing disapears? and i am left with just being at the desktop, what do i do?
Posted by searayman on Feb. 28 2006,22:19
ok i thiknk i know why it did this lol, i tried skipping the swapon step, because i need help with it.when i type the swap on it says this:
| Code Sample |
| Busybox v1.00 (2006.01.04-23:00+0000) multi-call binary usage: swapping virtual memory pages on DEVICE. Options: -a Start swapping on all swap devices root@tty1[/]# |
so what do i type in now? I typed a but it didnt do anything?
Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 01 2006,06:49
Tryswapon -a
if you don't know the location of your swap partition.
You can specify it if you know it. For example, if your swap partition was on partition #2 of your first IDE master drive, you could specifically activate it with:
swapon /dev/hda2
Posted by searayman on Mar. 01 2006,22:36
when i type in:| Code Sample |
| swapon/dev/hda2 |
its says no such directory found, and i have already created and written the partition?
Posted by lovdsl on Mar. 02 2006,06:12
I think I typedmkswap /dev/hda2
then
swapon
assuming you are on the first drive hda with hda1 a file system and hda2 the swap
you may need to add the -a as suggested and you may need a space between swapon and /
Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 02 2006,17:47
Yes,there is a space between the "swapon" and the "/dev/hda2"
Posted by searayman56 on Mar. 02 2006,18:08
i tried the mk sawp and it workd, and then i did what u said and and rebooted it then right clicked, then tools then install to hardrive. I then answered all the questions on the install thing, and after it installs it ejectst the cd and says reboot. I then take the cd out close the cd drive and reboot, but i dont get anything dsl dosent load.i have two questions:
when i am installing it and it says to pick a partition o picked the bigger partition not the swap partition, was that right?
could the reseon that it wont start once installed be because my computer is ste to start off the cd drive (i think) and not the hard drive? and if so how do i change it to boot of the hard drive?
Posted by searayman56 on Mar. 02 2006,18:42
ok i figured out the bios and i got it to work thansk for all your help. But my colors are messed up and i need to try and fix them. I am assuming that the vga thing in f3 when u boot from disk?so should i now run off the disk and find out with vga to use, then re-install to the hard drive?
and when i am re-installing do i need to erase hda 1 or can i just re wriet over it.