Need some help w/ Install
Forum: HD Install
Topic: Need some help w/ Install
started by: junglemike
Posted by junglemike on Mar. 28 2006,22:39
Hi all. First, i must say I'm (almost) totally new to linux, so I understand that there won't be probably one-click solutions for me, but much reading. It's just that any instructions i've tried to read on the subject blow me with terms and commands that i don't understand.
I have old Toshiba laptop (3110ct)
P-II 300mhz cpu, 128mb ram, 30gb hdd.
It is ultra slim model so it doesn't have nor floppy neither cd-rom. (to be precise, it has pcmia cardbus cd-rom, which doesn't support booting, and bios doesn't supprt cd-rom booting anyway.) It also doen't have network card, and can't boot from usb. I only have pcmia wifi card which is helpless.
I have dual-boot with win98 and win2000 at startup. So dos mode is accessible to me (when i press F8 in win98 and enter "command prompt only"..
My hard disk partition destribution is pretty complicated. So you will get better idea by seing it:
Disks C (win98) and F (win2k) are primary partitions, rest are extended partiotion. Disk C is active. Disk Z is separate swap partition for Win2000 (win2k swap file sits there)
Disks H and E are temporary and can be removed if needed. Also D can be resized to smaller one.
What I've done so far - is extracted the contents of the .iso file on c: drive.
No idea what to do next.
Please help.
Posted by Guest on Mar. 29 2006,12:04
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Loadlin_InstallThat might be the way to do it. Ask if there is something unclear.
Posted by piccolo on Mar. 29 2006,12:07
Because you have not floppy neither cdrom you need boot DSL from Windows or DOS. This metod is called: Loadlin Install.Please read: < http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Loadlin_Install >
Sorry, i have not even experience with Loadlin Install.
Posted by skaos on Mar. 29 2006,12:29
Loadlin will not work in Win2000. It should work in w98 but only if you start it in dos mode without drivers etc. - I think you can do this by pressing a key when booting (it may be F5 or F8).
Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 29 2006,17:59
Press F8 and choose "safe mode command prompt", if I remember correctly.
Posted by junglemike on Mar. 29 2006,19:28
Thanks very much guys. I'm already trying this method. Will report results.thanks again.
Posted by junglemike on Mar. 30 2006,01:13
OK guys. There have been some progress, but i'm stuck now.First, My friend gave me some old laptop (which he isn't using) that has cd-rom, and can boot from it. So it made my life much simplier. DSL works on this second laptop (not mine) perfectly. I liked it very much. AFter booting DSL from cd - i installed it to harddrive (I chose Debian-type installation, where whole image is extracted to 200mb or so). Then i prompted to setup boot loader. Everything went fine. After restart, I put my harddisk back into my own laptop, and booted DSL. Setup went good untill some point, where it tried to launch X - no matter what display mode i choose (one was Vesa, socond - don't remember) It just won't start X and give me some errors, or just doing notheing. If I put this same harddisk and try to boot from it (not from cd) on second (friend's) laptop - it launches X and work perfectly. (just as good as from live-cd).
From this experience I understand that DSL probably doen'st support display adapter in my laptop (which is Trident 9525 , 2.5mb videoram). Since I'm not experienced user - I'm not sure if i'll be able to solve this. If you have any not too complicated proposals - please let me know.
If Dsl doesn't work for me - what other *LIGHT* and non-recourse hungry Linux distributions do you know that would work (good ) on P2-300mhz/128ram laptop?
Posted by linuxlizard on Mar. 30 2006,01:22
I hate to turn you away from DSL so hopefully someone else has a solution for you, but you asked about another light linux distribution- puppy linux is another one that seems pretty good. I prefer DSL's look and feel, and for me DSL is a lot more configurable with a lot more software add ons easily available. But puppy is another option. I think your system is just barely able to handle vector linux basic too. It's gorgeous but it didn't pick up my sound card and is slower (beauty comes with a price) than dsl and the package manger is a bit wierd.
Posted by brianw on Mar. 30 2006,01:42
If you download the Xfree86 mydsl and install that you may be able to get your video working. Do a search on the net for linux and your video card (you will probably need to know this info regardless of the version of linux you choose).
Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 30 2006,18:23
Give Deli Linux or Basic Linux a try.I think they both use XFree86 version 3.3.x so the Trident chip is probably supported.
Posted by anaconda on Mar. 30 2006,19:28
You should try the frugal hd install of DSL also. IT is a little different and it just might work.
Posted by junglemike on Mar. 30 2006,20:45
Does frugal install mean that image from cd is NOT uncompressed (like in debian-type install) but is copied to hard disk as-is, and than is launched?
Posted by anaconda on Mar. 31 2006,11:22
Yep!That is exatly how frugal works. And that is also the recommended way to install DSL.
Some discussion of pros and cons of frugal.
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....;t=5983 >