Installing

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Installing
started by: RFI

Posted by RFI on June 25 2006,23:57

Hello. I am completely new to using Linux. I am able to boot DSL from my CDROM drive on a computer I made from old parts. I actually made this comp out of popsicle sticks as a fun project, but with a 234Mhz processor and 48 MB of RAM, I figured I'd need to run a fast OS on it in order to make it useful. Damn Small Linux is what caught my eye. This computer is not going to sport any other drives than the hard drive as I want to keep it as small as possible. (The CDROM drive I am using to install the OS is outside of the case)
At this point, I have DSL running, but I cannot "Install to Harddrive" and I cannot do a "Frugal Install" I get an error. I am certain I have not created a Linux partition. The HD still has Windows on it (Which I don't need) So it would be helpful if someone can explain to me how to partition my HD for a DSL installation. Call me a newb, but I need to get Linux installed before I can learn to use it.

(Don't worry about my popsicle stick computer catching fire, it's properly cooled

)

Posted by Shagbag on June 26 2006,10:15

RFI,

Welcome to DSL and welcome to the world of linux!
Once you've been shown how to do it, partitioning a hard drive is very easy to do.

Before we can start, we need to know a little about your hardware, viz. how your CD-ROM and IDE drives are set up. Are they set up on the one cable or do you have separate (standard, 40-pin) cables for each one. My guess is that you've got both on the same IDE cable.

The next question is how have you configured the IDE devices, ie. which one is 'slave' and which is 'master'. I'm guessing that your HDD is slave. If this is correct, then the block device for your HDD is 'hdb'. If your HDD is master, it will be 'hda'.

Install DSL from CD-ROM and startup the 'ATerminal' application (top left icon). Assuming your HDD is slave, ie. 'hdb', type the following into the terminal window:

sudo fdisk /dev/hdb

you should see something come up saying 'command ('m' for help):" waiting for your input.

Type 'm' to bring up the list of options.
Type 'p' to list all of the existing partitions on the hard drive. You want to delete all of these.
Type 'd' to delete a partition and then type the partition number you want to delete (1-4).
After doing this retype 'p' to see the results of your labour so far. You should see that you have one less partition.
Continue the 'd' procedure until all partitions have been deleted.
Now you need to add a partition.
Type 'n' to create a new partition,
Type 'p' to create a new primary partition
Type '1' to make the new primary partition the first in the partition table.
Now you are asked for the cylinders to use.
Just press enter once to accept the default first cylinder (1). For the ending cylinder in the partition, type '+75M' to create a 75MB partition (DSL is 50MB so 75MB give you more than enough space for future releases of DSL). Fdisk will then work out which cylinder corresponds as closely as possible to give a 75MB partition.

Now that we're done, we need to instruct fdisk to actually write the new partition (and delete the old ones).
To do so, type 'w'. Fdisk will now make the changes.
To see that your changes have taken effect, restart fdisk:

sudo fdisk /dev/hdb

and press 'p'. You should see your new partition as the sole partition on the HDD.
Type 'q' to quit fdisk without making any further changes.

Note: you have successfully created a new partition table but you have not installed any file system type on your HDD. In M$, when you format a HDD you effectively do both with the one command (create/modify the partition table and install a file system type, eg. FAT32, NTFS, etc.). This is because M$ defaults with only one partition (which it calls 'C:'). You do not need to install a file system type for DSL as this is done for you during the frugal install process.

Now that you've partitioned your HDD you can go ahead with the frugal HDD install (Apps > Tools )

I hope the above helps.

Posted by Damn_Small_Jeff on June 27 2006,17:07

how do i find out if my hard drive if the slave or if my cdrom drive is, or if my dvdrom is? because i ahve been thinking about dual booting DSL and WinXP off of my hard drive.

Posted by tedmoore99 on June 27 2006,20:59

Withput opening the case, the simple answer is to take a look.
Try entering the following command in a terminal: "sudo cfdisk /dev/hda" If that starts the cfdisk program, your first hard drive will be displayed. If you get an error, try "sudo cfdisk /dev/hdb" If this one works, then your drive is set to slave.