DSL install on an SATA hard driveForum: HD Install Topic: DSL install on an SATA hard drive started by: JohnTorex Posted by JohnTorex on July 24 2006,09:03
can anyone shed some light on this as i see to be falling into the google 'not quite the right search keyword' well.my question. can i install dsl on an SATA drive. if this is possible. does anyone have a URL for the instructions. many thanks, in advance. jb Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on July 24 2006,09:07
Yes you can, the use should be the same as normal IDE hdd's except you would use sdXx instead of hdXx.
Posted by JohnTorex on July 24 2006,09:40
thanks i thought the answer was yes, which is why i don't understand my situation.i have an SATA drive. i have booted up with the DSL LIVECD. version 3.0.1. i manage to boot to the dsl desktop. from here i click ATerminal, then at the prompt dsl@box:~$ i then type sudo su. this puts me at the prompt bash-2.05b# i then type cfdisk /dev/sda and get FATAL ERROR: Cannot open disk drive Press any key to exist cfdisk what am i doing wrong. thanks jb Posted by kerry on July 24 2006,09:53
try> fdisk /dev/sdaor you can grab a copy of gparted live cd which makes working with partions a snap-> < http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php > Posted by JohnTorex on July 24 2006,09:59
okay.have tried fdisk /dev/sda and got unable to open /dev/sda also tried sda1, sda2 same error. i used gparted to create the original partition, ext3 what am i meant to be doing in gparted. maybe i have used this incorrectly. best regards jb Posted by JohnTorex on July 24 2006,10:35
just to clarify.i have used gparted to create the only partition on the hard drive. reported as /dev/sda1 ext3 2GB in size. have rebooted back into gparted and it is still there. rebooted using a DSL boot floppy and DSL LIVECD. have tried the following options : 1) straight reboot, at the BOOT prompt just hit enter 2) at the BOOT prompt just hit F2, then typed in dsl sata then hit enter each of these boots to the penguin desktop with the page opened. from here on both options, have clicked on ATerminal and tried cfdisk /dev/sda1 - - -> FATAL ERROR Cannot open disk drive cfdisk /dev/sda - - -> FATAL ERROR Cannot open disk drive fdisk /dev/sda1 - - -> disk not found fdisk /dev/sda - - -> disk not found all i want to do is a vanilla install of dsl to the hard drive. it is obvious that i am doing something wrong but i don't know what. everything to the letter of what i have done, i have described above. can anyone help. many thanks jb when i get a working procedure i will submit a complete process for the forum if they feel it will be useful. Posted by kerry on July 24 2006,10:45
cfdisk and fdisk is used to set up the partions(ext2 or ext3) needed for install, if you've done it with gparted you can move on to the install, so just right click> apps> tools> hdd install. what's the spec's on your machine? if you have low memory(ram) it would help if you made a swap as well.
Posted by JohnTorex on July 24 2006,11:00
kerrymy apologies if i'm not following you here. this is what i have tried... right-click > Apps > Tools > Install to Hard Drive a window opens saying DSL hard drive installation. Enter the target partition. (EXAMPLE: hda2): so i enter sda1 Do you wish to install with multi-user logins (y/...)? my answer : n The system will boot directly in X as user dsl. Use journalized ext3 filesystem (not recommended on slower systems) (y/n)? my answer : n Last chance to exist before destroying any data on /dev/sda1!! Continue (y/...)? my answer : y Creating filesystem ext2 on /dev/sda1 then the window closes after about 1 second ? my question. either this is very fast or it didn't doing anything. if it's the latter which i think it is, ie. nothing happened. why ? what have i done wrong. do i have to mount the device or anything straight after booting up the system and before doing the hard drive install. thanks in advance jb Posted by kerry on July 24 2006,11:25
You created a ext3 but selected no to use it, it might be having problems formating it to a ext2. i seen were this could be a problem because the computer boots it up and see's it as the ext3 it is but than you change it so it can't tell what it is after you change it.i suggest if you make ext3 to use ext3 if your format as ext2 use ext2, this is why you set it up ahead of time so during the install it don't have to. you basicly have it creating a ext2 file system on a ext3 file system. Posted by JohnTorex on July 24 2006,13:55
hi kerryfirstly, many thanks for your help so far. i have deleted the partition and created a new partition which is ext2 then did the exact same steps but again the window just closes. the way it acts it is like it cannot detect the partition as a linux partition. is there something i should be doing in gparted specifically. i started up with gparted LIVECD, on boot, selected the defaults ie. cd in drive. switch on. at the boot: prompt, hit enter. at language select US English - hit OK at the Keymap select qwerty/uk.map - hit OK at the X-server select Xorg - hit OK at video driver select vesa - hit OK at screen depth select 24 - hit OK at screen res select 1024/768 - hit OK the GParted GUI starts up. it displays unallocated 74.53 GB click New in the create new Partition select Free Space Preceding (MiB) 0 New Size (MiB) 2048 Free Space Following (MiB) 74269 Create as Primary Partition Filesystem ext2 click Add then click Apply i then exited Gparted and started the DSL LIVECD. at the desktop tried the same right click install to hard drive and the window just closes. cleared all partitions, select new Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on July 24 2006,15:41
When you freshly booted off the DSL livecd, do a $ ls -d /mnt/sd* /mnt/hd* and paste the results here. Also, for fdisk/cfidsk try sdX where X is a b c d e f ...etc ... if you haven't tried already -or-During DSL bootup you can also see what it is (use the dma bootcode), or check the logs i.e. dmesg. Note: when you partition using cfdisk, etc. , you use the disk device. Posted by JohnTorex on July 26 2006,10:50
hi thehatsrulewith ref to your post: $ ls -d /mnt/sd* /mnt/hd* - - results - - > ls: /mnt/sd*: No sduch file or directory /mnt/hd i looked in the /mnt/hd folder and it is empty. based on the above, i think the rest of the post is arbitrary. i need to get the LIVECD to see the SATA drive. thanks jb Also, for fdisk/cfidsk try sdX where X is a b c d e f ...etc ... if you haven't tried already -or-During DSL bootup you can also see what it is (use the dma bootcode), or check the logs i.e. dmesg. Note: when you partition using cfdisk, etc. , you use the disk device. Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on July 26 2006,19:26
Sorry if I mislead anyone, but it seems DSL does not support SATA out of the box.Also in < http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....t=14596 > it seems DSL-N does though. 2.1(b) might also work |