DSL newbie install on P166 fails

Forum: HD Install
Topic: DSL newbie install on P166 fails
started by: DiSmaL

Posted by DiSmaL on Aug. 11 2006,16:57

I'm a Linux newbie, trying to install DSL to experiment with on an old P166MMx with 16MB RAM and 2559MB HD. From what I've read here and on other forums, it should cope with DSL and run the GUI OK.

Having failed to get this working from within Win98 (which was on the machine) I tried to boot from the CD. This works OK, boots the kernel, detects hardware etc, but then kicks me out to runlevel 2 (see below). So went for a clean install and set up 2 partitions using cfdisk:

hda1 bootable linux fs2 2400 MB
hda2 linux swap 159MB

Using the "install" option, the only version that I can get to install to HD and boot is LILO (the main HD install and Grub install options fail almost immediately). The boot is fine until it gets to:

"Scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab... Done
Using swap partition /dev/hda2.
mount: cannot find /ramdisk in /etc/fstab or /etc/mtab
Automounter started for: floppy cdrom
mkdir: Cannor create directory '/ramdisk/tmp': No such file or directory
chmod: /ramdisk/tmp/: No such file or directory
chgrp: /ramdisk/tmp/: No such file or directory
mkdir: Cannor create directory '/tmp/mydsl.menu': No such file or directory
chgrp: /tmp/mydsl.menu: No such file or directory
chmod: /tmp/mydsl.menu: No such file or directory
mkdir: Cannor create directory '/tmp/mydsl.icons': No such file or directory
chgrp: /tmp/mydsl.icons: No such file or directory
chmod: /tmp/mydsl.icons: No such file or directory
Checking for myDSL apps... ls: /tmp/mydsl.icons: No such file or directory
Done
INIT: Entering runlevel: 5
su(pam_unix)[701]: session opened for user dsl by (uid=0)
/usr/sbin/xsetup.sh: line 82: $TMPFILE: ambiguous redirect
Using Xvesa default 1024x768x32 -mouse "/dev/psaux", 5 mouse
xauth: creating new authority file /home/dsl/.Xauthority
xauth: creating new authority file /home/dsl/.Xauthority

giving up
xinit: no such file or directory (errno 2): unable to connect to X server
xinit: no such process (errno 3): server error."

It then kicks me out to a command prompt (dsl@tty1[dsl]$).

I think these are the same error messages I was getting when booting from the CD! Having read every page of these forums, I'm now stuck. Can anyone help?

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Aug. 11 2006,17:11

Sounds you don't have enough memory so then those directories can't be created.

Looks like some frugal installation - with this low amount of ram you should seriously consider just using a standard HD-debian-style installation, or boot with the "lowram", and/or "failsafe" bootcodes. See < http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Cheat_Codes >

Posted by DiSmaL on Aug. 11 2006,17:29

Thanks very much. Sorry I should have said that I 've tried "lowram" and "failsafe" cheat codes when booting off the CD, and get exactly the same error messages.

Is the "standard debian install" the one that you get by typing "install" when booting off the CD? When I've tried this it exits back to the install menu almost immediately and won't boot from HD. LILO is the only one that even gets this far.

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Aug. 11 2006,17:44

I have only installed DSL through the fluxbox menu and manually, but < http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Cheat_Codes#Other_boot_labels > says "install" bootcode should allow you to do most of the viable options.

It exits "almost" immediately <-- what does that mean? Please describe exactly what happens here.

Posted by DiSmaL on Aug. 12 2006,09:28

Thanks for all your help.

Using the install option from the boot CD (option 3) it asks for the target partition (hda1), whether I want multiuser logins (n), whether to use ext3 (n) and to confirm (y). It then gives me:

"Creating ext2 filesystem on hda1"

for about a second before returning to the install menu, at which point I reboot.

When I did this BEFORE installing LILO it then wouldn't boot from HD at all. AFTER installing LILO it begins to boot but then gives the error:

"Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry
Dropping you to a (very limited) shell
Press reset button to quit

Additional builtin commands available:
cat mount umount
insmod rmmod lsmod"

And drops me to a knoppix prompt. This suggests to me that the install is not working, but is getting far enough to screw up whatever is already there.

However ... my guess is that this installation issue is a red herring since I get the same error messages whether I boot from CD (even using "lowram" or "failsafe") or HD (with LILO since this is the only one that boots). It may be lack of RAM as you suggest (Win98 says 16MB but DSL says it's got 13260KB during boot) but other posts here suggest that this should be enough.

Any other ideas?

PS I have tried both the syslinux and isolinux boot CDs with the same results.

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Aug. 12 2006,09:59

I don't think your hard drive is partitioned properly maybe.

use fdisk / cfdisk to check them, and create/modify as necessary.

Posted by DiSmaL on Aug. 14 2006,18:16

Thanks. I have tried partitioning 3 ways:

- just one linux partition
- one main linux partition, small swap
- small boot partition for DSL, main partition, small swap

I get the same error messages regardless, so I'm not sure this is the cause of the problem. But in case it might be, can you tell me precisely how they should be partitioned?

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Aug. 14 2006,22:49

Did you check that partition was hda1?
maybe you should try manually formatting it to ext2 first.

Posted by underdog5004 on Aug. 15 2006,00:04

Try mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda1

or whatever partition it is that you want to install DSL to.

-Matthew

Posted by dellengwyn on Aug. 23 2006,06:37

I am having almost identical problems during my install (see my message in the HD-Install forum). I am working from a laptop, P120 16MB RAM and much less hard drive space (but more than 200 in my install partition). I am working from a dsl boot floppy.

Thanks for any suggestions anyone can offer, and I will post here if and when I find a solution.

Posted by DiSmaL on Aug. 23 2006,08:40

Have tried setting up the partitions as ext2 (and also setting up using mkswap and swapon to set up the swap partition when using one). But no success. Is the install issue a red herring, since I get the same error message when trying to boot from CD.

Have not yet tried using a boot floppy - are you trying a network install or will your lappy not boot direct from CD?

Posted by dellengwyn on Aug. 23 2006,09:19

Hi, DiSmaL,

I did a network install via floppy, since I have no cdrom. I've made progress, though.... check my most recent posts in my own self-started thread to see how far I've gotten via script-wrangling.

At the moment, my problem is that xwindows won't load for some reason. I suppose it could be a RAM issue, in which case I will look for other GUIs...

Ciao,
Dellengwyn

Posted by DiSmaL on Aug. 23 2006,09:26

Thanks, that's helpful. You say you created the /ramdisk/tmp directory manually and that worked. Can you tell me how to do that?

Posted by dellengwyn on Aug. 23 2006,09:35

Sure,

From my booted floppy's file system (probably like the CD's), I did something like this:

cd /ramdisk
mkdir tmp

Then, I went back to /usr/sbin and re-ran the script.

BTW, I have made slightly more progress with the xwindows problem by plugging a PS/2 mouse in and now the startup sequence gives me more options. Also, no error messages. The xwindows load still stalls, but only with this message:

Loading us.kmap.gz

(note that I am in the directory where this file exists, so you don't see the full path)

I think I'm close, and so will you be when you do what I did and manually create the directories and mount the drives that the scripts are looking for. At least I hope so!

Dellengwyn

Posted by dellengwyn on Aug. 23 2006,09:37

Oh, and .... duh....

I also activated a leftover 64MB partition as a swap drive. Prior to attaching the mouse, this caused some progress with xsetup.sh, as well. xsetup.sh is the script that seems to set up xwindows for launch.

Dellengwyn

Posted by dellengwyn on Aug. 23 2006,10:07

OK... wow... I just managed to boot to a kind of "amber monochrome" GUI of xwindows, after having tried variations of the xsetup program and "startx." I'm not sure what I did right, but I can say that chose some of the lowest graphics resolutions. Once I figure out what the settings are, I'll post them.

Dellengwyn.

Posted by dellengwyn on Aug. 23 2006,10:51

Next update....

After rebooting to the monochrome (640x480-4 bit) desktop, a right click on the desktop and a selection of Xvesa brought me up to what I think is 640x480 256 colors on the desktop. I now have basic GUI functions on DSL on a P120 16MB laptop on a partition of 250MB with a 64MB linux swap drive.

More as it unfolds....

Dellengwyn

Posted by drnil on Aug. 24 2006,13:57

Quote (DiSmaL @ Aug. 11 2006,12:57)

I just installed DSL on a P75 with 16MB RAM and 500MB disk, and had exactly the same problems. The first problem seems to happen because the dsl-conf script expects the directory /ramdisk to exist, while the knoppix-autoconf script, or something before that, apparently tried to be smart and skipped creating it due to low RAM. Fortunately, there is a simple solution. Boot to runlevel 2, create a script, knoppix.sh, and put it in /KNOPPIX/ . This script should do the following:

mkdir /ramdisk
chmod o+w /ramdisk

It will run before dsl-conf and creates the /ramdisk dsl-conf cries for. Incidentally, this can be used in another way for RAM-challenged computers. You could instead symlink /ramdisk to some directory on the disk, and this way be able to save RAM and have persistent storage of /opt and /tmp.

The second problem (in my case at least) with an obnoxious X I solved by removing uneeded things from .xinitrc (icon stuff, dillo, torsmo).

Speed when using X? Barely standable...

Posted by DiSmaL on Aug. 29 2006,12:52

Quote (drnil @ Aug. 24 2006,09:57)

Fortunately, there is a simple solution. Boot to runlevel 2, create a script, knoppix.sh, and put it in /KNOPPIX/ . This script should do the following:

mkdir /ramdisk
chmod o+w /ramdisk

It will run before dsl-conf and creates the /ramdisk dsl-conf cries for. Incidentally, this can be used in another way for RAM-challenged computers. You could instead symlink /ramdisk to some directory on the disk, and this way be able to save RAM and have persistent storage of /opt and /tmp.

Good job, thanks, but as a complete newbie to Linux not so simple, and the scripting is way beyond me. Any chance you could do a step-by-step how-to?

Posted by lovdsl on Aug. 31 2006,18:39

opps

Posted by manx on Sep. 01 2006,22:36

I am also a newie to Linux and have spent many hours trying to cram DSL lowram boot into a 150MHZ 16Meg ; Encountered same problems exactly as DiSmql. DSL will not let me put a script into Knoppix due to it being a read only file. CHMOD has no effect. Tried all sorts of things like symbolic links in RC2.d, without any real effect.
I managed to get X to limp on by typing sudo su at the prompt you get when it fails. Then cd /ramdisk Then creating a new tmp directory. Then type exit and enter, followed by exit and enter. This sellotape and strings approach managed to get it going; How you automate that process is beyond me

Posted by Gregzilla on Sep. 02 2006,21:44

Hello Folks, Another Linux newb here. Using a Gateway 2000 p5-120 (16 megs ram), I also experienced the same problems with the install, But I finally got it to work (with a big assist from dellengwyn, thank you). I booted to runlevel 2 (Boot: dsl 2), created /ramdisk/tmp, and ran the dsl-hdinstall script in /usr/sbin. And if this is all painfully obvious by now, then please disregard

.

As to how to actually run dsl off the LiveCD(with only 16 megs of ram) without installing, I have no clue

Posted by dellengwyn on Sep. 06 2006,08:43

Glad I could be of help, Gregzilla...

If you have any insights on my current challenge, please reply to me in the "X and Fluxbox" forum....

:-)

dellengwyn.