New to HD InstallsForum: HD Install Topic: New to HD Installs started by: damianiw Posted by damianiw on April 17 2007,21:43
HiI'm running dsl on a very old p166 laptop with 96mb ram and speed has been a big issue. I've set it up as follows, I got everything working from live cd, wireless, sound etc and had backup to my usb memory key. I decided to divide up the noisy hd as follows. hda1 = 100mb for a Frugal HD install hda2 = 1.7gb for data hda3 = 1.3gb for testing a HD install hda4 = 256mb swap partition All is working well, I have grub installed and have the option to boot to Frugal - hda1 or HD install hda3 (which is marginally quicker). however the hd install to hda 3 restores my settings from the backup.gz on hda2 each boot and then backs up to this upon exit - is this the way a hd install should be working or is it something to do with the way I'm running it ? my menu.lst looks like below: title DSL (FRUGAL - Hda1) kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda1 quiet vga=normal dma noscsi frugal initrd /boot/minirt24.gz title DSL (HD Install - Hda3) kernel /boot/linux24 root=/dev/hda3 quiet vga=normal I plan to keep the frugal install as I know I'll mess this up by playing with the HD install :-) I wish firefox were as quick as dillo on this old laptop :-) I haven't upgraded firefox yet but I'd guess it'll only make it slower! Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on April 17 2007,23:04
hm, that's a good question... a hd-install should not need to restore any backup.You could always use "norestore". Posted by chaostic on April 18 2007,15:31
An HD-Install does not need the backup, but are the backup/restore commands removed from the startup and shutdown scripts?
Posted by curaga on April 19 2007,14:52
No they aren't. Just add the bootcode "norestore" so it won't even try to restore/backup your settings.Why don't you use dma and noscsi on hd install too? If it's quicker without dma, it will be a lot quicker with dma.... Posted by damianiw on April 19 2007,23:31
Hi Thanks for the "norestore"quite handy to let it restore the first time, Re DMA NOSCSI yep - I've added those now :-) I've just resurrected a newer laptop which needed the power socket removing and the tracks it connected to remaking .... it's working and is a P3-500 with 256mb ram so quicker still :-) Can I ask another question, can I use grub / lilo or if necessary a liveCD to do the initial boot but run dsl from a usb key ? my laptops don't support usb key booting and I'd love to get the liveCD to USB working incase of HDD failure, the other way round covers me in case of CDROM failure too Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on April 20 2007,03:58
Using a DSL bootfloppy or cd, you can use "fromusb" - see the wiki page on cheatcodes for more. (actually i think one of the bootfloppy images is meant for usbs)
Posted by curaga on April 20 2007,16:51
Grub and lilo can also be used to boot usb, but they would be on HD, so if HD goes kaboom, no-no.....
Posted by damianiw on April 21 2007,20:45
Thanks to both of you,I'll read through the rest of the cheatcodes |