Install On HD For Another System

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Install On HD For Another System
started by: The Balance Of Judgement

Posted by The Balance Of Judgement on Dec. 07 2004,12:25

What I'm hoping to do is install DSL onto a small hard disk for a notebook that doesn't have a floppy or CD-ROM.

I have 2 notebooks, and one has a CD-ROM I can boot from. What I'm hoping to do is do a quick swap of the internal hard drives and do all the needed steps to install DSL then swap the drives again.

The question I have, will DSL trip up since the target hardware will be different or will it recognize and reconfigure itself after it boots for the first time? I'm also concerned regarding getting the hard disk setup as some drives act weird if they are formatted for a complete OS on one machine and booted on another.

Last but not least, it should run in 8MB RAM right? It might have 12MB but I can't remember how much it has. I'm just trying to get this old laptop usefull again. When I got it it's floppy was damaged. The laptop btw is a Toshiba Portege 3400/CT, the old 486 SX 25 model. (Not to be confused with Toshiba's recent Portege 34xx models which are Pentium III)

Many thanks.

Posted by ke4nt1 on Dec. 07 2004,16:13

DSL requires a math-coprocessor for it's kernel.
the 486-SX versions of X86 computers did not include one.

Also, the minimum ram for a system to boot into X is 16MB's,
and even that requires a swap file or swap partition.

While DSL does run on many older/slower systems,
my thoughts are that this system will lead you to frustration only.

73
ke4nt

Posted by AwPhuch on Dec. 07 2004,16:29

Quote (ke4nt1 @ Dec. 07 2004,11:13)

I agree, it takes a minimum of 12Megs for the desktop...anything less will slow to an abosolute crawl....

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by ico2 on Dec. 07 2004,17:14

probably worth a try though just to see

Posted by ico2 on Dec. 07 2004,17:14

welcome to the forums btw

Posted by cbagger01 on Dec. 07 2004,17:38

If you attempt to boot this computer with DSL, make sure that you get rid of the desktop icons.

I believe that the boot command is:

dsl noicons

or something like that.

Posted by ico2 on Dec. 08 2004,09:46

i thought it was something like dsl noenhance, but i am probably wrong.

press f2 at the boot screen to check.

Posted by skaos on Dec. 08 2004,11:16

If you can't get DSL up and running (search the forum for 486sx), you can take a look at < http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/. >

Posted by ico2 on Dec. 08 2004,13:37

that looks like a cool distro

Posted by Bidi on Dec. 08 2004,15:23

I have something similar to yours: a Compaq Contura 486SX (33Mhz) with only 255Mb of RAM. After doing some research here, I figured the only way to run DSL would be with a recompiled kernel that emulated a math co-processor. Do a search for "486SX". Your biggest issue is still going to be RAM. Also, how much HD space do you have? Might not be enough for the full install, something like 150Mb.

Besides Basic Linux, I also found some really nice ones on my search to revive the old 486SX:
-< muLinux > (uses 2.0.3 kernel and has X Windows using less than 4Mb of RAM);
-< Small Linux > (also has X Windows but is really complicated to install);
-< BlueFlops > (my favorite, the only one with the latest 2.6.9 kernel, the catch is that it's only a web browser... nothing else).

Posted by ico2 on Dec. 08 2004,16:43

33mhz and 255mb? wow

Posted by Bidi on Dec. 09 2004,01:51

Quote (ico2 @ Dec. 08 2004,11:43)

33mhz and 255mb? wow

Back when we got it, this was one of the best computers on the market... It was fast enough to run Wolf3D, Doom or even Prince of Persia.

Posted by The Balance Of Judgement on Dec. 09 2004,02:54

Thanks for all the help folks. I'll see what I can do. Too bad no-one had developed a miniature version of X11 for small footprint systems, would be ideal for old laptops. I have a wireless PCMCIA card I can plug into the thing and use it for basic e-mail and web browsing using Lynx etc. Oh yeah, and the hard disk is 200MB.

Posted by ico2 on Dec. 10 2004,14:25

it is a very strange combination though :S

Posted by Bidi on Dec. 11 2004,19:48

I don't think you'll find any minimalistic distro that will support wireless network cards. < muLinux > supports X11 with very little RAM and HD usage. The kernel itself only uses 2MB of RAM.