do u need windows to run dsl??

Forum: HD Install
Topic: do u need windows to run dsl??
started by: tool_cky2004

Posted by tool_cky2004 on Jan. 23 2005,17:55

do u need to have windows to run dsl and if so is there a linux product that doesnt need it

Posted by tool_cky2004 on Jan. 23 2005,18:25

7 people came and can someone plez plez plez plez answer this one little question

Posted by mikshaw on Jan. 23 2005,19:42

No.

You don't need Windows for anything...ever. It's possible to run one within the other, but in my opinion that's just a waste of precious resources. Windows is not your computer. Windows is an operating system; Linux is an operating system.

You can have both installed on the same machine, and choose which one to use when you start up the computer. You could have a windows-only machine, and run DSL as a liveCD...boot the machine wiht the CD in the drive, or if you can't boot to CD you could use the floppy boot + CD. You could also avoid Windows completely and have a Linux-only computer (my favorite).

Posted by ryptyde on Jan. 24 2005,01:04

mikshaw hit the nail on the head....you don't need Windows. I am currently running a Knoppix 3.4 live-CD on my Linux Fedora Core 2 box to post this.

Posted by tool_cky2004 on Jan. 24 2005,03:16

but also the computer i have only has 32mb of RAM and i need help starting from the being on where to get linux and get it to my hard drive...if anyone can walk me through that i would appeciate it very much so...

Posted by ramaswamyps on Jan. 26 2005,17:05

need more info of ur computer
hdd size
ram 32 will not do
cdrom drive
floppy?
processor
speed
etc.[B]

Posted by Delboy on Jan. 31 2005,13:48

After endless struggling to get Win98 properly on an old 40meg ram laptop I picked up, I thought I would try linux. DSL has worked easily the best of the small distro's I have tried. I completely reformatted the hard disk (using a booted DOS 'setup' floppy disk) leaving a blank HD ('hda1') except for the basic command com files ie, NO Windows, NO DOS 6.0 etc. loaded. I used other utilities on floppies to repartition and designate 'hda2' linux and 'hda3' swap partitions and then used a 'poormans install' of DSL. Live boots great, HD installed after.
32megs ram is enough as long as you don't try and load up your desired extensions at boot. I keep mine (and saved e-mail addresses, mails, settings also) in subfolder on Hda1 where they reside untouched each time I load a new DSL version. Then, I mount the hda1 drive and, using Emelfm, copy over all extensions etc. onto the Hda2 linux partition into home/dsl where they can all be loaded up using the 'mydsl' button.

Posted by cbagger01 on Jan. 31 2005,17:32

DB,

You might be able to avoice the manual copying part by doing the following:

1) Store all of your sometimes-loaded extensions inside /mnt/hda1/optional

2) Boot with the "dsl mydsl=/dev/hda1" command.

Your extensions should appear on the menu list, but will not be installed until you click on each one from the menu