A Different HD Install Approach that Needs Input

Forum: HD Install
Topic: A Different HD Install Approach that Needs Input
started by: new_dsl_user

Posted by new_dsl_user on April 08 2005,16:38

Hi Everyone,

I am planning to install DSL on machines with AMD K6-2 350 Mhz with 128 RAM. My idea is below, and I would greatly appreciate if this community can inform me on how I can do it.

I would like the iso image which is on the CD to be on the hard-disk (some of the computers do not have cd). Then, during boot, I would like this image which is on the hd, to be extracted into the RAM (by using lilo I assume, I just do not know how to configure). Since DSL will be running of RAM I assume it will be fast, and finally I would like to create a linux partition on the hard-disk so that students can save their files on there (since DSL which is in RAM will be gone once the computer is turned off). I guess the only thing is that students won't be able to bookmark web-pages, but that's Ok.

If that above plan seems like it will work, I am very eager to do it. I have installed Slackware, Debian, Vector and NetBSD so far, so I am familiar with the command prompt.

Please post your suggestions and ideas. Thank you in advance.

The steps below are my assumptions to complete this project, I just need somebody to approve them and give me a direction.

1. First I will have to remaster DSL to make copy2RAM function at boot time as the default. (I will read the remastering guide)
2. Boot the machine up with a regular DSL cd, create two partitions on the hd (one to store the image, and the other for users to store their files on).
3. Here is where I get confused. Will I need a boot partition to put lilo and the dsl image in. Help needed here.

Thank you.

Posted by clivesay on April 08 2005,17:22

If I understand you correctly, there is good news. What you are wanting to do is simple with DSL.

You are talking about a Frugal install. With a frugal install you have the compressed image in a partition being booted with lilo. With recent frugal enhancements you can have a persistent /home and /opt dir on a partition. That would allow people to save files and things like bookmarks would be saved also. If you are just going to run the vanilla DSL as is, here is a recommendation:

Create 3 partitions
hda1 for DSL - 100 meg
hda2 for /home /opt - balance of HD space
hda5 for swap - 200 meg

make sure that hda1 and hda2 are linux partitions and make sure you format the hda2 partition as ext2 'mke2fs /dev/hda2'

After you have done that, reboot to the DSL CD.

open the root xterm and type 'usr/sbin/frugal_instal.sh'

follow the script. Where it asks you for bootime options you want to add home=hda2 opt=hda2

When you are done, you reboot and you are ready to go. You have a read only filesystem but the ability to save things in /home and /opt to a partition. There probably is no reason for you to have a persistent /opt unless you want to install some mydsl .tar.gz's or .uci files later.

This is just an overview of the process. You can search the forum for frugal and find alot of info.

Good luck

Chris