HD install - internet connection

Forum: HD Install
Topic: HD install - internet connection
started by: MinatureMe

Posted by MinatureMe on May 31 2005,08:53

Hi,

I sucessfully installed the enhanced version of Damn Small Linux on an old Fujitsu (year 1996) laptop. During the install, I clicked 'yes' to say I had a working internet connection. However, at the part where the updates (or is it extras?) were being downloaded, there was a message to say that connection to the server failed. Nevertheless, I booted up into DSL, complete with internet connection.

My question is this: What am I missing?, and how can I retrospectively download these updates? - or are these updates related to the 'MyDSL' functionality.

Also, while trying to install Alsa, the install process appears to fail without a message at the part: "Building card database.." Stop. Could this be a result of the above?

Posted by ke4nt1 on May 31 2005,13:02

It sounds like you didn't get the "enhanced" part of the install completed.
No worry, .. it is the gnu-utils, the true gnu tools that replace the smaller
busybox substitute used in the base .iso of DSL..

Alsa requires both dsl-dpkg.dsl ( apt ) and gnu-utils.dsl ( gnu tools )
to be effectively installed and used, thus, your error message..

Easy to fix. Grab the gnu-utils.dsl file from the DSL repository,
either thru the mydsl icon on your desktop, or your browser.
Install it, and you will have the "enhanced" version installed,
and ready-to-run the alsa package..

Then do the same thing for the dsl-dpkg.dsl extension..

Remember that the alsa package needs to have DSL booted
with the "alsa" boot option, so the OSS drivers are skipped
during the autodetection sequence at startup.

This is not a step-by-step reply.
Seek the search function of the forums to get a blow-by-blow
method of installing extensions, and running alsa. Also see the .info
files that accompany the extensions on our website as well..

73
ke4nt

Posted by MinatureMe on May 31 2005,15:24

Hi,

Thanks very much for this information. I actually had already installed these two packages, so I must be doing something else wrong with the ALSA installation. One thing I was unsure of was the code for the 'alsa boot option'. In the file "lilo.conf", I changed the line:

append "hda=scsi, hdb=scsi .... etc

to:
append "alsa hda=scsi, hdb=scsi ...etc

and executed the command "lilo -v".

Is this correct?

The soundcard in the laptop is "ES 1878S SoundBlastePro 16-bit compatible". Also, ALSA appears in the XMMS player as an Output Plugin, but under "Configure" the option "Audio device" appears as blank. (I also read an earlier post entitled "Boot with alsa on HD install" and tried some of the options suggested). Any help or pointers greatly appreciated.

Posted by MinatureMe on June 01 2005,14:50

Follow up message:

I eventually got the sound to work on the old laptop after following the instructions in this post:
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....&t=4867 >

This involves installing and running sndconfig, which had not been installed by default.

However, the settings seem to be reset every time I reboot, so I have to execute sndconfig every time. I think this is because ALSA is still installed. Any ideas as to how to make the settings stick, or to uninstall or disable ALSA, would be greatly appreciated.

Also a tip: By default, the search feature in this forum only searches the previous month.

Thanks for previous assistance.