want to install DSL

Forum: HD Install
Topic: want to install DSL
started by: Sina

Posted by Sina on July 22 2005,21:33

I have Fedora Core 2 on an old 300mhz computer. It runs sooo slow that I don't ever use it.

I would like to install DSL to the hd of this computer. Being very linux illiterate I have a couple of questions.

1. do I have to uninstall FC2 before installing DSL?
2. in very easy terms can someone tell me how to find fdisk on the disks (set of 4 downloaded from the internet) that I used to install FC2?
3. I have a wireless router to a cable modem on another computer in the house. Will DSL recognize a wireless network adapter?

Thanks,
Sina

Posted by Your Fuzzy God on July 22 2005,22:28

1. If Fedora runs so slow, why would you keep it? I have DSL running on three machines; the two slowest are 225mhz boxes w/ 128mb RAM each. DSL runs well on both. My vote would be to dump Fedora.

2. If you do wipe out Fedora then you won't need to find fdisk. You can format using DSL LiveCD.

3. DSL has pretty decent hardware recognition. If you have a fairly popular adapter, then DSL shouldn't have a problem finding it. In fact, if you run the LiveCD then you should be able to tell if you have to download the drivers or if DSL loads them by default.

Hope you become a DSL user!

-Cody
< Mainframe Computers >

Posted by mgmont on July 22 2005,22:33

Hi sina,

I don't know how to find fdisk on your FC2 cds, but if you can get a copy of the DSL live cd by down loading it and burning a copy, you can run DSL from the cd and use cfdisk from a bash shell window and re-partition your hard drive from there without having to worry about un-installing FC2. I am assuming that you want to get rid of FC2. You can make a primary partition for DSL, a swap partition, and an other primary partition for your files if you like.

DSL is good at recognizing wireless cards, at least the ones that I have. I am using Cisco pcmcia cards.
Hope this helps.

Posted by adssse on July 22 2005,23:40

I also tried fedora on my lappy (500mhz 128ram) for a while but as you said it was too slow. I run DSL on it now and it is pretty speedy.
As far as wireless card support, it is very good about it as far as my own experiences go. But here is a thread concerning which cards are known to work well.
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....;t=1124 >

Posted by Andrew on July 23 2005,01:09

Hi! Kind of weird, knoppix and ubntu didnt work with my video card but DSL did! I am running a full HD Install on it.

Here's how I did it:
< My DSL HD Install Guide >

Posted by Sina on July 23 2005,01:33

Great help! Thanks so much. I'm going to try to burn a cd and install DSL. I'll be back in touch.
Thanks, again.
Sina

Posted by Sina on July 23 2005,02:10

I'm back again.

I went to this site: < http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/download.html > and followed the links to a mirror site. I am really lost - what do I do next?

Also, I don't think my cd burner (Roxio Brand) burns iso images. I tried to make a system rescue cd as per Andrew's (see above post) instructions, but the computer wouldn't recognize the downloaded files. WinXP. Any suggestions?

Finally, what is a bash shell window? I do want to install DSL and wipe out FC2 (this in re to mgmont's post).

Please be patient as I continue to learn.

Sina

Posted by mgmont on July 23 2005,03:56

When you follow the links to the down load sites, you should find the following link first on the list.

< ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/damnsmall/ >

If you go to that site, you will see a folder called current. Go into that folder and you will see a lot of different files for various purposes. The one that you want to down load is File: dsl-1.3.1.iso. Once you down load this file, you need to burn it to a cd. If your software can not burn an iso file maybe you have a friend that can burn it for you or you can order one from the DSL store.

Once you get your cd and boot up from it, you can right click your mouse on the desktop and it will open up a menu. In the menu you will see an item called xshells. Click on this item and it will open another window that will allow you to click on an item called root access. If you click on this it will open up a window titled Bash with a command prompt in it. This is where you can type cfdisk to partition your hard drive.

I hope this can get you started. I think you will really enjoy DSL.

Posted by Sina on July 23 2005,05:06

mgmont, thanks for your very clear instructions. I have ordered a dsl cd and hope things can move smoothly from there.

Posted by I went to bed very late on Aug. 12 2005,14:13

good choice.
I have it runnung on a ibm166+ (133MHZ) and 64 MB RAM.

I use xmms, abiword, sylpheed, xpdf, printing, firefox.

Everything is fine. Thank you DSL crew

Posted by eliquid on Aug. 12 2005,17:32

I might have the slowest processor setup of everyone..

I havent done a HD install, but I have DSL running on a 50mhz 64mb ram machine at my house running the full 1.3.1 cd and everything seems fine so far. I even use a thumbdrive to store all my documents as the HD is bad in that machine.

I have another computer that I want to do a HD install on that is much faster.

All in all, DSL has turned a junker setup into something useful