i have no floopy,no cdrom, only hd,can i?

Forum: HD Install
Topic: i have no floopy,no cdrom, only hd,can i?
started by: lengshowa

Posted by lengshowa on Jan. 31 2004,07:13

hi,everyone,
i am new.Now my computer have no floopy,no cdrom and only
a hddisk(fat32,dos now). i have downloaded the damnsmll linux install file(iso),can i install damnsmall on my hd?
thanks 2 all.

Posted by pipo on Feb. 01 2004,18:05

Try to look at (or after) the USB version.
You can find an old one here :

http://rz-obrian.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/knoppix-usb/damnsmall-0.3.6-usb.tar

You need to create a partition on your HD
Use a program like Partition Magic to reduce your windows partition, but first take care to defrag your partition.

Then you'll need a boot loader to start your linux on that new partition.
As you have no CD, no floppy , installing lilo becomes hard!
Well, I suggest loadlin or syslinux, which run from DOS.

Posted by donkey wrestler on Feb. 02 2004,22:12

I installed DSL to a laptop with no CD by booting to a linux floppy called tomsrtbt, and making 3 partitions, one for dsl, one for other data, and one for linux swap. i copyied the dsl iso from a parallel port zip drive to the data partion, mounted the DSL iso there, and copied the /KNOPPIX directory to HDA1, the DSL partition. Then made a DSL boot floppy, and rebooted. The boot floppy recognizes HDA1 as the DSL CD and loads the file system into memory.

JP

Posted by slipaway172 on Feb. 29 2004,04:44

u can but a 2.5 to 3.5 HDD ide adaptor so u can install it off of ur tower WORKS

Posted by davide on Feb. 29 2004,10:21

hello lengshowa,
the *frugal install**, an evolution of the poorman's install, is the option yo're looking for, maybe.
you just copy the .iso file you've downloaded to your hd, (you must partition it into 3 part, before.
system (80 megs are enoght) data (whatever) and swap (at max the double of your ram size). then you copy that file into the system partition and follow the frugal install script. you will not need any floppy to boot. pc will recognize that partition like it were a cd. and you can use that like that. else you can follow instruction for "poorman's installal" and do as DonkeyWrestler suggests. good luck (I think it's easier to do it than to explain)..:)

Posted by vk2emq on Mar. 03 2004,05:51

If you have windows 9x on your machine you should be able to get DSL running from your hard disk in the windows partition without the need to repartition the hard-disk - you will need in addition to windows, winimage, winiso and loadlin 1.6c - download these from the net as required. If you have you can also create a swap file on the windows partition as follows - with thanks to Patrick Volkerding of Slackware fame - when in DSL

Here's how to make a swap file manually:

dd if=/dev/zero of=knoppix.swp bs=1k count=8192
mkswap knoppix.swp
sync

If you need a larger swapfile, simply increase the value of 'count'.

To activate a swapfile manually, you can use 'swapon':

swapon /root/knoppix.swp

On subsequent reboots DSL will automatically the knoppix.swp file and add it to the fstab

See my previous postings for booting from ISO and Flash for further details on booting with loadlin - if you put the knoppix subdirectory on your C drive the hard disk reference should be root=/dev/hda1
in the loadlin startup batch file.

vk2emq

Posted by mclien on April 03 2004,17:20

OK, here is what I did ( unsucsessful;y so far

)

IBM Thinkpad 560, 40 MB, 352MB hdd, only Floppy, 800x600 LCD resolution

1. Try:
Installing on my other thinkpad ( 1024x768 LCD resolution )
put the hdd back in TP 560 and try a hdd install
NO way to get the resolution right ( it always falls back to 1024x768, which doesn't work.

2. Try:
put the hdd in my server via 2,5 to 3,5 adaptor
make the 3 Partitions for the frugal install
put the iso un the first one
boot with floppy

ends up in the same resolution problem

so where does the system get the resolution? always says something about, going back to previos resolution

have I some mbr problem? If how to I solve it?

Thanks frank@mclien.de

Posted by roberts on April 03 2004,17:43

Frank,
Try again, but when you have the hard drive in the other computer be sure to boot it with
fb800x600 at the first boot prompt.

boot: fb800x600

Then when you do a hard drive install the 800x600 video mode will be passed to the hard drive.
Otherwise you have to edit /etc/lilo.conf, but hard to do if you can't see it, and X may not be readable because of resolution.

Posted by mclien on April 03 2004,18:14

so on the Computer without cdrom I do:

boot: fb800x600 knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1 ?

Posted by roberts on April 03 2004,18:42

OK. First you are moving the hard drive in another machine. So that this target hard drive is the only hard drive, or at least the primary, i.e. /dev/hda
Then since the target machine only support 800x600 type
boot: fb800x600
Then at shell prompt, for the full hard drive installation type
sudo dsl-hdinstall
or for a minimal CD like emulation type
sudo frugal_instal.sh

Posted by mclien on April 03 2004,18:56

ah,. thanks for that.

because the install maschine is the one I surf with and I have to bring our childeren to bed ( its 8 pm here ):

I'll be back ;-)

Posted by mclien on April 03 2004,20:04

no sucsess :-(

Installation works, but when I out it back in the target maschine, I fall back in the xsetup.
I choose the fb thing, but it returns to use the previos resulution :-(
the xsetup.sh returns with fatal error: connection refused by server....

so far I get only the damn, but no small linux ;-)

Posted by roberts on April 04 2004,06:08

What version are you running??? I suspect it is an old one.

Posted by mclien on April 04 2004,10:15

6.2

I ran the check programm from the Thinkpads easy setup, which says the screen is OK

meanwhile I try the way you suggest and another one:
copying the KNOPPIX dir to hda1, boot with floppy and at promt:
fb800x600 knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1

same problem

I get an error message at the very beginning of the boot, says something about passind the wrong video mode and I'm to select one, but this seams only to have something to do with the font at boot time...

when I automaticly get into the xsetup of dsl, and I choose fb, I get not asked for the resolution, is this corect?

Thanks for patience...

Posted by roberts on April 04 2004,20:38

Quote

fb800x600 knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1

You don't need to type both fb800x600 and knoppix
That explains why it didn't work. If you typed that, it will use the latter, i.e., knoppix, i.e., not framebuffer, i.e, video mode 791 not what you want.. You want framebuffer video mode 788

Here try this. It is the easiest way to install to hard drive.
boot:fb800x600 2
That will boot only to a root prompt, no X windows nothing but minimum root prompt. Then type:
dsl-hdinstall