HD Install

Forum: HD Install
Topic: HD Install
started by: Thanatos

Posted by Thanatos on Sep. 02 2004,02:06

OK, I use 7tools Partition Manager to convert hda5 into Linux Ext3 & hda6 into Linux Swap2. I tried ext2 first, it didn't work. I booted from the CD & did "sudo dsl-hdinstall". Then I told it "sudo /dev/hda5". Screen flickered, I saw activity on my hd, ended up on the exit screen. It said on the screen:
failed to load group file
BScreen: :BScreen: managing screen0 using visual 0x21, depth 24
/home/dsl/.xinitrc: line8: 362 Killed fluxbox

Used OSLoader to try & boot to linux it shows. Nothing happened. Black screen with cursor in upper left corner. Won't do a thing.
Tried again using "sudo /dev/hda5 enhanced". It came to a screen that said:
i8253 count too high! resetting

Partition Explorer shows hda5 as "Ext2FS" with 36.6MB in use. That seems about what dsl should use. Still won't boot.
What can I do now?? Thanks for any help.

Posted by Thanatos on Sep. 02 2004,11:14

PS I checked with Partition Explorer & there is a folder named: "lost+found" on hda5. It is empty, as far as I can tell. Thanks again.:cool:

Posted by cowboy on Sep. 06 2004,21:18

Don't understand your procedure. What I did was to boot DSL on CD. Then I used cfdisk in XTerm as su to make two partitions. In my case this was hda1, bootable, 384 MB, Linux type 83 and hda2, 128 MB, Linux swap, type 82. Then I wrote the new partition table to disk and rebooted from the CD as suggested. Then I went to Apps > Tools > Install to Hard Drive and used the standard installation. And at the end I used mkliloboot to install lilo to the MBR. Everything works perfectly.

Good luck, cowboy

Posted by Thanatos on Sep. 23 2004,02:06

I decided to redo my HD. I used Seagates software to set up the partitions. Now remember, my old HD is hda3 & 4. Before I reinstalled Win98SE, I used the DSL CD to convert the partitions I wanted, into linux drives. Tried install then, but no luck. After Win setup, I used Amigo linux to check the drives & reformat them to linux. I still can't get dsl to install. Cfdisk shows the following setup for my linux drives:

hda5 Logical Linux Reiserfs 238.54M
hda6 Logical Linux Swap 542.87M
hda7 Logical Linux ext2 230.31M
hda8 Logical Linux Swap 542.87M

When I try the hdinstall, it tells me there is no linux partition. What else can I do?? Thanks for the help. If I ever get the money?? I'll order a linux CD of some kind. Maybe that will help.

Posted by AwPhuch on Sep. 23 2004,16:09

Quote (Thanatos @ Sep. 22 2004,22:06)

You only need 1 swap partition..any Linux distro will see and mount that swap...and its universal, every Linux distro will use it

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 23 2004,16:20

What version of DSL are you using?

There was a problem with fdisk in some of the DSL 0.7.x versions.

My advice is to do this:

Boot DSL version 0.8.x

Open an xterminal and type:

sudo su
cfdisk

Delete your old hda5,hda6,hda7, and hda8 and create the following parititions:

hda5 BOOTABLE linux TYPE 83 1200MB (doesn't need to be exactly 1200)
hda6 linux swap TYPE 82 256MB (doesn't need to be exactly 256)

Write the new partition table and exit the program.

Then open up the Right-Click Fluxbox menu and choose Apps > Tools > Install to Hard Drive

and use hda5 as your installation destination.

Good Luck.

Posted by Thanatos on Sep. 23 2004,20:46

OK, I used cfdisk to redo the linux partitions into just 2. The first is Linux Reiserfs (that's the kind dsl does) 1291.37M & second is Linux Swap 263.21M. I had a choice of little high or low in cfdisk, it doesn't give exactly what you say. I made hda5 bootable & removed bootable from hda1. Then I hit 'write' it said it had a problem with 're-read failed'. I rebooted & tried the hdinstall the way you said, nothing. I tried again in Xterminal with sudo. It said hda5 wasn't a linux partition, hda6 either. Rebooting it give a couple failed in the grey type that speeds by. Can't tell exactly what it says. Also, when it scans HD it says:modprobe: modprobe: can't locate 'module' minix. I'm not sure about spelling of module or minix. I even tried "dsl tohd=/dev/hda5" at the first. It couldn't read the linux. Any idea how to make it read correctly?? I am in 'sudo su' when I do the stuff. Thanks for the help.

PS I reset hda1 to bootable & removed it from hda5.

Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 23 2004,21:03

ReiserFS?
DSL doesn't support any journaling filesystems..

Type 83 is ext2 ...
Type 82 is swap ...

73
ke4nt

Posted by Thanatos on Sep. 24 2004,00:41

When I set hda5, I chose 83 and that's what cfdisk then said it was. How do I get it to do 83 as ext2??

Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 24 2004,00:54

...then I'm guessing it is already type 83, and formatted reiserFS..
My "type" in fdisk shows "linux" and in cfdisk shows "linux ext2"

After verifying the hda5 is type 83, and writing to disk and rebooting,
try reformatting the hda5 with the "mke2fs /dev/hda5" as root, and see if
the partition changes type in cfdisk..

73
ke4nt

Posted by Aiku on Sep. 24 2004,01:00

If you are sure that you have a Linux partition then you could look at /usr/sbin/dsl-hdinstall and comment out the if statement that checks for a type 83. I think it is around lines 89-96

Posted by Thanatos on Sep. 24 2004,02:13

OK, changed hda5 to ex2, tried to change the dsl-hdinstall. I can't change it because I don't have a RW-CD. I have to use my step-father's computer to make a CD. Also, it wouldn't let me read it. It said I had to be 'root'. I am in enhanced dt logged in xterm as sudo su. Any way to modify it without the cd-rw?? I think this weekend, I will delete all partitions in cfdisk & redo them all. I want my first partition a 20G for 98SE, the next two for linux & linux swap, the 2 more 20G for more windows OS's & what's left for my storage. I keep My Docs, all pics & music & all downloads on the last. It is sort of a catch all drive. I will try & figure M's in a G to multiply by 20 & work with it Saturday. Maybe that way it will read them correctly?? What does everyone else think?? Thanks.

Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 24 2004,03:59

There are two ways to edit the file.

1) Install a *.dsl extension file. It will create a writable system and you can edit the file and overwrite the symlink.

2) You can copy the file over to your home directory (/home/dsl) and edit it there.
When you are finished and saved the file you can execute it as 'root' user by typing

/home/dsl/dsl-hdinstall

at the command prompt.

What version of DSL are you using?

Posted by Thanatos on Sep. 24 2004,12:37

Not sure how to do all that, but I'll try. The iso i used to download 'dsl-0.7.2.iso'.

Posted by Thanatos on Sep. 24 2004,15:02

I was able to look at 'dsl-hdinstall'. The line with '83' in it is 90. How do I install a *.dsl extension file?? I will dig through the linux help pages on line. Thanks.

Posted by Thanatos on Sep. 25 2004,02:50

I got it installed!! Did the copy to /ramdisk/home/dsl . Then typed /ramdisk/home/dsl/dsl-hdinstall , hda5 & BINGO. I tried to cancel out the 83 lines with no luck, so I deleted all of them. Install lilo & rebooted. Had a boo-boo with the login, root & password. I'll try to correct it. If not?? I'll reformat the drive & try again. I had to install 's' standard. The enhanced gave me the following lines:

Creating filesystem ext2 on /dev/hda5 enhanced... (blue type)
An error occurred while creating the filesystem (red type)
Some messages from mkfs: (white)
mkfs.ext2: bad blocks count - enhanced (white)

Somebody else can say what that means. I put the color type on the end to help. Well, I'm started.

Still have to worry about a new modem. This old US Robotics/3COM 56K Voice PCI won't work for anything but windows. Wish me luck & send me pointers.

Posted by ydnar on Dec. 20 2005,11:12

Quote (cbagger01 @ Sep. 23 2004,12:20)

i followed these commands, except that i also had hda1 with windows xp on it, which i left as bootable (so hda5 was not bootable).

now, when my computer boots to GRUB, i no longer see a choice for windows and i really need my windows partition. how can i get the windows option to show during the GRUB loader?

Posted by cbagger01 on Dec. 21 2005,03:48

Unfortunately, I don't use GRUB, so I can't provide much help other than to say that you need to edit your grub configuration file to include a line for MS windows and then activate your changes.