Installing with an existing system
Forum: HD Install
Topic: Installing with an existing system
started by: durbnpoisn
Posted by durbnpoisn on Oct. 26 2005,19:20
Short story:I have a laptop. It runs SuSE. Great system, but rather bloated. Plus, DSL actually has more usefull software and runs faster.
I'm currently using a CD to boot, and a backup.tar.gz sitting on the root of the harddrive to keep all my stuff.
This is good, but it would be great if I could simply use the bootloader I already have with SuSE 9.2, and boot into DSL.
Is there any way to do this easily without blowing away my SuSE installation?
btw: I only have about 150mb free on the drive. Like I said, SuSE is quite bloated.
Posted by mikshaw on Oct. 26 2005,20:16
You can use software such as fdisk to resize suse and create a new partition, 50mb at the very least, but make it as big as you want. Mine is just under 800mb. Format it as ext2, copy the KNOPPIX and boot directories from the CD into the new partition, and edit Suse's /boot/grub/menu.lst. Make sure to include at least "dsl frugal" on the kernel line.the kernel is <partition>/boot/isolinux/linux24 and initrd is <partition>/boot/isolinux/minirt24.gz
This is pretty vague instruction, but it's basically all you need to do.
Another possibility (i've never tried this so not sure how well it works) is to copy the contents of the CD into the root of your suse file system. I'll test it one of these days just to see, but if you decide to try it first let me know how it goes =o)
Also...if you have some time to kill sometime before you do this, you might consider starting up yast2 and looking through the installed packages. I can almost guarantee that you'll find several hundred megabytes of software that you never use.
Posted by durbnpoisn on Oct. 27 2005,12:52
Working backward through your message there...I ran YaST yesterday and dumped off about 150mb. That really helps a lot. It should be enough to put DSL on. I may go through again and see what else I can dump. It's tough though, because I like the SuSE install despite it's slowness. And I use some of the GNome stuff as well as some KDE stuff, even though I run Fluxbox. For instance, Konqueror is still a really nice FM and it runs just fine with FluxBox on top. (it's pretty funny actually...)
The suggestion you make about copying the files... I don't know if that would work. I'm pretty sure you need to have an actual partition to point the boot loader to. But, then again... I don't really know. I suppose I could give it a shot. It's not like it will break anything...
The first suggestion you make, is probably the one that is most likely. But, it's also the one that is most scary. I have yet to ever have any real success partitioning hard drives. Every single time I've tried it, something gets screwed up. It sounds real simple, like, just lop off this part of the drive and name it 'this'. But, it always seems to effect the existing partitions. Any suggestions on why I keep screwing this up would be nice...
So let me get something else straight... Even when running DSL from a HD boot, it is still running from Ramdisk? Is that right?
Posted by mikshaw on Oct. 27 2005,14:41
The first suggestion is exactly what I did, but to be honest I can't remember if I used an existing partition or if i created one from space left after resizing suse.If you're running frugal DSL (which is what this is), the default ramdisk includes /var, /opt, and /home. The rest is running straight from the mounted KNOPPIX file (except /etc and maybe 1 or 2 other directories...but i'm not sure how that part works). If you run it with the "toram" boot option, the KNOPPIX file will be loaded into ram.
Posted by durbnpoisn on Oct. 28 2005,12:49
Let's just say I copy everything over to the root of the existing SuSE drive.What then? What do I put into the GRUB boot loader to tell it to boot that instead of SuSE?
I looked at the menu file in GRUB and it looks like Chinese stereo instructions to me...
Posted by mikshaw on Oct. 28 2005,14:26
I just tested something yesterday which tells me that won't work. Suse uses reiserfs as its default file system, but DSL will not boot on reiser. So unless you installed suse to ext2/ext3, you'll need to make yourself a new partition.The grub menu.lst in suse is setup fairly simply, actually. There are 3 lines for each system:
1) the title, which will be displayed when you choose your operating system.
2) the kernel line, which specifies which kernel to use, the system root for that kernel, and any config options (the F2 list).
3) the initrd is a ramdisk used during the initial setup.
Your entry would look something like this, assuming that DSL is on hda2:
| Code Sample |
| title Damn Small Linux kernel (hd0,1)/boot/isolinux/linux24 root=/dev/hda2 dsl frugal vga=794 dma initrd (hd0,1)/boot/isolinux/minirt24.gz |
The (hd0,1) is equivalent to hda2 (0 = first drive, 1 = second partition)
You can choose which operating system to run automatically with the "default #" line at the beginning of the file.
Posted by durbnpoisn on Oct. 28 2005,16:22
Okay... So, no matter what, I'm doomed to create a new partition.Ugh... I just hope I don't hose my entire HD trying to do that.
What is the name of that utility that will optimize the drive?
I'm sure that having freed up all that space, it could use a little bit of rearranging.