Need unpacked Desktop!Forum: HD Install Topic: Need unpacked Desktop! started by: xdarkxchildx Posted by xdarkxchildx on Nov. 03 2005,01:05
I recently recieved a TI- Extensa 515. it's freaking old. never the less, i'd like to run linux on it instead of it's native winblows. prblem is, no usb, and no cd. i do have a solution though. a usb to ide interface lets me mess with the hard drive directly. problem is, i can't get any other computer to work with the hard drive, andi i can't get DSL to recognise it. so, i plead with you, could one of you possibly install DSl to a hard drive, and then make an ISO image of EVERYTHING on the hard drive that is DSl and send it to me?
Posted by andrewb on Nov. 03 2005,23:23
You say no cd & no USB, I assume it has a floppy drive. In that case download the bootfloppy.img file from the DSL ftp site (http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/damnsmall/) & make the floppy (use dd from linux or get rawwrite for dos or windows to write the floppy image). While you're downloading the DSL images grab a copy of tomsrtbt (www.toms.net). Use tomsrtbt to boot the system to linux & partition the drive, You can then set up a network connection using tomsrtbt to copy the knoppix directory with the knoppix file in it from another machine. This all assumes you have some network connection for the machine.Then boot the machine using the floppy created with the bootfloppy.img image & use the fromhd cheatcode though it should boot without this as it will search all available devices for the knoppix filesystem (the knoppix file in the knoppix directory). To get things set up in an orderly fashion I'd recommend partitioning your drive initially with only a 51MB partition for the initial knoppix directory. Once you have DSL booted you can partition the rest of the drive as you like. You may need to boot to text mode (DSL 2 cheatcode) to start with & set up a swap partition if you have limited RAM in this machine. The only problem you're likely to hit with this method is the capitalization of the knoppix directory & filename. If you get messages that the knoppix filesystem can't be found this will be the reason - boot again with tomsrtbt & check the filenames. I read somewhere in the forums recently about a knoppix code which works with DSL which will boot from an iso image of the cd which has been saved to the hard-drive. So far as I know the 'knoppix' file from any of the distributions will do so you could use tomsrtbt to download one of the .gz files & extract the knoppix file from that, though tomsrtbt will probably allow you to mount an iso image stored to the hard drive as a using 'mount -o loop .........' & get at the knoppix file that way. Have fun! Posted by xdarkxchildx on Nov. 04 2005,01:05
i would totaly do that. but like i said, it's OLD. i kinda just want to copy the unpacked system. you think you could help me out there?
Posted by brianw on Nov. 04 2005,02:32
I am not sure I follow here. How are you planning to copy the "unpacked system" onto your hard drive if you can't copy the files on the cdrom and you can't access the hard drive from any other machine even using the usb to ide cable? Posted by xdarkxchildx on Nov. 04 2005,03:00
i have an IDE to USB adapter. it lets me acces the hard drive, and put stuff on it, take stuff off it. it's fairly cool. any way, i was planning on loading the OS with that....
Posted by mikshaw on Nov. 04 2005,05:18
If windows runs on it, it's not too freaking old....DSL will run on systems that run windows 3.1., and will run in text mode on systems that can't even run windows.I'm not really clear on what your situation is, but it seems like if someone were to install DSL onto a harddrive it would be installed for their hardware rather than yours, so it might not work for you. Would it not be better to mount the ISO onto your own system and copy the necessary files to your machine? Posted by andrewb on Nov. 06 2005,09:48
I think you need to read up on the frugal / poormans install. As I said before all you need to get onto the hard drive is the knoppix directory with the knoppix file in it & then boot the system from the floppy. Once you're booted you can use the frugal install option from the menu & GRUB will be set up on your hard drive so you no longer need the floppy.
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