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Topic: Help Installing DSL on a CF Card

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kcw118

Group: Members
Posts: 3
Joined: May 2006

Posted: May 08 2006,03:00

Hi,

I'm having some trouble installing DSL onto a CF Card. I have a Dell Inspiron 7000 Laptop and I've installed DSL onto the HD so I know DSL runs on my laptop. I basically followed the instructions posted under the topic: image for a cf card, but it's not working for me. When I turn on my laptop, it says "Operating system Not Found".

Here's what I've done so far:

- I replaced the laptop's HD with a 4GB CF card installed in an IDE-to-CF adapter.

- Booted DSL from the CD and ran cfdisk: deleted the exiting partitions on the CF card and created a new single linux (type 83) partition. I wrote the partition table to disk and formatted the cf card.

- Next I shut down the system and booted up DSL from a CD with the "install" option, and selected "5. Frugal Lilo Compact Flash Install".
- I entered the following at the prompts:
-- Enter target partition to hold image: hda1
-- Intall from [L]iveCD .... : l
-- List boot options... : <return>
-- Choose language... : <return>
-- Do you wish to specify a default restore partition? n
-- Use default Xvesa settings, Xvesa? : <return>
-- Do you wish to specify a different partition for myDSL? n
-- Format the target partition /dev/hda1? y

- The install seems to go OK, and it prompts me to remove the CD to reboot. But when it reboots, it says "Operating System Not Found".

- I also tried booting with the options "dsl norestore base" and doing the install from the desktop > tools > installs > Frugal Grub Install, but got the same thing.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

anaconda

Group: Members
Posts: 96
Joined: Mar. 2006

Posted: May 08 2006,07:11

If your CF-card is pretending to be a hard-disk (in IDE slot), then shouldn't you use the install to hard-disk. Instead of install to CF?

I dont know. I have only installed to usb-CF reader. And I used the install to USB-HDD. Worked fine.

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anaconda

hs7sv

Group: Members
Posts: 247
Joined: June 2005

Posted: May 08 2006,10:07

You should use Frugal install for CF but you need to prepare CF with cfdisk first. This is a sample if you want 2 partitions:-
hda1 - ext2 (DSL boot image) ~ 75-100 MB
hda2 - ext2 (Backup/Restore, MyDSL and data)

You can format the partitions in aterm as Root:-

Code Sample

mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda1
mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda2

after formatting, reboot and make Frugal Install.

Note: I think the problem was on formatting step. Lilo may make something in boot record.
You may try this way: cfdisk ... Fomat ... reboot ... Format ... reboot ... Frugal install.
If it is not success, you may start over from cfdisk again.

Good luck

--------------
"My advice is to just return hardware that does not work with a plain Linux kernel, right to the place where you bought it, and ask for your money back..."

Klaus Knopper

kcw118

Group: Members
Posts: 3
Joined: May 2006

Posted: May 10 2006,13:29

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried reformatting from scratch, and tried both lilo and grub, but it's still not booting. When I reboot from the CD, mount the CF card and go to the /mnt/dev/hda1 directory, I have (under the lilo install):

KNOPPIX
boot
lost+found

Under the boot directory I have:

boot.0300
lilo.conf
linux24
map
minirt24.gz

I think that the files are there after the install, but it's a problem with the boot strapping. How do I tell what's in the MBR? Is the MBR cleared when I do a cfdisk?

What else should I be looking for to help diagnose this problem? Thanks in advance.

hs7sv

Group: Members
Posts: 247
Joined: June 2005

Posted: May 12 2006,08:09

I think there is something in boot record because of Lilo. You may try this way:-
- Use cfdisk and delete all partitions on /dev/hda ... then Reboot
- Re-check partition with cfdisk ... pls make sure it is empty ... then Reboot
- Use cfdisk and make new partition ... 1 or 2 partition(s) ... up to you ... then Reboot
- Use Aterm as root and mkfs.ext2 /dev/hda1 ... Format partition(s) ... then Reboot
- Do GRUB Frugal Install ... then Reboot
Good Luck

--------------
"My advice is to just return hardware that does not work with a plain Linux kernel, right to the place where you bought it, and ask for your money back..."

Klaus Knopper

9 replies since May 08 2006,03:00

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