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Topic: Install from floppies, Making a HD install using only floppies

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trader

Group: Members
Posts: 6
Joined: May 2006

Posted: May 06 2006,02:22

Hello folks!
Yes, you guessed it right: I'd like to install DSL on the HD using floppies only. Being the scavenger that I am, I put together a computer with spare parts that more often than not refuse to work. Here are the specs:
P 166 Mhz
32 M of ram
12 G hard drive
ethernet card
USB card
CD-rom
floppy (duh!)
and other unrelated items....
I was able to install Winzozz 98, which so far is running fine (ain't that a joke?) and I even tried to install FreeBSD. Then I discovered by chance DSL and I said to myself that I absolutely must have it on my HD. Why using floppies? For the simple reason that I don't have a USB drive and also because the cd-rom decided to take a (probably permanent) vacation. Starting a week ago, it simply refused to open. Messing around with the FreeBSD install, I noticed that there's an option to do the install from a DOS partition. Can I do it in this case as well or am I dreaming? Please, keep in mind that I've never used Linux before, so this will be the perfect opportunity to do some major screw-up.
Thank you for the attention!

piccolo

Group: Members
Posts: 286
Joined: Mar. 2006

Posted: May 06 2006,10:41

If you can connect to internet using Windows then you need only one floppy disk

1. Download using Windows the file dsl-x.x.iso (x.x is the DSL version, 2.3 is the last) and the bootfloppy.img file.

2. Extract from the dsl-x.x.iso image file the folder KNOPPIX to the hard disk. Then you will have the C:\KNOPPIX folder.

3. Create the DSL boot floppy from bootfloppy.img file: Boot Floppies

4. Reboot the computer using the DSL boot floppy.

That launch DSL from files onto hard disk as well as DSL boot from CDROM. Therefore still DSL was not installed to hard disk and it is running "live mode" from RAM memory.
Then if you want you can do the installation to hard disk. Note there are two methods: Full Installation and Frugal Installation. I recommend you the Frugal Installation:
Frugal Howto

--------------
Robin Hood used Linux

trader

Group: Members
Posts: 6
Joined: May 2006

Posted: May 07 2006,06:13

Hi piccolo,
thank you for the directions, they were very helpful. It all went well until I had to reboot. I rebooted from the floppy, and I followed the instructions, but then it said that it cannot find the KNOPPIX filesystem. I tried to place the KNOPPIX file in different directories, but nothing. It just can't find it. Any suggestions?
Thanks again!

pr0f3550r

Group: Members
Posts: 378
Joined: Dec. 2005

Posted: May 07 2006,12:12

I suppose he should save the iso directly into C:\ and then boot with the option:
dsl fromhd=/dev/hda1

--------------
THE QEMU FORUM: http://qemu.dad-answers.com/index.php

QEMU ON WINDOWS: http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~qemu-win/

How to use floppy, CD-ROM and hard disk - http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~qemu-win/HowToFloppyCdrom-en.html

How to use network - http://www.h7.dion.ne.jp/~qemu-win/HowToNetwork-en.html

piccolo

Group: Members
Posts: 286
Joined: Mar. 2006

Posted: May 07 2006,12:29

Hi trader
Try as pr0f3550r says.

If still DSL not boot then you can try a method to boot DSL from DOS: Loadlin Install
Note that you need only download the loadlin.exe program and do from 3 to 5 step. Then you boot your computer in DOS mode and execute the loadlin.exe program and the DSL boot process will begin.

--------------
Robin Hood used Linux

15 replies since May 06 2006,02:22

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