HD Install :: Frugal install on fresh 2GB HD (partition help)

I spent ALL DAY yesterday trying to get this to work before giving up and asking here today. I've got a new 20GB HD for my laptop coming in the mail tomorrow, and it will either get an install of either DSL (frugal), if I can get this to work, or Win98SE, if not.

So I'm playing with it on the current 2GB HD which has no data of any value on it (or any data at all, now).

I removed all the partitions on my laptop's 2GB HD (except for the BIOS save-to-disk partition) with DOS

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fdisk

yesterday. Then using

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cfdisk

after booting DSL, I created the following partitions:

hda1 :: type 83 :: 256 MB :: *BOOTABLE*
(kernel goes here)

hda2 :: type 83 :: 1,500 MB
(intended to be my persistant storage partition)

hda3 :: type 82 :: 256MB
(swap partition)

After writing the partition table, I rebooted to ensure it was read correctly. A quick check of the table showed it was correct as shown above.

Then, although I don't know if I had to, I did

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mkswap /dev/hda3

and

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swapon /dev/hda3

.

Then I ran Frugal Install and was told that hda1 was mounted and the install could not continue.

The script promptly shut down DSL and restarted, a process with which I have grown greatly familiar.

I started DSL again, unmounted hda1, and ran the Frugal Install script again. The install of KNOPPIX to hda1 seemed to go fine, but nothing was created on hda2 even though that's where I asked it to put my persistent directories. The system restarted again, and did nothing when I attempted to boot from the HD.

I thought "I wonder if I'm supposed to do the

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mkliloboot

myself, or at all ... "

So I did. And then DSL does boot off hda1, until I get to a Kernel Panic: cannot find root on 03:03. I guess that's saying the persistant areas I requested to be on hda2 are not there?

I kick my computer a little bit, and start over.

Repeat entire process 10 times, and you have my schdule for yesterday  

I couldn't ever seem to find a step-by-step guide for Frugal Install after searching through this site ... although there were several well-written guides to a full HD install. I guess, then, the Frugal Install script is supposed to be self-sustaining and self-explanatory? I'm just having a run of hard luck with this.

I just decided to devote the weekend to diving headfirst into this, my first Linux experience. I'm comfortable with a command prompt and computer hardware configuration, but all my experience is from the DOS/Windows world. This is like learning to swin by jumping into the lake.

Help?