HD Install :: i have no floopy,no cdrom, only hd,can i?



If you have windows 9x on your machine you should be able to get DSL running from your hard disk in the windows partition without the need to repartition the hard-disk - you will need in addition to windows, winimage, winiso and loadlin 1.6c - download these from the net as required. If you have you can also create a swap file on the windows partition as follows - with thanks to Patrick Volkerding of Slackware fame - when in DSL

Here's how to make a swap file manually:

dd if=/dev/zero of=knoppix.swp bs=1k count=8192
mkswap knoppix.swp
sync

If you need a larger swapfile, simply increase the value of 'count'.

To activate a swapfile manually, you can use 'swapon':

swapon /root/knoppix.swp

On subsequent reboots DSL will automatically the knoppix.swp file and add it to the fstab


See my previous postings for booting from ISO and Flash for further details on booting with loadlin - if you put the knoppix subdirectory on your C drive the hard disk reference should be root=/dev/hda1
in the loadlin startup batch file.

vk2emq
OK, here is what I did ( unsucsessful;y so far  :( )

IBM Thinkpad 560, 40 MB, 352MB hdd, only Floppy, 800x600 LCD resolution

1. Try:
Installing on my other thinkpad ( 1024x768 LCD resolution )
put the hdd back in TP 560 and try a hdd install
NO way to get the resolution right  ( it always falls back to 1024x768, which doesn't work.

2. Try:
put the hdd in my server via 2,5 to 3,5 adaptor
make the 3 Partitions for the frugal install
put the iso un the first one
boot with floppy

ends up in the same resolution problem

so where does the system get the resolution? always says something about, going back to previos resolution

have I some mbr problem? If how to I solve it?

Thanks frank@mclien.de
Frank,
Try again, but when you have the hard drive in the other computer be sure to boot it with
fb800x600 at the first boot prompt.

boot:  fb800x600

Then when you do a hard drive install the 800x600 video mode will be passed to the hard drive.
Otherwise you have to edit /etc/lilo.conf, but hard to do if you can't see it, and X may not be readable because of resolution.
so on the Computer without cdrom I do:

boot: fb800x600 knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1  ?
OK. First you are moving the hard drive in another machine. So that this target hard drive is the only hard drive, or at least the primary, i.e. /dev/hda
Then since the target machine only support 800x600 type
boot: fb800x600
Then at shell prompt, for the full hard drive installation type
sudo dsl-hdinstall
or for a minimal CD like emulation type
sudo frugal_instal.sh
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