HD Install :: DSL 0.7.2 HD install no workie

Don't know if this will help, but I use either tomsrtbt or BootE linux (on a floppy) to set up a hard drive and format the partitions for ext2, swap, etc.
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I have not been able using 0.6.2 or 0.6.3 (oldies) to do a "dsl-hdinstall" and
have it boot up fully to X. Some get up to run level 2 (text).
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Something like Mandrake 7.2 will easily install, set up GRUB, and boot right up into KDE. It's similar to Redhat 6.1, but easier. Most of the time, my
dsl-hdinstall will set up a lilo that won't fully boot, or boots to a different point each time, without getting the linux system to run.
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I don't know, maybe GRUB is better, or the install script Mandrake uses
is better, etc.
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I'm using a IBM 350-P90, with an upgrade 200 MMX processor and 128 MB ram, on a 420 MB HDD. Works fine with an older kernel such as
in Mandrake 7.2. I run Opera 6.03, and have my own dialer setup as shown here:
http://www.geocities.com/rapidweather/linux2.html
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I have found that some of the older kernels run better on old hardware, not suprisingly, and although they will run the newer DSL kernels, they use up all the RAM, and can have other problems, but will work.
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All in all, I find that DSL works best as a live CD, since I have not been able to get it to install using dsl-hdinstall. I do run it from the HDD from a boot floppy and /knoppix folder in a partition. Also, the filetool.lst and backup.tar.gz are placed in another partition, and the boot is done thusly:
boot: knoppix restore=/dev/hda2
I have a couple of machines that run DSL like that, and one that uses the CDROM drive, but with a restore partition as per above.
I'm going to keep trying on the dsl-hdinstall, I have an older machine that I may be able to use, I'll have to see...
I still have doubts about the "vga=791" being passed by the lilo script, or
whatever. Once the DSL system is installed on the HDD, and at least boots up to a text level, I find that X can fail, and I cannot edit lilo.conf
using the live CD to get in to the system. When I run lilo, it uses the default lilo.conf, with the same unaltered result.
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All in all, I am convinced that DSL can be installed to the HDD, if Mandrake 7.2 can. Perhaps I need to download the latest DSL and use the dsl-hdinstall scripts provided there.
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Hey, I finally got the DSL 0.7.3 HD install to work. Woohoo!
Here's how it was done:

The first step was to boot my DOS Norton Disk Editor floppy and save the HD's mbr to a file on hdb1 for safekeeping.

After booting the DSL CD, I snooped through the directory structure until I found the dsl-hdinstall script in the /KNOPPIX/usr/sbin directory. I copied the script to the /root directory and renamed it to dsl-hdinst.

Quote (nucpc @ Aug. 14 2004,17:37)

UnDude - you seem on top of your game so you might consider editing the
dsl-install script; commenting out the fdisk checking lines....if you're sure you've got the
partition and you can write to it (which it looks like you have and can do) then there
shouldn't be a problem. Nine lines to comment out from FDISK="$(fdisk -l /dev/$DISK...
The variable is never used anywhere else.

Next, I followed nucpc's suggestion, editing dsl-hdinst to remove the if statement involving fdisk.

Running dsl-hdinst and specifying hdb7 as the target partition now appeared to run normally. I chose the "standard" installation and did not set up for multiple users.

mkliloboot installed lilo on hdb's mbr.

I then booted the HD. "KNOPPIX" was the only available choice in lilo, but DSL now booted from the HD, asking for root and dsl user passwords. Success at last! I liked the fact that DSL remembered my selected screen resolution (800 x 600, my eyes are already bad enough without straining them to read higher resolutions) and displayed a message about running xsetup.sh should I wish to change it.

Since I want lilo on hdb7's boot sector instead of hdb's mbr so that I can use ntldr as my boot manager, I returned to Norton Disk Editor, copied the mbr (lilo) to a file on hdb1 as well as to hdb7's boot sector. Then I overwrote the mbr with the original version, saved earlier.

Rebooting the HD now presented me with my original ntldr boot menu, so I booted hdb1 (Win95), then added the saved lilo boot sector file to ntldr's boot.ini, adding "Damn Small Linux" to my boot menu.

Booting the HD again and selecting DSL from the ntldr menu now booted me straight into hdb7 without a hitch.

As I was beginning to suspect, the problems I had trying to do a DSL HD install apparently involve the Linux fdisk and cfdisk commands. Editing fdisk out of the dsl-hdinstall script might also help ckam2 with his HD install.

This is cool. This is neat. Now I can play around with DSL on my hard drive. My current goal with DSL is to eventually customize it into a "kiosk" or "internet cafe" type of system with internet access and a few games, remaster it, then do a frugal install so that the user can't permanently change (read: screw up) any of the system settings. The user should also not have to know anything about Linux or hardware -- they just turn it on and it works.

I have a couple questions:

I have Mandrake 9 installed on two of my other PCs, and I seem to recall an option that allows you to install lilo on either the Linux partition's boot sector or a floppy disk instead of the HD's mbr. Is there such an option with DSL's lilo?

Also, when I boot DSL, I get the message, "You passed an undefined mode number. Press RETURN to see video modes available, SPACE to continue, or wait 30 seconds." Is there any way to bypass this automatically, as though you has pressed the space bar (I'm looking for faster bootup without any required user intervention here)?

Add the option "vga=normal" to the Linux boot command append line inside your Lilo configuration file.
Then run Lilo from the command line to rebuild your boot sector.

DSL will then boot up in "Normal" 80x25 text mode and you won't get that undefined mode number message/prompt any more.

yes, it worked.
thanks

Lilo wouldn't accept a "vga=" statement in lilo.conf's "append" line, but replacing the existing "vga=some_number" with "vga=normal" did the trick. Also, changing the "boot=" line from hdb to hdb7 put lilo where I wanted it, preserving my existing mbr.

I even figgered out how to change my wallpaper by copying and modifying an existing desktop theme.

Now I can start playing around with this and maybe learn a little more about how DSL and Linux in general work.

The first order of business is to see if I can get DSL to recognize my remaining peripherals, like my ethernet and sound cards.

I would be curious, though, to know if there is a fix for the problems with fdisk and cfdisk that I (and probably quite a few others as well) encountered during DSL's HD installation process.

Again, thanks for all your help!

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