I started i new thread so i wasn't hijacking buddie's question

so im downloading DSL as I type, I'll be installing it on a Toshiba Satellite 220CDS Pentium 1 laptop, 32Mb RAM, 2gig hard drive.

not sure what to expect when it comes time to install, if i'll need download additional drivers and the like. Anyone who has done this before feel free to chip in...thanks to Phil for the initial input.

cheers K.

Umm. IIRC DSL is a live cd, I am not sure if you can install it. It is not meant to be that type of disto, it is meant to be a live cd. You boot from the cd only and run it, not from HD. Maybe I am wrong and you can Install it, but I do not think thats the point of that disto, kna mean?

The newest version has a hard drive install script on the opening page when you first boot in. Its pretty straightforeward. One thing that I noticed is that apt is not installed, so you're stuck with a distro that can't be upgraded easily. Its a little hack meant to be put on a USB keyring drive or a little 8cm disk. The xvesa driver is limited to 60hz so you may have a bit of a flicker on the screen. I understand why you want to install a lightweight distro. Why don't you get the Debian-installer (I know they say its beta) and install Debian from the ground up. You can then install the X-server that will work with your graphics chip. You'll have the same results, except you can customize it more. You can even install a different windowmanager than fluxbox if you want. XFCE and Windowmaker are both good candidates.

Up to you. I didn't have any real problems getting it installed to my hard drive, but the flicker bothered me too much. He picked a good batch of proggies to include, though.

I downloaded the disk image, so i was going to burn that and install it that way. 60Hz? that really sucks. I just loved the list of programs included...

where's Dr.Phil (C.) when you need him? K.

dsl is really for people that have limited hd space or want a business card distro, apart from the lack of extendsive support for certain devices it is a good distro, i am able to run my southpark episode server without any problems

You might wanna email the author and ask if there's an easy way to install a more appropriate x-server (or maybe apt). Can't hurt. He'll have one of 2 answers for you...

How much room is on that drive? Conceivably you could get normal debian running fairly easy on that.

Writing code, mostly, and getting pounced on by various moronic individuals who have audaciously labelled themselves my superiors. And to think, I used to dream about getting paid to write code...

What's this? To be honest, I hadn't even looked in to upper limits on refresh rate of the Xvesa server, as it ran like a tiny X-windows dream on my laptop (palmtop? never sure what to call the Librettos). I also found Xfbdev to be quite tasty -- I hadn't considered the possibility that my standards might be lower than the average Linux user, but I think at this point maybe I'll start having to put a disclaimer into my advice ("Warning: Doesn't care how things look, as long as they're fast"). I tried both servers and found both to be efficient and good-looking, within my set of standards.

As to the lack of apt, this was noticeable but also easily circumvented -- the tools are still there, if I remember correctly, to install packages once they are found and retrieved; you just need to take care of those initial steps on your own. While vectordrake is correct -- this leaves you with a not-so-easily upgradeable system -- if you have what you need in the first place, and aren't looking to be grabbing the latest releases of everything, there is not much need for upgrading. If you need to upgrade a particular tool, finding the latest package should be quite doable.

Basically, if you like the way that X looks on DSL, and you're happy with the included package list, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If, at some point, you start to worry about upgrading, you feel the need for development tools (most likely because you want to build something from source), or you find that you really are not happy with the way that your flavor of X looks, there are plenty of options for you -- one of the neatest things about there being so many free Linux distributions is that, as long as you can make a backup of your important data (I usually keep my important stuff on a partition separate from the OS, as a first line of defense), you're never really "stuck".

Whoo! I've left this post sitting while I raced around all day. Sorry to leave you hanging so badly. I'll check the threads again later tonight, but for now I need to race off to a developers' meeting. Feel free to shoot any questions you've got at me.

Good luck!
Phil

Ok Phil

so i burned the iso, installed DSL. it absolutely rocks, exactly what i need.

one problem, it won't boot up, and the "install" takes only 8MB on the disk. whats happening? the install wizard is a no brainer so im not sure where im going wrong...

thanks K.

whatever you are trying to boot from has to be enabled in the bios as a boot device, cd-rom floppy, lan,hd, usb, and the device has to be the first thing the bios looks for when it boots, or at least be the final device to be used to boot when all the other devices have failed.

um, i'm booting off a cd and the boot order is set CD-FDD-HDD

it installs fine, runs fines, when i restart it, i get some kind of grub error 17

oh yeah and as i said before, the install only appears to be 8MB, which is clearly not right...

K.

8 mb could be right, the distro is compressed, boot loader grub needs tweaking, I could be wrong, but I thought dsm uses lilo, if so, therein may lie the conflict, you also said,
" i'm booting off a cd and the boot order is set CD-FDD-HDD"
if installed on the hdd, then boot from hdd first. I know it will work, just have to set it up right.



I have been wrong before, I will be wrong again, there could be 1,000 ways that dont work, but all that is needed is one way that it does work.

sorry i wrote that very tired...didnt make any sense.

i installed DSL with the boot order CD-FD-HD, DSL was working fine.

after installation i restarted, and tried every boot order, only to get error 17 when loading Grub.

The drive was formatted before i installed DSL, so there's nothing else on there.

Thanks for any advice.....K.

Boot loader sector before cyl 1024 is not affected by formatting, both lilo, and grub are set up in this sector, with the exeption of bootable partitions, find info on changing boot loader commands, and distro changes, some distro's invisibly try to change boot loader settings, when they actually do not, these sectors need to be tweaked manually. be careful, a bootable cdrom, floppy, usb, will make things easy.

The thing which is strange is while i was navigating DSL after installation, the CD was working overtime.

I'm a little lost by what you're advising. I don't think it's possible all those apps/themes could possibly fit in 8MB. It's advertised on the site that the install is under 50MB. what is error 17?

thanks a lot K.