I wanted to use an old Toshiba Satellite 500MHz with 65 MB RAM and 4.1 G hdd to install and learn Puppy Linux, booting from CD rom, and I first completely formatted disc,erasing old Windows 98 meaning to clean the complete space for new OS. I downloaded Slacko Puppy Linux, and burned the CD, and booted like it said, it went through i think succesfully, but I came to what looks like DOS. It says:

Slacko Puppy Linux
Linux 2.6.37.6 (i686 arch)

puppypc2936 login:root (automatic login)
#_

Cursor blinks there awaiting command, but I know only one command: poweroff. And it works, it turns off and when I turn it on it commes to this same place again.
Can someone help me to come to the normal desctop icons, or I messed it completely. Please, thanks...

You've booted to a Linux shell. With so little disk, it is possible that the installer did not perform a full graphical installation. Perhaps try
which, on many distros, invokes runlevel 5, which is usually a full GUI mode. Also worth trying:
--- rod.

You need more RAM (even for Puppy). Time to recycle that Toshiba I think.

Try your local freecycle/craigslist/recycling center/goodwill/etc. and I bet you can upgrade your hardware for little/no cost. Where I live, Pentium 4's with 1gb RAM (a good minimum configuration for Linux) are often available for under US$100.

Yes, 65 mb ram .....,why did i try to do it. My first thought was, people throw away so many of this, very clever machines even in the oldest configuration. I wanted to play a little, how to use it, maybe they can regulate some simple processes, for ex, temperature, you can input some data from outside, and control some output system, this is practically free, why not some use. Is there some simplest Operative System that can be used, maybe MSDOS. I thought that linux is the right thing to do, but....I can always throw it away.

All software has "minimum hardware requirements." When I visit http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Puppy53 I see:

Your Toshiba has 1/4 of the minimum recommended RAM for Puppy Slacko 5.3. Probably this is why your graphical desktop (GUI) doesn't work, but it looks like you have a working Linux terminal, so you can begin learning Linux commands such as how to control your temperature device. With such limited hardware it is actually better not to use a GUI, in my opinion.

If you decide to replace the Toshiba, please do not throw it in the trash. Donate or recycle it properly to avoid toxic waste: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_waste

With a machine like that you can either try antiX (which claims to run with 64MB of RAM) or just run a system without graphical interface. That also can be a great possibility of learning Linux (and not the graphical configuration tools).