[hllug] Installing Darn Small Linux (DSL) on an IBM ThinkPad 380D
- From: Cranz Nichols <wb5bkl@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: LIST - HLLug <hllug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:36:55 -0600
My install notes are biased due to the limitations that I faced with
this particular PC: Both the floppy and CD drives were flaky - the CD
drive especially so..
Briefly, here is what I did to get it working. Remember, no CD drive on
the ThinkPad.
The hard drive (a 1.44Gb) was removed from the ThinkPad. I substituted
this drive for the hard drive in another "surrogate" computer using a
borrowed IDE adapter. I then booted the surrogate computer from the DSL
demo/install CD.
I selected the "install" option. After it booted, I ran cfdisk.
With cfdisk, I made a 200 Mb swap partition beginning at the END of the
drive. Then I made a Linux partition (hda2) of 1200Mb - again beginning
at the END of the available space. I then made that partition bootable.
I note that this leaves several Mb at the beginning of the drive.
Next I selected the install option. I entered hda2 as the target drive.
I answered "y" to the question about multi-user and "no" to the query
about an ext3 file system.
The install took several minutes.
Next I was asked if I wanted to install a boot loader. I chose grub. I
was asked if there was a Windows partition - no. The install said to
remove the CD after it ejected and reboot to complete the installation.
After a reboot, the grub loader gave me three boot options - the default
worked on the surrogate computer. The remainder of he install was
mostly setting passwords for the default users "dsl" and "root".
Everything worked smoothly and fairly quickly on my surrogate machine.
I rebooted several times, checking and convinced myself that the hard
disc install was OK.
Note: I discovered that a quick way to get out of the window manager
was ctl-alt-del - which puts you at a command prompt. This would prove
handy later. My shutdown command was "shutdown -h now" or "shutdown -r
now", depending on the circumstances.
I shut down the surrogate computer, reinstalled the hard drive in the
laptop and booted (the BIOS had been set to a HD boot). The default
entry "DSL" in the grub boot loader was not appropriate for the laptop -
but the second one was close, with a 800x600 display option. I selected
that one and logged in as root. X-Windows did not display well, though
'close'. I jumped out of the window manager (C-A-D) and did a
shutdown/reboot.
When the grub loader reappeared I used the arrow keys to select the
second entry and entered "e" (you have 15 seconds, by default, to do
this). Another "e" puts you in a simple line-edit mode within grub. I
changed the "vga=" entry to read "vga=787. I left the remaining entries
alone.
Note: This is a one-time edit - if you screw up, you can just reboot -
nothing is saved.
When done, I hit 'enter' and then "b" to continue with the boot. I
logged in as root. X-Windows was still distorted. I did a C-A-D to the
command line and ran xsetup.sh. I selected the framebuffer option,
800x600 screen, PS2 mouse and us keyboard. Then I rebooted.
Again I interrupted the grub boot loader and edited the second line to
show vga=787, then continued with the boot. X-Windows was displayed
correctly.
Another C-A-D put me at the root command prompt. I
edited /boot/grub/menu.lst and made a new first entry that included the
desired fb800x600 and vga=787 entries. The first entry is the default
for grub.
Another reboot - all was OK as root. Yea! Another reboot and login as
user "dsl" and C-A-D to the command shell to run xsetup.sh again.
Reboot and test the user "dsl". All OK.
Note: Shutdown to reboot on this machine is about 2 minutes.
Done. I am editing this on the ThinkPad. If the CD drive had been
working, and all the information on cheatcodes at hand, this could have
been done on the ThinkPad alone in under an hour easily.
cln
Meanest Man on Emeralds Drive
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