Re: installing sarge from hard drive on libretto110ct

2006-06-08 Thread Michelle Konzack
Am 2006-05-25 21:40:39, schrieb Liudmila Yafremava:
> 
> Hello!

> using only floppies. I made attempts to install both potato
> and sarge that way, with the same result: after booting with a
> linux boot floppy, the machine demands a root floppy but
> never releases the floppy drive (it continues to spin). When,
> ignoring that, I pull the boot floppy and replace it with the
> root floppy, it responds with a bunch of queer messages and
> "unable to mount root floppy" etc. Somewhere I read that
> initial linux boot floppy does not have the pcmcia drivers
> on it, so the machine may not be able to communicate with
> its floppy in such an install. Correct me if I am wrong.

I had this sort of problems too...

But it is easy to solv, IF you

1)  Can boot with a Win95B bootfloppy downloaded from the internet

2)  Remove all what is not neccesary for creating a DOS partition
and formating it.

3)  Download syslinux.exe and rawread.exe from the internet and put
it on the floppy too.

5)  Boot the Floppy and crate a DOS partition of around 28 MByte
and make it DOS bootable.

6)  reboot the system and copy syslinux.exe and "example-preseed.txt"
to the Harddrive C:

6)  Rename the "example-preseed.txt" to "syslinux.cfg" and
edit it to your needs

7)  now on another system download the files
boot.img.gz
initrd.gz
vmlinuz
from the directory 
/debian/dists/sarge/main/installer-i386/current/images/hd-media/

8)  Split the boot.img.gz into 6 parts of 1,3 MByte and transfer
it to drive c:

9)  Do the same with initrd.gz (3 parts)

10) vmlinuz can be copied directly

11) now resemble the singel parts with

copy \b boot.img.gz.1 \b boot.img.gz.2 \b boot.img.gz.3 
 \b boot.img.gz.4 \b boot.img.gz.5 \b boot.img.gz.6 
 \b boot.img.gz.7 \b boot.img.gz.8boot.img.gz

and

copy \b initrd.gz.1 \b initrd.gz.2 \b initrd.gz.3 initrd.gz

12) now call
syslinux c:
which will write the bootsector...

13) If you NOW reboot the system, it will start the installation
directly from the 28 MByte DOS-Partition

ATTENTION:  Instead of syslinux you can use loadlin.exe
and the install.bat provided by Debian.

In this case, you have not the need to make C: bootable for syslinux...
...and if you configure LILO/GRUB right after successfull installation,
you can always boot into the DOS partition for new installations or such.

Greetings
Michelle Konzack


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Re: installing sarge from hard drive on libretto110ct

2006-05-26 Thread Liudmila Yafremava


Hello, Digby and Kevin!

So far the agreement between you guys and my other linux-friends seems to 
be that I should pull the hard drive and install on another system. I will 
do that as a last resort, because I will probably have a nightmare of a 
time configuring it on the libretto with all the devices.


So, before I do that, I'd like to explore other options. Digby, you 
said that you installed Debian from SuSE using a hard drive install. What 
did you do? I am trying a hard drive install, but I am failing, as I 
described above. Will the difference be that I do it with loadlin and you 
did it with lilo? Can I get lilo going from dos?


I have a 4G hard drive. Dos can only see 2 G of it, so I partitioned the 
other 2 G into ext2. I left 8M at the end of the disk for sleep/wake 
cycles (I read somewhere that's where libreto wants them on 4G drives...). 
I used root=/dev/ram, root=/dev/hda2, root=/dev/hdb2 and many 
other permutations of /dev/hd** with the same result. The only difference 
from trying to mount it in ram, is that for RAM-mount it complains


cramfs: wrong magic

and for /dev/hd** mount that message does not appear.

I have 32 M of RAM, and during RAMDISK driver initialization 
(loadlin-boot method) it allocates 16 RAM disks with 8192 K size, 1024 
blocksize. Is that a little much? Maybe my memory is corrupted somewhere, 
I'll check it out.


I have pcmcia network cards and internet access though a modem on another 
machine, but I have no faith in being able 
to get pcmcia to work at such early stage of install. I could install 
windows95 from hard drive, install pcmcia ethernet card, and try to do a 
network install from my linux desktop at home. But, I have no idea how to 
configure things on the desktop to do that. Besides, I would only be able 
to do that if I could boot from hard drive, which I can't! I don't want to 
install over a modem from debian websites, because I do not trust security 
of my isp.



If all else fails, I could probably get you a bootable Linux partition
image which we would just need to get coppied into a partition on
your hard drive.


How would that work?

Luda


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Re: installing sarge from hard drive on libretto110ct

2006-05-26 Thread Digby Tarvin
Hello Luda,

> So far the agreement between you guys and my other linux-friends seems to 
> be that I should pull the hard drive and install on another system. I will 
> do that as a last resort, because I will probably have a nightmare of a 
> time configuring it on the libretto with all the devices.

I also prefer to do the initial install on the actual target if at
all possible, although in general you can get a running system using
a hard drive from an installation done on another machine. 

> So, before I do that, I'd like to explore other options. Digby, you 
> said that you installed Debian from SuSE using a hard drive install. What 
> did you do? I am trying a hard drive install, but I am failing, as I 
> described above. Will the difference be that I do it with loadlin and you 
> did it with lilo? Can I get lilo going from dos?

It was quite different, - didn't require lilo or grub to start
the initial install system. The procedure involved copying the installation
system into a sub-directory on the SuSE system, and then chrooting
into it, From there I was able to do a net-install using my PCMCIA ethernet
card. Essentially it was the Debian net-install the SuSE kernel and
drivers, but Debian filesystem and commands.

This was back in January - I think the installation instructions may
have changed since then.. and I have just finished an install on quite
a different laptop, so my memory of what I did on the Libretto is now
a bit hazy :-/

> I have a 4G hard drive. Dos can only see 2 G of it, so I partitioned the 
> other 2 G into ext2. I left 8M at the end of the disk for sleep/wake 
> cycles (I read somewhere that's where libreto wants them on 4G drives...). 

That doesn't sound right. If you partition the disk while it is in the
Libretto, the BIOS knows about about the hibernation area and will
reserve it automatically (it has to be big enough to store your entire
memory - which is potentially 64MB). You only have to worry about
about reserving it yourself if you use a HDD larger than 4GB, or
do the partitioning in another machine.

> I used root=/dev/ram, root=/dev/hda2, root=/dev/hdb2 and many 
> other permutations of /dev/hd** with the same result. The only difference 
> from trying to mount it in ram, is that for RAM-mount it complains
> 
> cramfs: wrong magic
> 
> and for /dev/hd** mount that message does not appear.
> 
> I have 32 M of RAM, and during RAMDISK driver initialization 
> (loadlin-boot method) it allocates 16 RAM disks with 8192 K size, 1024 
> blocksize. Is that a little much? Maybe my memory is corrupted somewhere, 
> I'll check it out.

I havn't tried loadlin. If you give me the URL corresponding to the
images you downloaded, I'll try them on the Windows partition on
my system to see if they work for me.

> I have pcmcia network cards and internet access though a modem on another 
> machine, but I have no faith in being able 
> to get pcmcia to work at such early stage of install.

You'll definately need to get the initial install system booted first
before you have any chance to use the network card.

> I could install 
> windows95 from hard drive, install pcmcia ethernet card, and try to do a 
> network install from my linux desktop at home. But, I have no idea how to 
> configure things on the desktop to do that. Besides, I would only be able 
> to do that if I could boot from hard drive, which I can't! I don't want to 
> install over a modem from debian websites, because I do not trust security 
> of my isp.

In that case a netinstall is probably not very practical. If your desktop
machine has a CD or DVD, you would probably be better off just using the
network to do a remote CD/DVD based install.

> >If all else fails, I could probably get you a bootable Linux partition
> >image which we would just need to get coppied into a partition on
> >your hard drive.
> 
> How would that work?

If you create a partition of corresponding size, then you would just
need to copy the image into it. I'm not a Windows person, so I don't
know the easiest way to do it from windows. I would probably download
a hosted inferno system (Inferno is an operating system that can run
on top of windows, and gives you access to Unix style commands like
dd), but it might be a bit of a diversion if you are not familiar with
it. You could also try booting from a linux rescue floppy, mount the
DOS partition, and use 'dd' to write the image to the linux partition.

Then use lilo on the floppy to boot to it, and if that works install
lilo or grub onto your HDD MBR.

Regards,
DigbyT
-- 
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http://www.digbyt.com


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Re: installing sarge from hard drive on libretto110ct

2006-05-26 Thread Digby Tarvin
Hi Liudmila,

I have Debian (amoungst other things) running on a Libretto 110CT.

It is a nice little machine once you get it installed, but as you
have discovered, one of the more challenging install targets...

The PCMCIA floppy is of limitted use for installation, because
it is PCMCIA and only the BIOS knows how to read it. Once you
have booted, if a second or more floppies are required by the
installer (as is often the case to load extra modules), you are
stuck.

The 800x480 screen was hard to get going other than at 640x480
originally, but I think the X server on Sarge worked ok out of
the box.

The way I got my system installed (which probably won't help you
directly) was..
 1. Red Hat Install - could not use any PCMCIA device (floppy, CD,
 ethernet) due to modules needed from a second floppy, so configured
 a desktop machine as a CD server and used a laplink cable and PLIP.
 2. Replaced RedHat with SuSE, bootstrapping from the RedHad installation.
 3. Installed Debian Sarge using had disk install from SuSE.

I have since installed on a number of Libretto's by 'cheating' and
just installing the hard drive in a desktop machine using a 2.5"
cable adapter, and dd'ing a copy of my current system onto the
partition.

I have also upgraded the hard drive several times, and am now
at 100GB. Be careful not to create any partitions that overlap
with the hibernation area on the disk. If your disk is larger
than 4GB it will be in the middle of the disk somewhere. (Cylinder
1018-1042 on mine).

The hard disk install from Windows that you are trying is probably
the easiest option for you. I havn't tried it myself, especially
with such an old version of Windows (my Libretto came with W95
installed).

The diagnostic seems to indicate a problem mounting your ramdisk,
so I would check the integrity of the image and the arguments to
loadlin.

If nobody more familiar with Windows offers any insights there, I
could give it a go on my machine and see if it boots from my W95
partition.

Also, you didn't mention how large you hard disk is, and what you
have in the way of network connectivity. Those items will probably
effect the choice of install strategy.

If all else fails, I could probably get you a bootable Linux partition
image which we would just need to get coppied into a partition on
your hard drive.

Regards,
DigbyT

On Thu, May 25, 2006 at 09:40:39PM -0500, Liudmila Yafremava wrote:
> 
> Hello!
> 
> I have been trying to install Sarge on Toshiba Libretto 110ct
>  for weeks with no success. I gravely need someone to take me
> through it, as I feel that I've tried everything and can't
> think of anything else to do.
> 
> The laptop had an empty hard drive and external PCMCIA
> floppy and cd drives. It cannot boot from cd drive, only
> from floppy or hard drive. I installed dos on it and
> formatted the hard drive. At first, I tried to do an install
> using only floppies. I made attempts to install both potato
> and sarge that way, with the same result: after booting with a
> linux boot floppy, the machine demands a root floppy but
> never releases the floppy drive (it continues to spin). When,
> ignoring that, I pull the boot floppy and replace it with the
> root floppy, it responds with a bunch of queer messages and
> "unable to mount root floppy" etc. Somewhere I read that
> initial linux boot floppy does not have the pcmcia drivers
> on it, so the machine may not be able to communicate with
> its floppy in such an install. Correct me if I am wrong.
> 
> So, after a lot of messing around I installed windows 3.1
> and pcmcia cdrom drivers for dos which allowed me to copy
> the whole debian disk 1 onto the harddrive. I followed the
> instructions in the installation manual for a hard drive
> install. I copied loadlin, vmlinuz, initrd.gz and the .iso
> file for the 1st of the sarge install cds onto c:\ and
> tried installing linux by invoking
> 
> loadlin c:\vmlinuz root=/dev/ram rw initrd=c:\initrd.gz.
> 
> This results in scanning of vmlinuz and initrd, with a bunch
> of boot messages and finally
> 
> cramfs: wrong magic
> kernel panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on 01:00.
> 
> I tried changing the root= parameter, I downloaded
> vmlinuz and initrd.gs from sarge's hd-media subfolder,
> but all that results in kernel panic and inability to mount
> root fs. I copied root.img onto c:\ with no results.
> 
> I tried using sbm to tell the laptop to boot from the cd,
> but sbm cannot see the device. I guess it is not an ide.
> 
> I know I am pretty clueless when it comes to linux, but
> I have installed debian on a few machines before, and I am
> able to follow the instructions.. What am I missing? I am
> stumped. Please help.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Luda
> 
> 
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Re: installing sarge from hard drive on libretto110ct

2006-05-26 Thread Kevin Mark
On Thu, May 25, 2006 at 09:40:39PM -0500, Liudmila Yafremava wrote:
> 
> Hello!
> 
> I have been trying to install Sarge on Toshiba Libretto 110ct
>  for weeks with no success. I gravely need someone to take me
> through it, as I feel that I've tried everything and can't
> think of anything else to do.
Hi Liudmila,
I have a 100ct. I installed redhat 7.2 long ago and then upgraded to
Debian Sarge. The way I did it was a bit complicated, so I will tell you
an easier way. 
1) remove the 2.5" hd from the libretto
2) get a 2.5"=>3.5" hd adapter (about $5)
3) install this in a regular desktop pc
4) put sarge cd in cdrom 
5) install sarge 
6) remove hd
7) reinstall in libretto
8) fix settings
cheers,
Kev
ps. once you get the hd back in, email for info about tweaking the
settings.
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