Tuesday, September 11, 2007

2.2 Install DSL on HD
The Website says:

##Quote

A "frugal" type install mirrors the operation of the LiveCD. It installs the compressed filesystem and associated boot files onto a pre-prepared partition of your choice on your hard drive.
The frugal install offers you a choice of two bootloaders, lilo or grub.
This method offers many benefits to you over the typical linux hard drive install.
Use of the extension repository for adding applications, which are designed to run in the frugal/liveCD environment. Much easier upgrade path, without needing to reinstall from scratch. Use of the 'toram' option, while still operating from a hard drive type device. This offers you the maximum performance in DSL, by running your entire OS in ramspace, but getting the load performance and speed the hard drive offers.(requires 128MB ram) Most all other boottime options are available to you, like persistant home and opt directories, autoloading of applications, setting fresh passwords, encrypting/decrypting your backups, unique hostname, and autorestore/backup of your personal files and settings at boottime and shutdown. You can easily revert back to a pristine install condition, and extend this feature to uninstall any extension. Steps needed:
Create a 50MB Linux partition with cfdisk (ex. hda2 ) Right-click on the desktop, navigate to Apps>>Tools>>Frugal Install, and select your choice of Frugal-Grub or Frugal-Lilo. This will make a ext2 file system and copies the necessary portions of the cd to it. You can also bootup the DSL CD with the bootcode option " install " , and you will be presented with all the install options in a menu format.


##End Quote


Just for those of you who are like me who don't know what a frugal install is let alone a grub or lilo install then read this bit:
Frugal: The ability to boot up your computer with a method that isn't the liveCD.

Lilo vs. Grub install: Apparently Grub is a bit more future proof in that you don't need to upgrade it if you change operating systems and you can use network booting too. I will be using Grub therefore. I've no idea why anyone would want to use Lilo. None seems to mention it anwhere.


In this case we will set up the following drives:
hda1: This drive holds your DSL image (size: 60Mb)

hda2: This holds your persistent changes as and when you make changes that you wish to be remembered - (size: the rest)



Depending on what your requirments are - you may need a swap drive. There is plenty of advice on how to create one if you need it. Basically it will become apparent once up and running - the nice thing about DSL is that it shows you on the dashboard (top right) what memory usage you have. If you are maxing out either upgrade your memory or introdcue a swap drive. I have 512Mb RAM which is running at 36% at the moment so I won't use one just for the moment.


Recipe


1. Boot from CD

2. At the cheatcode option type: dsl 2 (this just goes into the command prompt mode)

3. At the command prompt type: cfdisk

4. Create the partitions as you see fit. I have sized them as above (60MB : the rest). I have not made them bootable at this stage. This is pretty straight forward. If you are unsure use the help. Once done, remember to write your changes and then exit.

5. Format the partitions:

at the pompt: mke2fs /dev/hda1

and then: mke2fs /dev/hda2

(You don't have to do this bit but it is a way to ensure that your drives are picked up)

6. Shutdown the machine to get the partitions changes to happen. Type: shutdown -r now

7. Reboot into dsl 28. type at prompt: /usr/sbin/frugal_grub.sh9. Follow these commands:
Harddisk: hda1
Install from: [L] Live CD
Format?: yes & yes
10 Installed! Well done, reboot and take the CD out this time.
11. The grub loader now shows up and you can select which monitor resololution you want to go for at this time.

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