[wplug] Re: Distro selection assistance.

[Rob Knapp]

On Tue, 2006-02-21 at 08:46 -0500, David Harper wrote:
> The issue I am having with Damn Small Linux ( and any other Knoppix
> type boot CD) is the following error :
> 

Can your system boot from a USB drive in stead of the PCMCIA? From the
description of your hardware, you may have some real issues getting a
small distro on there.  I don't think many ship with support of PCMCIA
network cards or CD drives.  But, here is a few more (hopefully helpful)
ideas.  (I'm sure others will have better ones.)

With a little tweaking and a big enough drive (say 1GB) you might be 
able to achieve your ends that way.  (That's how I got my toshiba with
malfunctioning dvd drive to install debian and ubuntu).

I've got a 128MB netboot image available at
http://myddrin.com/trashdeerwood/?p=69 , but from your description, taht
probably won't work for you.  (Gentle on the bandwidth please. :) )

Debian directions are here
http://www.us.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch04s04.html.en


Or, if you REALLY wanna have fun, you can build your own live cd,
and include the drivers you need. I did this recently with ubuntu breezy
and it's really straight forward.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com//LiveCDCustomizationHowTo


> Can't find Knoppix filesystem, sorry.  
> Dropping you to a (very limited) shell. 
> Press reset button to quit 
> 
> Then gives me the ability to use the following additional commands:
> cat, mount, umount, insmod, rmmod, lsmod
> 
> Here is the out from mount:
> 
> rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
> /dev/root.old / ext2 rw 0 0
> /proc /proc proc rw 0 0 
> /dev/pts /dev/pts devpts rw 0 0
> 
> I have been able to load Ubuntu Breezy in server mode, but have run
> into issues since to install it I have to use the pcmcia CD drive and
> then have issues to get it to identify the 3COM PCMCIA network card or
> USB wireless adapter.  
> 
> I would love to get DSL to install to the harddrive but the dsl tohd
> command still returns the previous error.
> 
> Thanks in advance and to all who have sent me words of wisdom.  I do
> plan on buying some RAM to upgrade it to 128 MB from 64 MB. 
> 
> Thanks,
> David
> 
> 
> 
>         
>         Message: 1 
>         Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 12:55:54 -0800 (PST)
>         From: Juan Zuluaga <jz31416 at yahoo.com>
>         Subject: Re: [wplug] Distro selection assistance. 
>         To: wplug at wplug.org
>         Message-ID:
>         <20060218205554.97450.qmail at web31603.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
>         Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 
>         
>         By DSl I assume you mean Damn Small Linux.
>         What kinds of errors are you having?
>         VAIOs are quirky.
>         No experience with DamnSmall;
>         To have the usual goodies, without complications,
>         VectorLinux could be good. Either old 3.2 or the very
>         last, that apparently has been made leaner than
>         previous ones. 3.2 would be faster, but you quickly
>         run into updating threadmill. Installing slapt-get
>         helps in this case.
>         Slackware or Debian will be the way to go if you have 
>         more specialized needs (and time for hours of
>         tweaking). Debian tends to behave slower, but of
>         course is much better when you have to weigh what to
>         install given limited space, for its superior checks
>         for software dependencies. 
>         BSDs could be both very fast and very good at letting
>         you install only what you need. VAIOs, tho, are quirky
>         beasts.
>         
>         
>         > I wanted to see what opinions everyyone had on
>         > the best distro for this.  I am in the process of 
>         > trying to get DSl to install, but having
>         > some errors on it.
>         
>         ------------------------------
>         
>         Message: 2
>         Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 13:19:56 -0800 (PST)
>         From: Juan Zuluaga <jz31416 at yahoo.com>
>         Subject: Re: [wplug] Distro selection assistance
>         To: wplug at wplug.org
>         Message-ID: <
>         20060218211956.67752.qmail at web31605.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
>         Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>         
>         " I tried slackware, suse, fedora
>         core, mepis, and gentoo (lol)."
>         
>         Would you mind telling what were the problems with 
>         Slackware? besides the infinite time to compile, were
>         there other problems with gentoo?
>         
>         
>         > Your main limitation is RAM, not CPU or disk space.
>         
>         
>         Indeed -- but RAM for an old odd laptop can be 
>         ridiculously expensive  :(  .
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