Re: Installing Debian from a DOS partition

I have Debian Sarge running pretty well on a 110CT, and it works
fine if you stick to traditional Unix tools and avoid really bloated
and CPU intensive things like KDE/GNOME which rely on fast processors
and vast amounts of memory... (although they do run if you are patient).

In fact even the 66Mhz 486 desktop (with 32MB ram) I am using at the
moment is perfectly fine with traditional tools (fvwm, xterm, mutt etc).
My 230MHz/64MB Libretto is the 'fast' machine ;)

X, PCMCIA LAN and audio are all working, but you might find it struggles
a bit if you want to play 44.1Khz stereo MP3's or play movies.

I did my first Linux install onto the Libretto without removing the hard
drive by using a PLIP (parallel port) based network, which at the time
was the only option that did not require reading a second boot floppy.
It was Red Hat 5.2 if I remember correctly. Not sure if Debian
supports that, because I bootstrapped the Debian install from an
existing SuSE Linux partition (which in turn was bootstrapped from
the Red Hat).

Hibernation is not a problem if you reserve 64MB at the right place
on the disk. I wrote a program to determine where things were being
written. It is supposed to be at the end of the disk, but the BIOS
can't see more than 4GB so if you have more than that, you need to
leave a dummy partition at the 4GB boundry.

As you are still using the original 4GB drive, then make sure you do
your partitioning on the Libretto itself (ie don't move the drive to
a desktop and partition it) and the space for hibernation will be
reserved at the end of the disk automatically (the BIOS lies about
the size to do it..).

I am currently using a 20GB drive, and the partition map looks like this:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 1 195 1566306 6 FAT16
/dev/hda2 196 390 1566337+ 9f BSD/OS
/dev/hda3 391 584 1558305 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 * 585 2432 14844060 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 585 648 514048+ 6 FAT16
/dev/hda6 * 649 714 530113+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 715 780 530113+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda8 781 1018 1911703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda9 1019 1028 80293+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda10 1029 2048 8193118+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda11 2049 2179 1052226 83 Linux
/dev/hda12 2180 2432 2032191 83 Linux

The hda9 partition is where hibernation goes...

The MBR contains the BSD/OS 'bootany' bootloader, and hda4
contains GRUB. The Debian root is hda6.

I am planning to upgrade to a 100GB drive soon, so I might
experiment with an install from scratch then.

It is worth getting a 2.5" to 3.5" ide converter at some point.
I use it to clone disks with dd for backups, because it lets
me backup all of the various operating systems the same way,
and if a drive fails I can just plug in the backup with no
complex re-installs, and I know everything is identical to
the original at the time I took the snapshot..

Regards,
DigbyT

On Thu, Feb 09, 2006 at 07:27:48AM -0500, Kevin Mark wrote:

I recently got my hands on a Toshiba Libretto 110CT. Which is a very
small laptop, with no cd player, just a pcmcia floppy disk that only
works under DOS, because the Linux kernel does not have the drivers for it.

I've finally been able to upload files to and from the DOS partition
using a parallel cable connection.

I can also boot to DOS using either the hard drive or a boot floppy.

But how can I start installing Debian (total hard drive = 4Gb, the Dos
Partition = 1Gb) starting from DOS?

I've read [http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/index.html.en] but
it does not help me much in getting drivers for PCMCIA network cards, or
even starting up debian.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Hi Mark,
I have a Toshiba Libretto 100CT with Sarge. Although I did not install
it with Sarge initially. I keep a small DOS partition on in for
compaitbility purposes but with the advent of usb thumb drives, I need
it less. The easiest way to install it would be to remove the drive, get
a 2.5" to 3.5" ide converter (less than $10 US) and mount it in a
desktop pc. Install on that, and then put it back in the laptop. Then
you can start fiddling with X and such. If you want I can send you my
'dpkg --get-selections' as a guide. I use it with a 802.11b wifi card
with X and Firefox. Its slow but usable for note taking, programming
practice, reading email... The only caveat is to DISABLE hibernation! I
havent got the setup right for HD > 2 GB and it trashes sectors.
Cheers,
Kev
--
Digby R. S. Tarvin digbyt(at)digbyt.com
http://www.digbyt.com


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