Linux Links : : : Deathmarch Part 1 , Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 : : : Ownage : : : Bigger and Better : : : Debian and Others (on the CSx) : : : Toshiba Debian

Linux Deathmarch Part 2

Heart Of Darkness.

1. Fight for your right to partition.

I threw it back and forth. The Toshiba doesn't have a CD drive, so there was no way I could install one of the main distros. Anyway, what would be the point? I wanted to get my hands dirty.
I read a magazine article about Small Linux on an IBM thinkpad, I went through descriptions of scaled-down versions of Linux, but, in the end, decided on a version called Slackware. I've already mentioned a url describing a Slackware Linux installation on an even older Toshiba. I'd also read a Linux install-guide which said Slackware was more trouble than it was worth, a HOWTO article which was written by someone clearly besotted by the Slackware, and a review of the latest version by the Duke of Url (sorry, I used to have a link there but it seems to be dead now so I've taken it down). On balance, my perception was: Slackware Rules!!!

The other thing was whether to keep win 95 on the original partition or just trash it and go for a whole new setup. For me, this was hardly an issue. We're talking about a machine with a tiny hard drive and a RAM not big enough to remember where it left its keys. There was no option. I was pretty sure I was going to plump for Slackware and I was quite clear that I was going to cleanse the Windows partition with fire and the sword.

2. These Disks were made for Booting.

What really swung it for me was the fact that Slackware is divided into bits called 'disk sets'. You can download these and put them on floppy disks, ready to install on your machine. In the latest version, these disk sets have outgrown floppies a bit, but you can still make a working installation out of about 20 floppies. Then I could just keep FTP-ing the remaining disk sets until the machine's memory was stuffed to bursting. I had absolutely no idea what the machine was capable of, so this seemed like a good way to start.

You start by making 'boot' and 'root' disks using a program called 'rawrite'. Rawrite is a DOS program which writes non-DOS files onto a formatted disk in their 'natural state' (i.e., without regard for Microsoft formatting conventions). There are different boot disks. The one I needed was called, bareapm.i, and I needed a special supplement to the root disk because of the pcmcia cards installed on my system. From then on, there are sets dedicated to various functions. The A set is a set of 17 disks, covering the basic progs needed to get going.
This is white writing on a black background. It's a barren, frosty environment, guaranteed to unnerve the stoutest Windows user. After that, there are sets dedicated to networking, to GUIs, to programming, to encryption...

3. Put some Open Sauce on That!

The next step was to get the software packages. My first thought was to get some utilities onto the new machine to make the process easier. I downloaded Go!zilla to help with the downloads, then used that to get a demo version of Partition Manager which didn't work in the end anyway.
RAM to small? I dunno, but it was no biggie. It just meant I was going to have to work harder. It was pretty clear, right from the outset that the Toshiba was going to drive me bloody crazy if I was going to download everything that way. It has a 28k modem and the lead kept popping out of the socket for no reason, so I fired up the desktop machine and started FTP-ing from there. There were a few false starts. First, I didn't realise that I only needed rawrite for the boot and root disks, not the disk sets, so I spent a lot of time trying to rawrite the A set over to the floppy.
Then, it took me a while to realise that most of the disk sets were too big to fit on floppies. To make matters worse, the Slackware FTP servers started giving me the cold shoulder after a while, so that I had to download through the http server, which took forever.

At last, I was left with a stack of floppies. It's late now and I plan to install the basis of Linux tomorrow. At the moment my gut feeling about this is: 'How hard can it be?'. This is certainly the attitude of an ignorant fool who is about to get his in no uncertain manner.

Tomorrow, fire and brimstone rains down upon the beleaguered windows installation. When the smoke clears, I'll fill in the next page. Until then, I've left it with an appropriate South Park cartoon.

...Except I didn't kill windows, or even give it a headache.

7-2-02.

Linux Loader (LILO) is a text-based program. As I've said, this is a bit disconcerting if you're used to GUI setups, but it was very friendly, with smileys and things. When I loaded the rootdisk (color.gz, the second disk in the set of 19) instead of telling me I'd done something illegal, it said 'kernel panic'. I like that, but still made it clear that it wasn't going to co-operate.

<sigh>

So, good-bye Slackware. It was nice knowing you for 2.5 minutes. Back to Win95. I got the IRQ conflict sorted, though, by uninstalling one of the two PCMCIA drivers. I'm still getting BIOS beeps at startup, but not as many groups as before. I'm currently having a rethink and rereading the HOWTOs and READMEs. I'll try again in a few days when I've sussed it and post the results if I ever get any!

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9-2-02

The fault turned out to be a simple case of crap floppy disk so I made a new one and broke through in the end. I now have a viable (but tiny) Linux system running on my machine. I don't know what to do with it yet, but I'm dead chuffed that I've managed it.

The next page is a complete, step-by-step account of the installation. If anyone is crazy enough to follow in my footsteps, starting from the same position of ignorance, this will be useful reading. It's a bit technical though, so non-specialist readers will probably want to retire to a darkened room at this point.

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