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Topic: boot.img for DSL, finding a boot.img for DSL

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mikef20000 Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 4
Joined: Feb. 2004

Posted: Feb. 24 2004,16:06

Dear DSL people,

I have a disk that I got with my copy of Linuxformat the popular UK Linux user magazine and it has a copy of DSL on it that it is CD bootable or whatever. My machine is an old Pentium 133 MHz machine with about 700 MB of hard disk space on it and about half of it is being used by Windows 98 at the moment. I would like to install DSL in the other half ie in about 300 MB or so. I tried booting from the CDROM but this old machine is not capable of this. I tried fiddling with the BIOS and also using a fancy smartboot software from LXF which still couldn't do it.

So I would like to be able to make a boot floppy that could somehow boot my machine into being able to read and install the CDROM copy of DSL that I have obtained from the LinuxFormat people..........

I notice that if I use the RAWRITE program under DOS Windows then it could copy a boot.img file to a floppy disk that I could use to boot up the machine ready to read in and install the DSL OS.

But what is the correct boot.img file for DSL?

Where can I find a copy of this boot.img file?

I guess I need to format the floppy before putting the boot.img file on it.

Do I need any other files apart from the boot.img file?

How do I actually install the DSL?

Do I need to partition my disk first and if so since I don't have any Linux OS already on it only Windows 98 how do I do it to make it ready to accept the DSL being installed on it?

?

Will it then become a dual boot mounted machine where I get a choice of OS to install from a grub or lilo like prompt when I boot up the machine?

???

How do I get the grub thing installed?

All the best,

Michael Fothergill
Nelson
UK

donkey wrestler Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 14
Joined: Jan. 2004

Posted: Feb. 25 2004,00:10

miekf20000, welcome to Linux!!

the boot.img, file is in the home directory of the CD, I believe, and that is the only file you need to copy to a floppy for a boot disk. use rawwrite if your doing it from windows, and yes you need to format it first, but i don't think it matters if its dos format, or linux.

As far dual boot goes. I used partition magic(Win 98) to create a linux partion, and a linux swap, and lilo to choose between the OSs. to be honest I've only booted into windows twice in the last couple of months, and I'm considering reclaiming that partion for linux.

once you have your partiotns set up there is script to install dsl to hdd, it's called 'dsl-hdinstall'.

There is a way to do a 'poor-man's' hd install, where you don't need seperate partitions for the two OSs, dsl resides on the windows partiton, and the boot floppy automatically finds it there. Do a search on this site for an article by Rapidweather, or maybe he'll post to this thread with a link.

If I remember right it's as easy as copying the /KNOPPIX directory from the CD to the C:\ directory, and booting from the floppy.

Good luck,

JP

mikef20000
Unregistered

Posted: Feb. 25 2004,14:26

Hello Mr JP/Donkey Wrestler,

Thank you very much for your suggestion about getting the boot.img from the directory on the CDROM. I went and looked in it but the boot.img file is not there.......

Is there anywhere I can download it from the DSL site or somewhere else on the internet?

All the best
Michael Fothergill

libretto

Group: Members
Posts: 336
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: Feb. 25 2004,17:37

Dear mikef20000,

Elsewhere on this mesage board there are guides on doing FDD boot installs. Essentially, as above, make the linux partitions. Then load the DSL CD in windows, copy the knoppix folder to C: (maybe /knoppix/knoppix?), then on the cd there will be a boot image for a FDD.

Then reboot with the FDD and it should load DSL!

Hope this helps.

libretto

P.S.: theres a list of mirrors for the DSL cds on the actual DSL site

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