I Have pentium II 350 Mhz with 64 MB RAM and 4 GB Harddisk. I want to migrate to linux from MS Windows. I have tried several live cd but they are so slow and can't make me satisfy. So i decide to install the linux.

I have tried to install Damn Small Linux and College Linux on my harddisk. After the install is finished my computer can't boot at All. Anybody know how to fix this problem ?

And 1 other thing, could you tell me what is the best distro which is working fast on my computer.

Thanks.

Hi,

Welcome to Linux Questions. DSL will work fine, what exactly do you mean by can't boot at all. In order for people to help they need specifics. Good luck!

Welcome to LQ!

As the previous poster said, you don't give us much information to know what steps you took and what you actually did. There is an article titled How To Ask Questions The Smart Way which, if you read it, will help you learn to search and learn how to post questions to forums.

Slackware is my choice of Linux distributions because of it's philosophy:If you download Slackware-11.0, you only need the first two CDs, or the DVD. On CD1 the file "Slackware-HOWTO" tells you all you need to install Slackware and get started.

You might also want to read Slackware Linux Basics. This was written for Slackware Linux 10.2, but applies well to Slackware-11.0.

I've run Slackware on a computer with similar specs as yours. Just don't try to run the KDE or Gnome window managers. Fluxbox is very lightweight, and uses less system resources than the others. It will require some editing of it's menu (/home/<username>/.fluxbox/menu) but that is not hard to do at all. It will launch even on that box of yours in a couple of seconds, and you can do anything or run any application on your computer from there.

I think I have install it in a right way, When installing DSL I booted my computer with live CD and choose Install to harddisk cheat code and i followed the on screen instruction, i think it is simple instruction. After it was finished my computer can't boot at all.

On the second case, I install college linux, first of all a partitioned my harddisk 4 GB harddisk to 1 GB and 3 GB (because i don't want losing my OS like in the first case). And i am using the 3 GB one to Install College linux (I have set active the 3 GB partition), And the result is same, i can't boot my computer.

And after that, I boot with DSL Live CD and I used file manager to see the contain of my 3 GB partition and I think the college linux was copied successfully to it. Because i see the same structure folder like the other linux folder.

Can't you give me a hint ?
Thanks.

What we're trying to find out is what can't boot at all means.

No POST beeps (if you had them before); not likely as you manage to install something else afterwards).
Some kind of message that there is no OS installed (or other error messages).
Don't you see anything happening but there is a lot of HD activity for a while.

I am sorry, but there is not any message appear. No disc activity, no error message. After the computer try to boot, it is absolutely blank, with a cursor blink at the top left corner (as usual). it hangs. but if i was booting from cd it works. No problem. My computer is Build Up Compaq computer. Do you think I must set up my bios to run an UNIX OS from HD? Because, it works fine with Microsoft OS and Linux LIVE CD

can u please provide the compaq model plus as much hardware data u know about ur pc, it may be some hardware incampatibility issue, may be some chipset not supported in ur distro.

I think I know the problem. When I change my harddisk the machine says that if i want to use unix system i must config my harddisk with compaq diagnostic disc. Anybody know about this disk ?

What do you mean by 'change HD' ?

But OK, go with your exact model to the HewlettPackard/Compaq website and search there for the diagnostic disks.

PS I wonder why this should be necessary?