Hi all

I'm trying to install SuSE 8.1 onto a low spec laptop which used to have Win95 on it, but following a reformat of the hard drive, now has a small MSDOS partition and another virgin partition waiting for some Linux goodness.

My problem is that when I start the installtion, there isn't enough memory to run YAST, so it asks for a swap disc location. Trouble is as far as I know there isn't a Linux file system anywhere on the hard drive at this point.

How to I format the partition as a linux system - the installation package doesn't give me any options.

if i got it right, you have 2 FAT32 (windows-type) partitions? how large? couldn't you reformat hd to have a single partition? that might help you to begin installation procedure.
anyway, you probably have less than 128MB of RAM, right? you should create a swap partition twice the size of your RAM, and set it before root partition (make it hda1 if possible)

Yeah, 2 DOS Fat-16 partitions.

I did originally have just one partition, but I was advised elsewhere that I should have 2. Happy to go back toone though if necessary!

Problem is, I have absolutely no idea how to go about making the swap partition, or any Linux file system (is that ext2?) partition for that matter.

the thing is suse is one of the bigger (more demanding) distros, so if you could write down your harware specifications, i could tell if on how to install it
i need hd size (both partitions), RAM and cpu

Processor is a Pentium II 150
Ram: 16MB
Hard drive: Partition 1 : 200MB Partition II : 800 MB

BIOS won;'t let me boot from CD so I'm using a SuSE installation boot disk.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

you should leave suse alone, and get some small distro - suse needs at LEAST 64MB of RAM and 1 GB of hard disk...
try vector it requires at least 16MB of RAM and 350mb of hard disk
http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=28
this page contains to iso files (one is the "real" distro, other runs from a cd, so you can see if you like it)