Tiny Linux install w/floppies; EXT2-fs checktime reached---> Frozen
 

Hi everyone,
I'm trying to install Tiny Linux with floppies on an old computer. I've follow the instructions from http://tiny.seul.org... I boot with 'bare.i' and it asks for root disk to load into ram drive. I pop in 'root' and it says loading 3733 blocks(3 disks) into ramdrive. It loads and asks for #2. I only have the one 'root' disk so I insert floppy 'A1'. It loads and wants #3 so in goes A2. When it's done loading it says: 'EXT2-fs warning: Checktime reached, running e2fsck is recommended. VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem). Freeing unused kernel memory: 56k freed.' From this point it doesn't do anything, I've given it an hour with my fingers crossed. I don't know how to run e2fsck. I don't believe I did anything wrong, and I didn't do anything that wasn't in the instructions. I didn't copy the directories a1-a12 and I used the correct version of rawwrite. I don't have a clue what to do now, any advice would be great.
Thanks
-Sky

It says "Copy the _contents_ of each directory 'a1' to 'a12' onto your floppies."?

Hi unSpawn.
I'm not sure if that's a question about my question, but since there's the 'mark', I'm going to say: Yes, it does indeed say that- and yes, I did that.
I'm thinking I should have three 'Root' disks, based on the 'bare.i' bootdisk's messages.

Thank you for the reply (and/or question).
-Sky

Yes, three. But after using "bare.i" you should choose either the "quickroot" or "root" as second disk. From looking at the disk contents (unzip, losetup /dev/someloopdevicenumber /path/to/quickroot) you'll see it's "just" a minimal Slackware bootdisk using busybox with which you should be able to 'fdisk' your partitions into submission before trying to load A1 tru A12 (which only contain the O.S. install packages). So basically what I think you *should* be getting after loading up "bare.i" and "root" is a message saying you need to set up partitions etc, etc (your default Slackware message) and then run 'setup'. If it doesn't work maybe you could try and add a kernel boot arg "init=/bin/sh" and when booted try 'dmesg|more' to see if all checks out OK on the hardware side?

Hi there again unSpawn.
Forgive me for being confused as I can't make sense of your post. Here are some things I think are relevant:

*The comp is an old Compaq Presario 2266 (233 MHz Cyrix M II 300 processor, 64 mb mem, 4 gb hd.)

*I have 14 disks total(as per instructions). 1 "bare.i", 1 "root", and 12 disks "a1"-"a12".

*I use "bare.i" as #1 disk to boot. I use "root" next, but it is supposed to be 1 of 3.

*I don't have nor do I know where to get the 3 "root" disks.

*I can't load root properly because I don't have all 3.

*The only prompt I have to enter args is at the beginning, right after I start up with "bare.i"

*I've tried adding 'init=/bin/sh' in as many ways as I can think of and it doesn't seem to make any difference.

*I don't have any chance to enter commands. The comp doesn't make it past loading root.

*It used to have win98 installed; There is a semblance of DOS ('MS-DOS MODE') that I can use to fdisk if I need to.

*I made a win98 bootdisk that creates a ramdrive and loads into it successfully. (proof that mem is good? I don't know)

Well, there it is(sorry if it's too long or useless). I hope this helps you to help me in some way.
-Sky

Use two disks for starting up: ("bare.i" AND "root") OR ("bare.i" AND "quickroot"). All the necessary files are on the download page. Maybe there's a problem with Tiny. You could test it by making the floppies boot another box or boot it inside QEmu if you're cautious. You said you booted the win disk OK, so maybe try to boot another GNU/Linux floppy distro? If you must use Tiny then the only other option I can think of is building a new kernel that is known to work with your hardware and replace inside "bare.i".