Hi guys, me and my brother have been trying all day create a partition/install dsl on our laptop's -completely unpartitioned (erased)- hard drive. We have achieved ...little success... (compete linux newbies here)

First off, we learned of the cfdisk program in the xterminal: we typed 'sudo cfdisk /dev/hda1' to create a partition, then a table showed up with 'Pri/Log Free Space 80015.53' highlighted. obviously we need to partition, so we selected NEW, then PRIMARY, then just made 1 partition with maximum size (80gig). Then we wrote to disk... and it kind gets fuzzy from here on but i think we successfully made 1 partition and the computer started to write data from the live cd to the hdd.

so we rebooted, but could only boot from the livecd, and not from the hdd. as newbies we are currently stumped.

we have searched forums, but found the how-to process a little lacking. i hope this questions has not already been answered on this forum.. sorry if it has :/

You did not say which ver. DSL you are installing but that should not make a diff. I have installed different versions to hdd several times. These two links should help.
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-hd-install.html
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/talk/node/64

latest version as of today

*Edit*
It's version 3.1
OK Pimple, thanks for the websites I understand now. I found out how to make a Linux Swap and a Linux partition. My only questions are...
How much memory should the "Linux" type partition (hda2) be? Can I regularly access it?
Is it the main partition (hda2) on which I put music and movies, or do I need to make
future partitions for those kind of files?

I thought the hard drive was ordered like this:
hda1 - where the system files needed for clean operation of the operation system is
hda2 - the main partition where the rest of your memory is dedicated too... the partition
you actually use to store documents, movies, games and such.

I am going to try my way and see if it works:
hda1 (In the beginning) - Primary - Linux swap - 256mb
hda2 - Primary - Linux - the rest (roughly 80,000-256mb)

Oh and now that I think about it... I have another question lol
What is the difference between the 'Primary' and the 'Logical' options, when you create a
new partition using cfdisk?

Thanks

i would seriously suggest trying a distro that is a bit more automated before DSL. You could then create an extra partition to play with DSL until you get more comfortable with Linux

also spend some time googling stuff like partitions and file formats.

here is (IMHO) a decent way to break down your HD:

hda1 - /boot ~ 200MB - ext2 (primary and bootable partition, this is where the bootloader and kernel images reside, + bootsplashes & stuff)

hda2 - / ~ 1-3GB - ext3 (depends largely on your distribution (also primary)

hda3 - ?windows (if you want it) 10-20GB NTFS

hda4 - extended partition
->hda5 - /usr - BIG - ext3 or reiserfs (this is where most stuff will reside)
->hda6 - swap - make this about 2x your system RAM up to 1GB

after you partition your hard drive (if you insist on doing this all via DSL liveCD) then you'll have to mk2fs each partition.

try:

#mk2fs -h # for more direction on options


one more tip: dont use fdisk or cfdisk. google for gpartd (gnu partition utility) you can download it as an .iso and create a bootable cd that will partition and format everything for you from a GUI environment. gpartd has other neat features you make want later too.

good luck, welcome to linux!