LinuxQuestions.org - gonna have to help me get it in , installl issue , chaseing the dragon

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gonna have to help me get it in , installl issue , chaseing the dragon

I want to get started , no linux books in library , Getting caught in web....

Here's the deal ,I want to become a proficient programmer , I want a system that I can get into the nuts a bolts , don't like the overhead or hardware access restrictions in windows , I'm broke , and have old hardware too. Linux seems the way to go.

out of over ten old systems
I can boot only a few systems off CD
then 2 don't get past kernel panic
But with only 14" 600x480 50 mhz monitors at my disposal , I cant see what I'm doing because most lve cds and install cds cant set the resolution or refresh rate that low ...

I just got dragonfly bsd into my newest desktop (a supermico dual cpu GX chipset , LVD SCSI , circa 99) after swapping out a scsi cd-rom for an IDE one and installing as the first partition on an IDE drive

But I insist on using one of my laptops for learning programming.
There is no boot support for CD or USB and the proprietary boot floppy from the PCMCIA slot tends to muck up things by making the slot it boots from slot 0 and the system that boots only sees the empty slot and calls that slot 0 ... yada yada ...

On a laptop I got dragon linux lite going under DOS , it uses loadin to start the kernel.

Getting a feel for the file system , I type 'man' a lot..

But now what?

There should be some way to mount the fat32 file system from dragon lite , bring in drivers for my pcmcia bridge , network card , ect , utilities to set up a partition and file system to boot linux without dos... figure out how to install and use them.. so I can use something more then my keyboard.

Perhaps even install a regular common distro to the hard drive!
Use a GUI...... at 600x480 50mhz?

Am I on the right track here chasing the dragons?

Can anyone give me a hand so I can get started?

OK - lets make sure I understand you:
You are running Dragon Linux

Quote:

05/30/2002

This project is currently dead. The current version, while still avaiable for download for the curious, is filled with old software, bugs, exploitable stuff. Basically, you install and use it, you are asking for it. The author suggests you try Knoppix, a self-contained, run from CD-ROM distribution. It's a great, painless, easy way to try Linux. Dragonlinux in it's old age certainly can't compete.

... this probably explains any troubles you may be having.

Basically, it sounds like you want to use knoppix, like the maintainer says. It should work with all your hardware quite well and you can install it to your hard drive in a native linux environment.

You seem to assume I can boot off something other then my hard drive...
Or see what I'm doing when the resolution and refresh rate are set too high at boot time.

No , I don't want knoppix , Got 32mb ram in the laptop and as a newbe I don't want a ton of utilities , graphics and stuff to just confuse me. (hence my choice of dragonBSD for the multi processor desktop too)

I only bothered with the 2 dragons because they were the only two out of hundreds that could load a kernel and bring me to a command prompt I can see.

Will having the dead dragon lite loading from a dos partition give me a starting point to launch and configure an install process for a more featured less buggy version?

If its just a dead dragon I'm carrying around , at least its lite.
Is there another way to install using just the hard drive and NO other boot media support? (not even a network boot)

Or setup a bootable partition using a floppy (with no pcmcia support on it) and then copy everything to the hard drive and continue everything from there.

i have a couple computers with similar specs. Debian and Slackware install fine on all of them. I've done the complete floppy installs way too many times too. I would download a boot floppy and the cd image. don't try installing a dead distro, way too many issues and far too frustrating.

Slackware was one of the first I tried , Tried zipslack but dragon loaded the kernel , zipslack didn't.
but becouse of your post,
I went back to take a look,
found some new stuff

the experimental install.zip , hummm
It looks like they pre packaged what I expected to do by starting dragonlinx first.
Even if it doesn't work , I could learn a lot looking at what they were tring to do without a ton of posts.

sbootmgr.dsk looks promising too

Anyone know how much trouble its going to be with a parallel to SCSI bridge , panasonic PD/CD drive and an IDE hard drive?
If there are no drivers for my bridge how do I get them in?
If it just works , I'll post to the HCL.

I think its my mixing scsi and ide that has been an impediment to getting started before...

There are || ... know bar code or don't....