It will give that error if you start the NFS service without having it configured. (you probably don't want it running anyway).

Yea, getting rid if the whole networking section should save a lot. SCSI is a big pig too.

Yea, just do the MSDOS "bootmenu" stuff in your config.sys & autoexec.bat. Have it select between Win95 and Linux. To boot zipslack linux, all you need to do is execute a little DOS mode program called "loadlinux" with parameters specifying your kernel and file system parameters. Zipslack will probably build you a little MSDOS batch file you can use as an example. You can even build a Win95 Icon shortcut file that runs it in "MSDOS mode" if you like.

Zipslack installs on a DOS partition by default using a filesystem kludge called DMS-DOS. I don't really like it, but it works. In your case of wanting a dual boot system with a lack of disk space, this is probably a good choice since all your free space can be shared between the two OSes.

I guess my first Linux install was on a little 25Mhz 386sx system with a 300 meg drive (Redhat 3.03). It ran great, but I never even attempted to run any X-server/GUI stuff.

I have downloaded two kernels, barei and lowmemi, same error

INIT : Cannot execute "/sbin/agetty" (this repeats for about two screens full)
INIT : ID "c1" Respwaning to fast...
So on to c5
a few more "sbin/agetty"'s and then id c6
Then it says
INIT : no more processes left in the runlevel

Thanks wartstew, do you know how to do that? right now i have to boot to 95 restart to dos mode... so on

Also, still looking for a simple shell or gui, something even as basic as dosshell, for basic file mangenment and such.

You guys have been a great help so far, but its still not booting

well, i they were disabled for five minutes, amd that has passed it also give me this error
open(/dev/console) : Input/output error

if you have the program loadlin(loadlin.exe) and linux.bat in c:\linux, then this should work as long as win95 runs autoexec.bat at startup:

there is a line in linux.bat that looks like this -

\linux\loadlin \linux\vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 rw

make sure you specify the correct info in this line, such as what device to mount as root (most likely /dev/hda1 as shown above)

the config.sys and autoexec.bat files on a win95 bootdisk provide a good example of how to make menus, so make one that suits you and make sure the above line is executed when the user chooses linux from the menu

hope this helps, although i'm not sure if it will

oh i didn't see the second page of posts
later dude

Anyway, I'd expect that you are getting these errors because you ran out of memory!

Did you get a swapfile configured? I'm not sure if Zipslack does this by default, but you might have to follow some sort of instructions for "low-RAM" systems. I think I remember seeing these instructions in a Slackware FAQ or Install instructions somewhere. Does Zipslack load an initial RAMdisk ("initrd")?

You might be able to get into the system by using a lower "runlevel". In the line that has the "loadlin.exe" in it on your batch file, put a "1" after the kernel file parameter. I don't know the exact Zipslack setup but you need to do something like this: "loadlin vmlinuz 1 root=/dev/hda ..." Notice the "1". This is kind of like "safe mode" in Windows. It will start a minimal system. After you get in, configure a swapfile of at least 16 megs, probably more.

That didn't work, there is no mention of the initrd but here is one line

RAMDISK driver initialized 16 RAM disks of 7777K size 1024 blocksize

I have the ram patch, but i will try downloading it again, seemed like it wasnt right... there was only one file in the zip

Yea, 7777k of ramdisk on a 8 meg system doesn't leave much memory left!

If I remember correctly, this Ramdisk is just for a temporary Linux system that is used to install the final one on your hard drive. The final running system won't need it.

Therefore you really do need to find the document that I think exists about installing this using low memory computers. If I remember it was something like specifying a swap partition early on in the installation. In your case you need to specify a swap file on your DOS partition instead. I'm not sure if Zipslack allows that or not.

Another idea if you can't solve the above problem is to install it on a more capable computer, then using whatever means you want (such as a Parallel Port cable) transfering the whole thing to your laptop. A simple file copy in Windows should do the trick.

If all this is too much, you might try another Linux distribution. I might suggest muLinux at http://sunsite.dk/mulinux . This one does a whole lot in very little space. It is modular so you can just install the parts you might be interested in. By default, it runs entirely in a RAMDISK, but will "clone" to a hard disk. It will install in DMSDOS or Loopback-EXT2 (among others), either one will work for you. In your case I would clone the base system to your hard disk, then start adding the "add-ons". It is a fun distribution, the bad things are that it is very strangely set up, uses very old versions of software in most cases, has a few bugs, and the documentation is a little lacking and written in "Fractured English". Also adding software that is from outside the distribution will be hard unless it is "staticly linked" because it uses such old shared libraries (software from early Slackware versions might work however). It is not normally for beginners, but it does have a simple mostly-menu driven install process.

i think i will try both, mulinux for now, and when i get the cable, transfer the files and such. It says 16 ramdisks of 7777k, which would be impossible you would need 128 mb of ram to hold all that... the faq has some info about @ http://slackware.com/faq/do_faq.php?faq=zipslack
for mulinux do i need the srv and wks packages, i dont need multiuser/network

128mb of RAM? Nah the ramdisk is just under 8 megs, the kernel uncompresses to about a couple of meg, then just another meg or two to run the simple text mode Zipslack installer. You could probably do it all with 12-16 megs.

I haven't used muLinux in awhile and the guy keeps moving things around. You only need the first floppy image to get a system that boots from a floppy. I'm not sure if it includes the command to "clone" the thing to the hard drive. It might be in one of the other "add-ons". You'll need "loadlin.exe" to boot the system. I think they have a DOS tools section somewhere that might have it, otherwise steal it from your Zipslack download. Anyway, I would boot the the base floppy and see (1) what you think about the thing, and (2) it might tell you more about what you have and what you need. I can't remember, it has a "menu", a "help" command, and maybe a "setup" and an "info" command that might be helpful. The docs are a little lacking, but read what you can find carefully. For help with the commands, consult the manpage section of www.linuxdoc.org. Expect some other holes in the documentation as well. Again this is not normally considered a distro for beginners, but in your case, it will probably give you the most bang for the buck for your old laptop.

Alright, i have a celeron 433Mhz 80mb that will boot it, i loaded it once and then agian, it still loads that ramdisk it also does load the swapfile but after the ramdisk... so does i guess that means that it still wont run a my laptop, an older v. of slack might? I have a friend that just got broadband so if you will tell which version is most likely to work, will have him download. In the docs it mentions a window manager, how would i run this? I havent tried mulinux yet, planning to do it after i log off. Isn't Slackware also considered a expert only distro?

Have you looked at TinyLinux - a floppy install Slackware distro? I have got it up and running on an old 486 (around 1993 vintage) with 16 MB RAM, and an old Diamond graphics card. Have fvwm running in X, and it seems to be OK. Haven't tried getting on the Net yet, but have it talking on my home net, etc.

http://tiny.seul.org/en/index.html

Have a look at http://www.volny.cz/basiclinux/x-on2.html as well

Steve

Maybe I'll actually have to try it on something (I bought the official CD set of Slack 8.1 which has Zipslack on it somewhere). I thought that once you do get past the initial bootup which then should be able to do some kind of permanent install somewhere, that the RAMDisk would go away. Try installing it on your Celeron system and then boot into the installed system and see. Then just copy the whole installed system to your laptop somehow.

Probably all the ZipSlacks will do a Ramdisk of some size. If you went to setting aside a separate partition on your hard disk, you'd have a lot more options. Here is my favorite list of various distros: http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/index.php3#special

Docs for Zipslack? To run a window manager, you need to install and configure an X-server, which isn't included with Zipslack. Configuring X on your laptop will be a little hard because you might need to do some manual tweaking to get it running. I do. You will likely need to know the chipset of your laptops video system and the correct protocol and port configuration for your mouse or equivalent pointer device. I also noticed that that laptop doesn't have a math processor. X really uses one to do it's rendering. The last time I tried to run X on such a computer (486sx-50 with 8 megs) it was way to slow to be usable. Screen rewrites took several minutes to do! There might be some tweaks to speed this up (use non scaled fonts perhaps?)

I don't think I would bother trying to run X on that laptop. Just stick with the console/command line. That is where all the power of Unix/Linux is anyway.

Only in that it usually requires you to do a little reading before hand at certain places during the install. The fancy distros like Mandrake/Redhat/SuSe etc, have a graphical menu driven thing like MS Windows has. In my opinion, they are overall harder than Slack because the installers usually do at least one thing or another wrong (kind of like the Windows installers) so you have to manually figure some things out anyway. In their case, things are more complicated because of all the layers of fancy stuff they add on. Since Slack is *designed* to be manually configured in the first place. I find it much easier to figure out and get stuff running correctly in it. You usually directly edit the configuration files that get the job done instead of the configuration files to the configuration program that attempts to configure your system but instead makes a mess out of those same configuration files.

That being said, you might want to try one of these distros (or even the full version of Slackware) on your Celeron sometime if you can dig up about a 2 gig dedicated disk partition to put it on sometime. It will really show you the state-of-the-art of Gnu/Linux. I'm currently running Slack 8.1 with all the bells and whistles on a 900Mhz Celeron and it is wonderful! I hardly ever boot it into Win98 anymore.

BTW: Comparing MuLinux to a lot of those other mini distributions out there, the others are a lot more standard and straight foreward. MuLinux is a lot more fun however. It is also rich with "menu's" that will help s find their way around. I still would recommend it in your case over the others. Try it on your Celeron first (it will all load in a ramdisk by default, so it won't do any permanent changes to your hard drive)

I still havent tried mulinux forgot where i downloaded it to. And you are telling me that you have to use X, there is no simple shell or something, like dosshell or access (not m$). Is there anyone who has tried to multiboot zipslack and win95 on the same partition, i am not a programer but a simple dos program that will either run win or linux, i guess i could use access... though there isnt an option to "time out" and go with a choice.