04.01.2006
(off-site links open in new windows)
Don says:
I"ve been researching this for weeks now and had decided upon three Linux distros, in particular, that I wanted to try: DSL, Puppy, and VectorLinux. The first two are live CDs. Vector Linux isn't a live CD and I wasn't able to figure out how to burn an install CD from the ISO file I downloaded from their site so I ordered one from them on the 3rd of March. As I write this (3-30-06) It hasn't been delivered yet. I've emailed them about it and even received an apologetic sounding email but still, no CD. That left me with Puppy and DSL to play with, both of which are live CDs so I could try them first. Puppy loaded and ran very sluggishly on this computer so I suspect that 64 Megs of RAM just isn't quite enough room for her. DSL ran beautifully, making it my only available choice so Lisa read me the help pages while I installed DSL. Naturally there were some problems. To install DSL to the hard drive, the drive must be partitioned and I had never partitioned a hard drive. Help files on the website suggested I use a Win98 bootup floppy because it has a disk partitioning utility named "fdisk" on it. fdisk is a DOS utility and it was easy to determine that this was, in fact, a Microsoft product because it's all but impossible to use if you're a "newbie". Further reading suggested that I could boot up DSL from the live CD, open a console, and run a utility named "cfdisk" so we tried that. I'll tell you, partitioning a hard disk just isn't a newbie sort of thing but I did sort of get it figured out and was finally able to install DSL and if I ever have to partition another hard drive I sure hope that I can get the DSL live CD to run on the computer (so I won't have to partition it with fdisk).
Linux computers boot up slower than Windows computers, because Linux identifies and (if possible) configures all available hardware every time it boots up. The "up" side of this is that you can change some, or all, of the external hardware and Linux will most probably boot up just fine, quietly adjusting itself to a different monitor, mouse or other peripheral device (possibly even a printer).
I got my VectorLinux install CD in the mail today (3-31-06) and just had to try it but it keeps insisting that I don't have the proper sort of hard drive partitions for it. That really hurt my feelings. Yesterday I discovered Debian Linux and after some reading decided that this has got the be the Linux for me. It's not a resource monger, making it a good choice for older computers and it's supposed to be highly configurable too. I downloaded an ISO file and it installed easily and painlessly. It even repartitioned the hard drive to suit it's own particular needs with minimal input from me. I was thinking "Man this is slick, I have a feeling I'm going to love Debian", but when it finished installing and rebooted itself, all I had on screen was a blinking cursor. Back in the "old" days, before Windows, we called it a "DOS prompt". I'm pretty sure they don't call it that in Linux but whatever they call it, that's all I had on the screen and with no more understanding of Linux than I have, there wasn't anything I could do about it so I plugged in my DSL live CD, repartitioned the hard drive, one more time, and reinstalled DSL. This time the process was quick and easy because I'd already made enough mistakes, the first time, to know what I was doing.
Now I'm going to write some arcane and mystical information here so that with a little help from Google maybe someone else will benefit from my experiences but I have to begin with a very strong disclaimer. Don't, do not, uh-uh, nope, don't even think about trying this unless you want to get rid of your old Operating System forever even if the install you're trying to do craters and reduces your old computer to a beeping, blinking hunk of scrap metal, but here's how to partition a hard drive for DSL (Damn Small Linux).
If your old computer won't boot from the CDROM drive, use google to learn how to get into SETUP and change the BIOS to boot from the CD. If you can't get it to boot from the CD, then stop reading, this isn't going to work for you.
Boot the computer with the DSL live CD. Once DSL is up and running you should see an icon at the top left of the screen for an application named "ATerminal". If you don't see the icon, right click anywhere on the screen, scroll to "Desktop", move your cursor across to and click on "Full Enhanced Desktop" which should make a goodly number of icons appear on the desktop, one of which will be "ATerminal". Click on the ATerminal icon. This will open what is called a terminal window; on the top bar of that window it will say "Bash" and inside window will be be some funny characters like
dsl@box:~$
followed by a little green rectangle that represents the cursor. Type the following:
sudo su
and hit enter. The cursor will return in a second but will now be proceeded by different characters
root@box:/home/dsl#
now type
cfdisk
which will open a disk partitioning utility which may not be particularly user-friendly but is, in my opinion, far superior to Microsoft's fdisk.
At this point I've got to repeat my disclaimer. Repartitioning your hard drive will destroy, crater, and/or obliterate your existing operating system.
Now I'll go "cryptic" but take your time, read the screen, think about it, and you'll figure it out. If there are any existing partitions on the hard drive, begin by deleting them. In order to install DSL on your hard drive you need two partitions, as follows.
hda1
Primary
located at the Beginning of the hard drive.
Size: (twice the size of the amount of RAM in the computer)
Type: 82 (Linux swap)
hda2
Primary
Mark this one as Bootable
Size: The rest of the hard drive (whatever size that is)
Type: 83 (Linux)
Don't forget to "Write" these changes, which actually applies them to the hard drive. Now close the terminal by clicking the "X" at the top right of it's window, right click anywhere on the screen to bring up DSL's menu and reboot the computer. As soon as DSL's introductory screen comes up again, type "Install" and hit the Enter key. Then you can pretty much follow the directions on the screen. Just remember, when prompted, to install DSL to hda2 and when you give the computer new root and user passwords write them down somewhere. You will need them, I promise, so don't lose them or take a chance on forgetting them either. I repeat, write them down.
Well shucks, right in the middle of all this my KVM switch decided to go belly up. I'm hoping it will mend itself after being removed from any source of power for a couple of hours but if that doesn't work I guess I'll get to find out how good the warranty is on Zonet products.
This hasn't been the best of weeks. My VectorLinux CD won't work, I couldn't figure out Debian, I had to work outdoors and forgot my hat so my bald spot got sunburned and the copy of Microsoft Money I've been bidding on, for our friend Emma, keeps getting outbid. Still, life is good. *grin* See you next time.
P.S. As much as we liked Kubuntu, I've switched our main Linux box to PCLinuxOS because we both like it better. More on that later.
Lisa says:
It's a great feeling to apply yourself to a project that means a great deal to you, plug away at it day after day and finally see the fruits of your efforts. For quite awhile I've been interested in Project Gutenberg, the oldest producer of free books on the Internet, produced entirely by volunteers. I typed a novel, "The Hand of Fu-Manchu" by Sax Rohmer; it was accepted and put on the net. *really nice* I'm just about finished with another, "Tales of Secret Egypt," also by Sax Rohmer.There's a nice tie-in between Project Gutenberg and two of the links in this issue. Librivox and AudiobooksForFree, also run by volunteers, contributes to Project Gutenberg Audio eBooks. These audiobook libraries have educational as well as recreational choices. As far as I'm concerned, nothing is more important than reading, whether done with the eyes or ears.
Here's a picture I found on fotosearch, a royalty-free image library. It reminds me of my school days when librarians were always excited to see me; "There's that little girl with the big stack of books!"
A Librarian's Dream
