Ho w To Ins t a l l DSL on th e Hard Drive via a DSL Fru g a l

In st a l l a t i o n
Su b m i t t e d by cliv e s a y fro m th e DSL foru m s
Definitio n:
Fru g al install is basic ally the equivale n t to runni n g the CD comp r e s s e d
imag e on a har d drive par tition (a Knoppix poor m a n ' s install) exce p t it's
boote d with the lilo bootloa d e r by defa ult. You also have the ability to assig n
boot time options and auto m a t e back u p resto r e . For me m o r y savings , the r e
is the option to have a per sis t e n t /hom e and /opt direc to r y on a par tition.
This is a gre a t way to run a prac tic ally bullet p r o of syste m . It also lends
itself to simple upgr a d e s .
In this docu m e n t , we'll walk throu g h a Frug al installa tio n.
Har d Drive Pre p a r a t i o n:
The first thing you nee d to do is figur e out how you want to setu p your har d
drive par titions. Ther e are two prelimin a r y requi r e m e n t s of a frug al install.
One is the install must be on the prim a r y drive on your PC (hda). You can
install on any par tition on that drive (hda 1, hda 2, etc) but the drive must be
reco g n iz e d as /dev/hda by Linux. The secon d is you'll want a prim a r y
boota bl e linux (type 83) par tition for DSL. The comp r e s s e d imag e is 50m b
so you can have a par tition as small as 55m b to hold DSL. All othe r
par titio n s are option al.
My per so n al reco m m e n d a t i o n is that your syste m is setu p with at least 3
par titio n s :
1. Prim a r y boot a bl e linux (type 83) for the DSL file
2. Seco n d a r y linux (type 83) for the per sist e n t /hom e, /opt, mydsl
exte n s io n s , back u p/ r e s t o r e , etc...
3. Seco n d a y linux swap (type 82) for swap me mo r y. You may not nee d this if
you'r e runni n g a mac hi n e with some t hi n g like a gig of ram.
You can mak e your prim a r y as larg e as you want and place your mydsl
exte n s io n s and back u p file in that par tition if you like. Setu p is really a
per so n a l pref e r e n c e . The critic al compo n e n t s are that you inst all on /dev/hda
and you have a linux par tition specified.
For this tutori al, it will be assu m e d you know how to use eithe r fdisk or
cfdisk to setu p your par tition table s. If you are using cfdisk in DSL it's
reco m m e n d e d that you boot the CD with the boot code dsl 2. This will boot
DSL in text mode only. After workin g on low ram mac hi n e s , I've lear n e d

that the frug al setu p nee d s to be a two boot proc e s s to preve n t possible
erro r s.

At the prom p t , type cfdisk and < e n t e r > . After cre a ti n g your par tition s and
writin g the par tition table you'll want to pre p a r e your drive.
I like to get my drives form a t t e d and rea dy to go. Even thou g h you only
nee d to have a linux par tition for the DSL installa tio n, I like to go ahe a d an d
form a t the par tition with ext2 so tha t it's sur e to be recog niz e d . If you
cre a t e d a secon d par tition to hold per s o n a l files, you will nee d to forma t
that par tition man u a lly. We also nee d to get swap setu p and initialize d. It's
an easy proc e s s, let's do it!
I'll show a typical configu r a ti o n bas e d on a thr e e par tition setu p
hda8 (par tition with the DSL imag e)
mke2fs /dev/hda8
hda9 (par tition for per sis t e n t /hom e /opt backu p mydsl)
mke2fs /dev/hda9
hda1 0 (me mo r y swap) (OPTIONAL)
mkswap /dev/hda10
swapon /dev/hda10

If you have succ e s sf ully compl e t e d thes e steps without erro r, we'r e rea d y to
do an inst alla tio n. Let's reboot so the par tition table can be res e t.
shutdown -r now
At the CD boot, type in dsl 2 again to get us back to the prom p t . We do this
so we are n' t eatin g up syste m resou r c e s by runni n g X. This gives us a bett e r
cha n g e at a clean installa tion.

Let's inst all Frug al!!!

At the com m a n d prom p t type:

/usr/sbin/frugal_instal.sh

Now we are in the frugal inst all script. The first thing you'll nee d to do type
the nam e of the par tition that will hold the comp r e s s e d imag e.
If you'r e using our exam pl e , type hda8 and pre s s < e n t e r >

You can cre a t e a Frug al install from thr e e sour c e s:

1. [L]ive - DSL CD
2. [F]ile - Existing KNOPPIX file on your har d drive
3. [W]eb - Via a netw o r k.
For this exa m pl e we will use the CD we are runni n g from. Type an 'L' and
pre s s < e n t e r >

Now we have the oppor t u ni ty to add boot time options. If you ent e r e d
option s when you boot e d the CD, those will car r y over to the frugal install.
Just ente r any addition a l ones her e. We are going to use the hda 9 par titio n
for per sis t e n t /opt and /hom e so we'll ente r home=hda9 and opt=hda9 and
pre s s < e n t e r >
NOTE: don't desig n a t e the mydsl par tito n her e. We'll be prom p t e d for that
later.

If you keybo a r d langu a g e is othe r tha n englis h, ente r it her e. Othe r wis e,
just pre s s < e n t e r >

Now we have to decid e if we want an auto m a t e d backu p and resto r e . We

wan t this so type "y" and pres s < e n t e r >

Let's ente r our backu p res to r e par tition. Type hda9 and pres s < e n t e r >

If you place all your mydsl exten s io n s in the sa m e partition as the KNOPPIX
imag e the n you answ e r 'n' her e. We are placing our exte n sion s in hda 9 so
we wan t to type 'y' and pres s < e n t e r >

Type hda 9 and pres s < e n t e r > to assig n the MyDSL par tition.

In the next ste ps you'll be aske d if you'r e rea dy to form a t the root par titio n
for Fru g al. You want to answ e r 'y'. You'll be aske d if you are sur e. Once you
contin u e , the par tition will be forma t t e d , the appr o p r a i t e files will be copie d
and lilo will be installe d in the mas t e r boot recor d to boot the frug al install.
After a reboot, you should be in your new frugal inst all! Cong r a t ul a t i o n s !!

FRUGAL NOTE S

If you have a good amou n t of ram (512 m b or mor e) you might want to
consid e r copying your frug al install to me mo r y. This will allow for very fast
perfo r m a n c e . You can do this by addin g toram at the boot options .
If available, it is reco m m e n d e d you use .uci exte n sio n s for your Frug a l
install. These apps load in your per sis t e n t /opt direc t o r y and use less
me m o r y tha n .dsl files.