SliTaz Forum
You are not logged in.
Hi:
Maybe this is going to sound crazy, but i'm trying to install Slitaz on a very old laptop that's a Pentium 1 with 24MB of Ram.
I tried to run the slitaz-loram-cdrom but the boot hangs... i'm guessing that there's no enough RAM to load the livecd.
The machine has a hard drive of 2GB formatted in Fat... if i manage to make a swap partition on it (don't really know how... any ideas?) will Slitaz use it when it tries to boot the livecd?
That's my idea... is there another way around?
Hi,
Try to boot with Tiny SliTaz (http://tiny.slitaz.org).
I assume you will install SliTaz on hda1 hard disk and your cdrom is hdc :
# mke2fs -j /dev/hda1
# mkdir /mnt/cdrom /mnt/hda1
# mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
# mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom
# cd /mnt/hda1
# cp -a /mnt/cdrom/fs/. . || unlzma -c /mnt/cdrom/boot/rootfs.gz | cpio -id
# mkdir boot
# cp /mnt/cdrom/boot/bzImage boot
# mount -t proc proc proc
# SHELL=/bin/ash chroot . /bin/ash -
# cp -a /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc /boot/grub
# cat > /boot/grub/menu.lst <<EOT
default 0
timeout 5
title Slitaz
kernel /boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda1
EOT
# grub
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
# reboot
1- You may use a tiny slitaz kernel to save more memory.
2- There are more crazy stuff: http://doc.slitaz.org/en:guides:uncommoninst#floppy-install
Offline
Thanks bellard 
What i want to do is to save some files that are in the Hard Disk with some kind of livecd... the laptop is very old but it has a port for a pcmcia card, and i have one of that cards with usb ports on it
After the "rescue" is done, the idea is to have the machine running with Slitaz all the time.
I'll be taking a look to the floppy solution you pointed me and reporting the progress
Additional questions:
- Does Tiny Slitaz come with the tools to make the kind of backup i'm trying?
- In the floppy sets... it says that the core need 22MB Ram... that only leaves me with 2MB to run anything :S
- What can i do to make a swap partition / and will Slitaz use it?
Tiny Slitaz needs 8MB of RAM and only one floppy. This is *not* SliTaz.
http://tiny.slitaz.org/ is tool to customize it. You should add the dropbear package (see 2nd page).
The kernel 'isa' may be ok (ethernet card 3c509 & ne2k drivers) but you can provide a custom one if you need.
You will be able to backup your data with cpio :
# cd /mnt/yourharddisk && find . | cpio -o -H newc | ssh someone@somewhere "gzip -9 > harddisk.cpio.gz"
Or with dd :
# dd if=/dev/ofyourharddisk conv=noerror | ssh someone@somewhere "cat > harddisk.img"
Or with scp:
# scp /mnt/yourharddisk/path1/file1 /mnt/yourharddisk/path2/file2 someone@somewhere:
You only use Tiny Slitaz to backup your data and install (the real) SliTaz.
Tiny Slitaz has fdisk, mke2fs and mkswap tools.
SliTaz supports swap partition and swap files.
Offline
If you have a swap partition the liveCD should be able to use it.
Ok for the swap partition being recongnized/used by Slitaz
I just downloaded Tiny Slitaz after add dropbear & building it... (just downloaded the iso version since the machine has cdrom and i can't find any floppy working around
This will recognize my pcmcia with usb ports and allow me to copy the entire partition (that's what your first command does, bellard?) to my usb mass storage...
After, i should launch fstab, partition the disk with a swap of at least 100MB and then try to install Slitaz to the hard disk...
Correct if i'm wrong... this will be a big odyssey for me
Burned the cd-rom, and booted the machine... it works so far but i can't mount the hard drive nor the usb mass storage... (first i created the destination folder)
Mount gives me "No such device or address" - the hard disk is correctly plugged since Win98 runs.
Tried # mke2fs -j /dev/hda1 too, and the same message is given...
Tried with hda,hdb,hdc,hdd and with every number... the same message always...
Maybe something is missing with Tiny Slitaz to do this? An additional package? or something else... Any thoughts?
Well...
I have built a new kernel for http://tiny.slitaz.org/ called 'usbstorage' based on 'isa' with pci, usbstorage and pcmcia 16/32 bits support. I assume your IDE is on the PCI bus.
You PC is not old enough...
BTW I have built an iso for you : http://mirror.slitaz.org/~bellard/TinySliTaz-usbstorage.iso
If it still doesn't work, the kernel configuration (the .config file) is on de CD-ROM in data/linconf.gz (zcat data/linconf.gz > .config)
The utility 'Hardware Detection Tool' in http://mirror.slitaz.org/boot/cdrom-grub4dos.iso may help
to build a custom kernel (to list pci devices)
Offline
I tried to mount somethings... nothing works.
I've taken a picture of /dev ... wich should i mount?
[attachment=2191,124]
I've searched around wich /dev is assigned to a har drive on pci, found nothing...
Bellard... many thanks for your help so far, really
Ps: This is the machine i have... http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/compaq-presario-1220-mediagx/1707-3121_7-30000007.html#manDesc / The main difference with that, is the ram: free -m gives that the total is 22032
Ps: why is not lspci or lsusb working? 
Good & Bad news: i've found that this laptop uses the same ram modules (so dimm) that my other old laptop (compaq 1700) so i took one and putted into this machine: the compaq 1220 recognized 256MB ram (strange since it has a limit for 96mb!)
The Good news is that i've been able to run the livecd
The Bad news is that Slitaz can't see the Hard Drive 
It looks like we found something not working (don't know it it's at kernel level this could explain too the lack of information about IDE on PCI- or it's something inside Slitaz)
What is the next logical step here?
Another CD with many PCI & USB drivers, MediaGX and lspci & lsusb support :
http://mirror.slitaz.org/~bellard/TinySliTaz-Presario1220.iso
This CD has been merged with http://mirror.slitaz.org/boot/cdrom-grub4dos.iso , you can also run
the 'Hardware Detection Tool' utility from the boot menu
To find hard disk devices :
# fdisk -l
To see kernel boot messages (and see some PCI ids) :
# less /var/log/dmesg.log
Offline
Bellard: many & big THANK YOU
So, reporting
1- Loaded the CD
2- Grub showing "Tiny Slitaz for Compaq Presario 1220 laptop" (i don't know how to express my gratitude
3- I go to the "Hardware Detection Tool" ... nothing found
4- Launching "Tiny Slitaz for Compaq presario 1220"... the hard disk is found on hda1!!! (but the usb mass storage plugged to the pcmcia card is not there)
5- Try to mount the hard drive
6- mount /dev/hda /anywhere = invalid argument
7- mount /dev/hda1 /anywhere Message: "FAT: codepage cp437 not found" (two times) + "mounting /dev/hda1 on /anywhere failed: Invalid argument"
Ps: i asume that Slitaz 3.0 (standart iso) doesn't come with the drivers needed to run this laptop... Bellard: i hope i'm not abusing, but could you please build a Slitaz standart iso with the drivers needed for this laptop ? This way, i'll be trying with Slitaz & Tiny Slitaz (since i can "manipulate" the Ram of the laptop by now)
Hmm...
I don't known yet the drivers you need...
Does Tiny Slitaz work ?
If yes, can you send /var/log/dmesg.log to pascal.bellard@slitaz.org ?
Anyway, I have built a kernel with MediaGX support and many PCI USB & PCMCIA drivers for SliTaz 3.0 :
http://mirror.slitaz.org/~bellard/bzImage-2.6.30.6-Presario1220
a customized ISO image http://mirror.slitaz.org/~bellard/slitaz-3.0-Presario1220.iso
and updated http://mirror.slitaz.org/~bellard/TinySliTaz-Presario1220.iso with codepage cp437 and more pcmcia & usb drivers...
Offline
Bellard:
Just downloaded the updated iso for Tiny Slitaz, but i'm guetting the same behaviour as before... maybe the iso wasn't correctly updated?
Right. A typo in the name. Fixed now.
To check the CD look at the kernel :
1748512 Jul 8 19:12 boot/bzimage
Offline
FINALLY mounted the hard drive!!!
But the usb-drive through the pcmcia card doesn't work yet... i'm simply trying to see the disk through a fdisk -l , is that right?
fdisk -l should show the usb drive.
What says lsusb ? lspci ?
Try also
# mount -t usbfs usbfs /proc/bus/usb
# cat /proc/bus/usb/devices
# cat /proc/bus/pci/devices
# cat /proc/scsi/scsi
# cat /proc/devices
# ls -lR /proc/bus/pccard
# cat /proc/bus/pccard/*/info
Offline
(sorry, i was out for a while with some problems...)
With a friend we managed to take the Hard Disk out and installed Slitaz 3.0 standart. Now we are getting the behaviour described in this page: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/kernel-panic-atkbd-c-spurious-ack-on-isa0060-serio0-507224/
At that time, i didn't have the ISOs that you build Bellard. I'll try again and report.
Ok, some thoughts (using the standart Slitaz you build Bellard)
- If i have a swap partition and low ram, the system wont boot 'cause it sends an error message before the mount process (loading the image goes fully in ram, and there it fails even having a 100MB swap partition)
- After plug a 256MB Ram on the machine, the image is loaded but the boot hangs at "requesting events from kernel" forever (strange thing since i've already been able to boot a live cd that you build for me Bellard)
Taken the hard disk to another machinel, installed Slitaz on it and taked the disk back on the Compaq 1220 for the reboot.
It also hangs on the "requesting events from kernel"... (with 256 ram or 24).
[ Generated in 0.020 seconds, 7 queries executed - Memory usage: 1.58 MiB (Peak: 1.77 MiB) ]