Subject: Re: Need Help

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 96 09:24:15 edt

Syrus,

>On Thu, 29 Aug 1996 [email-masked] wrote:
>
>> Hi! I want to become one of the enlightened, and start using Linux. 
>> I've downloaded the Dedian Linux 1.1, and made my floppies with 
>> rawrite2. 
>>
>> I have no special partitions now. Win95 is just installed on the 
>> whole 853M HD. The Dedian instructions indicate that setting up 
>> Linux and Linux Swap Partitions are part of their standard 
>> installation, but, alas, I did not get near that point before I had 
>> trouble.
>
>Hold it here.  I can't address the trouble you had with the boot process.
>I suggest you look at the document "Installing Debian 1.1 from Floppy
>Disk" in the hardware sections to see if that helps. 

I have read, printed, and re-read this. It is what got me as far as I am.
I went through the F1..F10 keys too.

> However, before you
>try to install Linux, you must have a free partition on one of your hard
>drives.  This partition will be erased, and reformatted into two new
>partitions.  If you have only one HD, you need to do this first:  The 
latest
>version of FIPS (free repartitioning program) can non-destructively split
>you Win '95 partition if you have enough available space.  But, you must
>backup your data if it is critical because you may lose it all!  Let's
>say you've got 853M with 400M of data.  You need to defrag your drive so
>all the files will be in the first half.  Now, you can use FIPS to split
>your drive into say, a 500M and 353M partition.  When you successfully
>run the Linux installation program, it will allow you to erase the second
>partition and create say, a 26M swap and a 330M linux partition for your
>root filesystem.
>
>Once you've got your system ready, you should be able to install from one
>of the floppy disk sets.  Note that when the first disk says 'boot:', you
>can press the function keys for some help on hardware specific parameters
>for the boot prompt.
>
>Good luck, and keep trying.  Also, backup your stuff or risk losing it.
>I've taken that gamble half a dozen times :-),

I'll look for FIPS, and try to use it, but I would truly love to know what 
went wrong with my installation. I've tried newsgroups, this group, and 
friends. So far no one even has a clue. My system seems pretty generic to 
me, and my approach is very direct(even if not ideal).

Matt