I'm having some difficulties with Small Linux install to my laptop Hard Disk. What follows will hopefully give some insight into my problems. However, it is a bit lengthy.
The Machine:
Winbook 486SX33 (Jetta Computers)
4MB Ram
First Trial:
My first attempt was to install Smalllinux v0.71
First boot from Boot and Root floppies went smoothly. I proceeded to partition the hard disk and make filesystems etc. I had already read that copying /proc from disk hangs the system, so I saved that for last. However, I was surprised to find that I recieved a 'bus error' when attempting to transfer /lib. Shortly afterwards, I began to recieve 'cannot fork' errors when attempting to ls. Presuming an issue having to do with the limited memory of the machine I tried again from scratch several times. No luck, though... /lib would not copy in its entirety. It seemed to always get stuck on the libdl files.
Second Trial:
I wrote the disks for v0.75 and started over. Success! The Root disk moved to hard disk with no complaints using the install.sh script. I recieved no more bus errors, and no fork errors. I rebooted next with 'linux root=/dev/hda2 ramdisk=0'. All seemed well until I reach the point where linux tries to initialize the run levels... First I recieve a message telling me that the drive is read-only and then I get a looping message which tells me c1 is respawning too fast, disabling for 5 minutes.... ad nauseum. Perhaps this has something to do with properly editing the /etc/fstab and /etc/mtab files on the hard disk. I reboot with the root disk and mount the hard disk unter /mnt. Changing to /mnt/etc I attempt to vi the appropriate files. All is well, I make some changes and hit esc:wq to save and exit vi. Something is amiss. It seems vi does not want me to exit. The :wq should appear at the bottom of the screen, right? Something isn't working properly here, since when I go through the sequence, the : doesn't appear at all and wq appears inline where the cursor last was in the text.. as though it were not properly reading the esc character. So, I'm pretty much lost at this point. I'm not even sure if I need to be modifying any files yet... but then I couldn't if I wanted to. In order to exit from vi with no esc character, I have to ctrl-break from the program.
Any thoughts?
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Sorry, the "vi" on that version of Small Linux is no relation to vi. Please start it with no file title and it should start with with the command key list. The commands are similar to the old WordStar program.
Other wise I don't know what the problem is. There was a respawning bug in earlier versions, but I thought it had been stamped out before the mid-0.7s
My fault entirely... I should have read some of the experience accounts more closely. One of them tells you that the vi SL uses is actually e3. It was all gravy from there.... The good news is, this old tank is up and running from the HD just fine. Thanks for the assist.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I'm having some difficulties with Small Linux install to my laptop Hard Disk. What follows will hopefully give some insight into my problems. However, it is a bit lengthy.
The Machine:
Winbook 486SX33 (Jetta Computers)
4MB Ram
First Trial:
My first attempt was to install Smalllinux v0.71
First boot from Boot and Root floppies went smoothly. I proceeded to partition the hard disk and make filesystems etc. I had already read that copying /proc from disk hangs the system, so I saved that for last. However, I was surprised to find that I recieved a 'bus error' when attempting to transfer /lib. Shortly afterwards, I began to recieve 'cannot fork' errors when attempting to ls. Presuming an issue having to do with the limited memory of the machine I tried again from scratch several times. No luck, though... /lib would not copy in its entirety. It seemed to always get stuck on the libdl files.
Second Trial:
I wrote the disks for v0.75 and started over. Success! The Root disk moved to hard disk with no complaints using the install.sh script. I recieved no more bus errors, and no fork errors. I rebooted next with 'linux root=/dev/hda2 ramdisk=0'. All seemed well until I reach the point where linux tries to initialize the run levels... First I recieve a message telling me that the drive is read-only and then I get a looping message which tells me c1 is respawning too fast, disabling for 5 minutes.... ad nauseum. Perhaps this has something to do with properly editing the /etc/fstab and /etc/mtab files on the hard disk. I reboot with the root disk and mount the hard disk unter /mnt. Changing to /mnt/etc I attempt to vi the appropriate files. All is well, I make some changes and hit esc:wq to save and exit vi. Something is amiss. It seems vi does not want me to exit. The :wq should appear at the bottom of the screen, right? Something isn't working properly here, since when I go through the sequence, the : doesn't appear at all and wq appears inline where the cursor last was in the text.. as though it were not properly reading the esc character. So, I'm pretty much lost at this point. I'm not even sure if I need to be modifying any files yet... but then I couldn't if I wanted to. In order to exit from vi with no esc character, I have to ctrl-break from the program.
Any thoughts?
Sorry, the "vi" on that version of Small Linux is no relation to vi. Please start it with no file title and it should start with with the command key list. The commands are similar to the old WordStar program.
Other wise I don't know what the problem is. There was a respawning bug in earlier versions, but I thought it had been stamped out before the mid-0.7s
Good luck,
Steven G.
http://smalllinux.superant.com.
My fault entirely... I should have read some of the experience accounts more closely. One of them tells you that the vi SL uses is actually e3. It was all gravy from there.... The good news is, this old tank is up and running from the HD just fine. Thanks for the assist.