133 Pentium/16mb Yes this is what I want to try DSL on. But running off the cdrom is really slow. It gives instructions on how to install it but since I have never used linux before it's all Greek to me. I have 3 partition on a 2 gig drive. C: primary D: Logical E: Logical But the instruction go like this: Create a app. 250-300MB Linux partition with cfdisk or fdisk (e.g. /dev/hda1, /dev/sda2) I used fdisk but I could not figure out how to get it to call them (e.g. /dev/hda1, /dev/sda2). First of all it was a dos fdisk I used to create the drive. Should I have used a linux fdisk. If so I have looked for one and have not found one. So what do I need to do to get these drive renamed to fit the reqirement of the instructions. If you are intrested there is the url to DSL http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-hd-install.html These are the instruction I am trying to follow. I have been at this for a few days trying to understand this so could someone please give me a helping hand. I am not new to Operating system but this is to radical from the others I have used. DOS, OS2, Win3, WIN95, Win98 and APL.

This installation was really not intended for beginners. When someone says something iin Linux is experimental, I interpret that as "intended for hacking." Boot DSL and use the fdisk provided with that (I assume its included). Use the shell command "whereis fdisk" to find it. Of course, just typing "fdisk dev/hda" should be enough (of course, be sure that is the partition you want to mess with). Use this tutorial to figure out fdisk. Google has plenty more, and there is a man page (of course). The renaming is for the distinguishing of volumes (rather than letter assignments like C: and D:, we have devices like dev/hda - device, hard disk A).

Just a little clarification, you're not "renaming" drive letters from "C:" to "/dev/hda" like you would rename a file, by writing something to the hard drive, you're just using different terminology to refer to them. fdisk lets you delete and create partitions to separate things into different slices but that's "reparitioning", not "renaming". I hope I'm not being to picky... So in Windows the lingo is "C: drive", in Linux it's "/dev/hda", and on the Mac it may be called something like "Hard Drive" or "Hard Disk". *But* Windows and Linux install onto different file systems so you are correct in saying you need to reformat to install Linux. What I'm trying to say is if you have a system with both Windows and Linux installed and Windows is installed on "C:", when you type the 'df' command in Linux, the "C:" drive shows up as "\dev\hda1" but when you boot into Windows it shows up as "C:". -- MORE BACKGROUND INFO BELOW IF YOU CARE... -- In Linux, drives that are referred to with the letters "hd", like "hda1" and "hdb1" are IDE hard drives - which are the common desktop PC and Mac drives. "sd" drives, like "sda1", are SCSI drives which are generally higher performance drives found in corporate servers. I believe the letter after the "hd" refers to which IDE controller the drive is connected to. If you look on your motherboard and there are two connectors where drive ribbon cables can connect (in addition to one smaller connector for floppy drives). One connects to the Primary IDE controller and the other connects to the Secondary IDE controller. Each IDE controller usually can have two drives connected to it for a total of four: /dev/hda - Primary IDE Controller, First Drive /dev/hdb - Primary IDE Controller, Second Drive /dev/hdc - Secondary IDE Controller, First Drive /dev/hdd - Secondary IDE Controller, Second Drive The numbers after the a,b,c,and d refer to the partitions. Good luck with your install.

Ok Thanks for the repies. I see you point in the how the names are used for each drive in each operating system. And far as installing DSL it seems like I need more memory in the unit before I can attempt to install it. Thanks again for the help

>> I need more memory in the unit before I can attempt to install it. The guys here www.damnsmalllinux.org/486.html appear to have installed it with only 16MB.