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Re: installing



At 03:21 PM 5/5/1999 +1000, darrin griffiths wrote:
>hi, i'm having a hard time installing debian. it's on
>an old 486 with 8 meg ram and a 100 meg h/d. i put it
>together with spare parts and it works well. when i
>install all goes well ( i am installing from floppies )
>untill i put in the 7 base discs. after the 7th it
>starts to extract but then says "there was a problem...
>blah blah blah". i've tried everything-ie used brand
>new discs, 

If you've only tried a couple of floppies, my first recommendation would be
to try a couple more (it sounds like the problem is on disk 7). I've known
of instances where it took four floppies before finding one with enough
reliability to work during the install. Even brand new disks don't
guarantee the reliability needed.

Another alternative is to create a small DOS partition on the drive (just
long enough to get Linux installed), just big enough to hold the files
you've rawrite'd to floppies, except for all the base images. Instead,
download the base2_1.tgz file and use it. You'll also need the install.bat
file and the linux file. Then just run install.bat. Of course, the problem
here is trying to get the large base2_1.tgz file onto your machine, when
all you probably have access to is a floppy drive. Bummer.

Alternatively, if you've got a portable zip drive or something comparable....

IIRC, the extraction takes place after the partitioning of the drive. I
assume since you mention that all goes well until this problem that you
have created at least the / (root) partition and a swap partition and
formatted them. You might also want to let the partition/format routine do
a complete check on the drive when it suggests it, even though it takes a
little longer.

Hope this helps.

>changed to a newer floppy drive, etc. i
>downloaded the files as binaries, and i rawrite(d) them
>from the dos that win 98 shuts down to.
>i imagine that i would fall into the expert group of
>computer users, so i don't think the problem is
>anything trivial that i have overlooked. please help as
>this is driving me crazy and it is now a matter of
>pride that i get it working. by the way i have RTFM and
>thus far have done all it says. PLEASE HELP.
>cheers
>darrin griffiths


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