Can someone please provide me with the information to complete a full install of DSL on a Dell Inspiron 5000?? I have a new hard drive without an operating system and I want to use DSL as an OS.

How far have you got? Have you downloaded the iso yet?

No. Can you tell me where I can find a reliable ISO??

http://iso.linuxquestions.org/ - this in the top box to the right hand side
http://iso.linuxquestions.org/distro.php?distro=4
http://iso.linuxquestions.org/version.php?version=414

And read the instructions to the left hand side of the download page to see how to burn the iso. If you end up with a cd with a single file ending in .iso on it, you did it wrong and have to start again.

i think my "yardstick"(defination of this should be few steps(probably a dozen) behind everyone else) is quite reliable ^_^ ... so you try http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/download.html


//but what exactly is your problem ... ??


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I just began downloading the DSL Live CD (3.2). How do I put it on a laptop without an operating system?

you boot it from a cd, and install it

Once I install it from the Live CD, will I need the CD every time I boot up the computer?

not if you install it to the harddisk

How do you do that?

Uh-I hope this would not be described as 'stealing a thread', but how do you install DSL to a computer without a CD drive? I.E. 3.5 floppy.

Anybody know? Would I have to do it through a network somehow?

ok , have just google "linux Dell Inspiron 5000" ... these are what i found , probably can help you a bit ...

http://users.linpro.no/janl/hardware/inspiron-5000.html

http://empl.web.cern.ch/empl/inspiron.html


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If you have an OS already on that computer, you can copy over 3 files via network or serial, and then figure out a way to boot it. If you have a win9x OS on the system you can boot using loadlin. If you have a floppy drive, you can boot via floppy. The three files you must copy over are the main compressed file system (called KNOPPIX -- nearly 50MB size), and the kernel and initrd files whose names I can't remember at the moment.

If you need more details than this you should probably start your own thread. But you can probably find what you need just by searching. LQ probably even contains the info. I have helped people on LQ with this sort of thing before (I think).

The laptop does not have an OS, no pen drive jack, only floppies. I have the KNOPPIX CD, but that is a whole OS itself...

May want to start a thread.