Installing "Damn Small Linux" onto a Netbook.

[thatajguy]

Hy everybody, my problem is pretty straight forward I guess. I have a Sylvania G netbook (specs can be found here Sylvania G Netbook Notebook PC - VIA C7-M ULV Processor 1.2GHz, 802.11bg Wireless, 1GB DDR2, 30GB HDD, 7" WVGA, Integrated Webcam, Linux Based gOS Operating System GNET13001 in Canada at TigerDirect.ca). I have tried several different methods to make my usb drive bootable with DSL and for the most part it works but when I try to install it on my netbook, there are a lot of hangups with it and then when it gets to the part where the status bar is supposed to go... it goes black lol. I'd like to know any theories if you got them, thanks.

[thatajguy]

also! when I try to just run it automatically (I was using "unetbootin-windows-282" with the instal option) I get:

you passed an undefined mode number
press <return> to see video modes available, <space> to continue or wait 30 secs

no matter what I do it always ends up at:

Uncompressing linux... OK, booting the kernel.

and it just sits there for 15 minutes. when it moves on it gets to the part where it's supposed to load, but again, it never loads.

[jayd512]

Possible hardware issues. I'll boot to DSL later tonight and check it out. There should be some extra boot options available to you, but I haven't loaded up to Damn Small in a little while now.

*EDIT*

Try booting with noprobe as an option.

[jayd512]

I was wrong on tne option for boot-up! Try to boot with failsafe. At the prompt, type

dsl failsafe

It will boot with minimal hardware detection... meaning you may have to install any extra drivers afterwards. These will mainly include any graphics or SATA drivers afterwards.

[thatajguy]

I tried that, it gets to the same point every time and stops haha. I tried it on my other laptop and it worked fine so yeah, it is just my netbook's hardware (may have to do with the hardware). I cracked and just reinstalled gOS on it lol. It's not bad, I cant figure out how to add/remove programs (me thinks they took that out to discourage screwing it haha) and it runs pretty slugishly but it'll have to do lol. Thanks for your help though! It's greatly appreciated