Linux won't shut down; can't read cd

[Slon]

I have an old laptop on which I decided to play around with Linux. Being a newbie, I searched for a Linux distro that was easy and came up with DSL and Bonzai. I currently have Bonzai linux installed. It is a 166MHz, 64MB ram with 2 gigs of space. I used the default installs, ignoring driver installs of the CD, made a partition of 64 megs as well as primary partition for the install and it is working. I got a CD with files (including Open Office) that I need to browse. How do I do this? I went to the terminal and did the ls thing, but I ended up with a ton of devices going from a to h and from 1 to 10. Which one is the cd rom?

Edit: Got this first part to work. However, I don't know how to install openoffice. I just see tons of .rpm files and don't know which one to use.

Also, it won't shut down. It says shutting down, might take a few minutes, shutting down, then nothing.

Also, now that I'm here, do you think it was a mistake installing Bonzai instead of DSL, given the low specs?

[Slon]

I tried out Damn Small Linux again and it is working better than Bonzai. I am trying to install openoffice now. I downloaded it for linux and it has a ton of rpm files in the first directory (after extraction) and then there is a desktop-integration folder than has some other files with operating system names in them (I think like 6 files in that dir). How do I install this openoffice? I moved it to hda from cd by mounting both and using the midnight commander superuser and now I am in Xshell, but the RPM commands aren't working. I have the dir open but can't do anything to install.

[the bassinvader]

Unfortunately i've no experience installing OpenOffice but have you tried the Installation instructions from the openoffice site?

download: Instructions for Downloading and Installing OpenOffice.org 2.0

What rpm package have you downloaded? As a general rule it's always best to look for rpm's specific to your distro.

[Slon]

Unfortunately i've no experience installing OpenOffice but have you tried the Installation instructions from the openoffice site?

download: Instructions for Downloading and Installing OpenOffice.org 2.0

What rpm package have you downloaded? As a general rule it's always best to look for rpm's specific to your distro.

I downloaded a bunch of them. I tried Debian, since I think DSL is based on Debian/Knoppix, but it didn't work. I don't even think there is such a thing as an "rpm" command or "rmp" on that system. I think DSL is an "incomplete" system, since it is so small and based on pieces of different ones. I decided to switch back to Bonzai, which is the only thing that really works on the old laptop. Bonzai is Debian-based, so I will try it there.

[abhishek456]

I downloaded a bunch of them. I tried Debian, since I think DSL is based on Debian/Knoppix, but it didn't work. I don't even think there is such a thing as an "rpm" command or "rmp" on that system. I think DSL is an "incomplete" system, since it is so small and based on pieces of different ones. I decided to switch back to Bonzai, which is the only thing that really works on the old laptop. Bonzai is Debian-based, so I will try it there.

you can install Gnu-utils on DSL and you can also use apt and synaptic. You can install them by going to Apps--Tools in menu

[the bassinvader]

I downloaded a bunch of them. I tried Debian, since I think DSL is based on Debian/Knoppix, but it didn't work. I don't even think there is such a thing as an "rpm" command or "rmp" on that system. I think DSL is an "incomplete" system, since it is so small and based on pieces of different ones. I decided to switch back to Bonzai, which is the only thing that really works on the old laptop. Bonzai is Debian-based, so I will try it there.

RPM is a different package management system to Debian. If you're trying to install RPMs onto a Debian based system, you're trying to put a square peg in a round hole! For DSL you need to download Debian packages and then follow the instructions for Debian packages.

[abhishek456]

here is a site which offers dsl additional repositories that can be installed

Damn Small Linux, MyDSL Repository

simply download the files with .dsl as extension and run on your system.(you don't need apt,synaptic to be installed to run them)

To load these appz click on Mydsl app on desktop then you can select the ".dsl" files want to run by clicking "Load local DSL extension" tab