Compact Flash

[SirRawlins]

Hello Guys,

I'm stil pretty new to Linux so you'll have to excuse me if i ask a question or two that make me sound like an idiot, i'll try my best not to do so.

Basicly my only experiance with linux is using the mesh-ap which i'm sure not many of you will be familiar with, but from my knowledge they work on a modified version of the Slackware OS.

However there version is a little too stripped down for my liking, and doesn't appear to have some of the bash commands i'm used to using, such as Make and Awk.

So i'm now looking to run just the standard SlackWare in the hope that this stuff is installed and i can then get things like BlueZ and Open Obex running so i can get the box chatting with my mobile phone.

Anyway, i'm looking to install the distribution onto a CompactFlash IDE card and have it running from there, i've found a couple of tutorials on this but they all seem to assume a basic knowledge above my current level.

I'm not worried about having KDE or any other GUI running as i'm used to working on the box through a terminal server anyway.

Can you guys offer any advice on this?

Thanks,

Rob

[kern]

as far as I know, the compactflash to IDE adaptors just appear as a normal IDE hard disk.

you shouldn't have any problems installing to it.

slackware starts in init 3 (text mode) by default anyway, and as long as you install make and awk, they will be there for you to use

let us know if you have any other questions

[SirRawlins]

Thanks for that Kern,

It is as i expected, only problem being, having never installed a copy of linux on any form i'm a little lost as to where i should start.

I know that most tutorials i have read want me to compile this and change that, shake a stick at this and put my left leg in, take it out again ... you know what i mean, from someone with a prodominatly windows based background its all a little consusing.

Any chance you can give me a little step by step dumies guide on what i should be doing?

I'm also trying to get Make on my existing box but finding it a little awkward, i've downloaded the latest release from GNU which has a whole stack of files in it, and im not sure what i should be doing with them, even when reading the INSTALL preoceedure provided with it, its quite tricky to know what i should be doing.

Thanks for any more advice.

Rob

[SirRawlins]

Just as a further note:

I've just tried to install the 'Make' program into my box, so i downloaded the latest version, unzipped it into a folder on the box, then tried to run the . configure command on it.

It starts to configure the file, and then i get an error saying it was unable to find an appropriate Compiler in $Path.

Now this would seem to make sense as i dont have 'Make' installed on my box, but how am i suposed to put a complier on my system if i have to compile it first? lol

Thanks,

Rob

[rcgreen]

When you boot from the installation cd, it will detect the
ide devices, and give you a choice which drive to install to.

If the device is a functional substitute for an ide drive, it will
use the same nomenclature as normal drives. The primary
master is /dev/hda and any partitions you make will
be /dev/hda1 /dev/hda2 and so on. Primary slave is
/dev/hdb. Secondary master is /dev/hdc and
secondary slave is /dev/hdd

Your two motherboard ide interfaces are, of course, primary
and secondary. Master and slave are usually (these days)
determined by which position you put the device on the cable.
Older computers and drives may require you to move a jumper
on the drive to designate it as master or slave.

During the installation, you will be shown a list of drives
found on the system, and you will choose which one to install
onto. If you remember which position your drive is in (master,
slave or whatever), or you know it by its size, you will not
mistake it for another drive on the system. If it is the only
drive (no other hard drives) then it's easy.

The simplest installation would require you to partition the drive
to make one swap partition, and one partition for the rest of the
OS. If it is big enough, just install everything, and you'll
have a fully functional system, just the same as if your device
was a hard drive.

[SirRawlins]

Thanks for that buddy, i'll get hold of a disk and give it a shot.

Now, back to the Make issue on my current box, i'm getting REALLY confused and i'm running around in circles.

I want to install 'Make' utitlity on my system, simple as it would seem, i have no C compiler on my box, so i made an attempt at getting GCC, only problem is that its bloody massive and when running on a 128Mb card i dont have the space for the 90Mb folder to install it.

So i find an RPM version which should work on my system, but, oh oh, i have no RPM installed, and to get it, i need to get a compiler ...

So, i'm stuck, and not sure where to go, any suggestions?

Rob

[kern]

I suggest you use the slackware box

you dont have to compile everything for one, use packages.

no point compiling make when you can install the package for it.

that way its easy to remove too instead of manually crowbarring it out yourself

[rcgreen]

You don't really have enough space to do what you want to do.
Maybe you should get a nice big hard drive and do a full install,
and then experiment with the card drive afterward. I'm sure you could
put a useable installation on it, but it will take some thought and planning.

[SirRawlins]

Sure things guys,

I've got a lovly big flash card on the way which will help with this kind of thing.

I've gotten myself a version of Damn Small Linux running from a frugal install which isnt bad, missing a few key componants and i'm having trouble getting BlueZ running on it, but we'll see.

Once the large card arives then i'll look a little more into the SlackWare install, my requirments are quite specific so i have placed together a list of the elements and utilities i require and plan on putting those on.

Hopefully everything will run nicly.

Can you guys tell me which Kernel slack 10 is running? is it easy to upgrade?

Ta,

Rob

[kern]

it runs 2.4.x by default, its easy to use 2.6 instead though

let me know how the performance of that flash adaptor is.. we have been looking at them to use for two of our load balancers in work because they are 311MB debian 3 installs on a 76GB 10KRPM drive ¬_¬, so compactflash would be good, as long as the performance is there.

should just work like a normal drive, albeit a small one hehe