Semi-Automated DSL Frugal Install

Introduction

What started as an experimental process may now become our default method of getting Linux onto these old laptops. Many of these laptops don't have hard drives or CD drives. If they do have CD drives, some will not even boot from CDs. So to get around this issue, we are copying "images" of Damn Small Linux onto large batches of hard drives and then installing them into the laptops. Rather than debugging installation issues, this allows us to focus more on how well Linux is actually running. End result: this makes the refurbishing process much faster by removing more failure modes.

Procedure

This process assumes that you have are using hard drives that have had DSL already installed to them. For info on installing DSL onto drives, see the section on DSL installtions further down.

1. Power down the laptop (make sure it is really off)
2. Remove the old hard drive and caddie, if one exists
3. Insert drive with DSL installed
4. Power on the laptop
5. If you get a message that says "no OS detected" you may need to manually select it in the bios
6. If you're lucky, you will get to the grub bootloader menu with a nice graphical image that says "NTR Linux Laptop"
7. Select the first line item in the menu "DSL 3.4.8"
8. You should see DSL beging to boot with a many message being splashed across the screen.