Installation can be tricky on a machine with 4 megabytes of RAM or less. Here are a few tricks that can be helpful if you run into problems. (Symptoms might include: system hangs while booting the bootdisk; root password required on the rootdisk; inability to run "fdisk" or "mkswap"; and many more, I'm sure...) If you have DOS and a 5 1/4" floppy drive, you can save 240K by using Loadlin in conjunction with a 5 1/4" rootdisk. Here's how: 1. Make the rootdisk using RAWRITE.EXE. 2. Unzip lodlin15.zip (look in /kernels) in a directory on your DOS partition. 3. Select an appropriate kernel from a subdirectory under /kernels. The /bootdsks.12/WHICH.ONE document might be helpful in selecting the proper one for your hardware. Copy it into the directory where you put loadlin. 4. Put the rootdisk into the floppy drive, and use this command to load it: loadlinx scsi root=b: ramdisk=1200 ^^^^ ^^ |||| This should be the drive you put the disk in. This is the name of the kernel you selected. Then, install as usual. ------ There will be times when even that method doesn't save enough memory to allow installation. Here's another method that may possibly even allow installation to a machine with 2 megabytes: 1. If you have a second floppy drive, great -- you'll want to use that for the rootdisk. If not, you'll have to make due with the rootdisk in your boot drive. With the rootdisk in the boot drive you won't be able to install from floppy disks or make a bootdisk at the end of the installation process, since the disk will be "mounted" in the boot drive and cannot be removed (no matter what the screen tells you) until the machine is rebooted. Make a rootdisk using RAWRITE.EXE for the floppy drive you selected. 2. Unzip lodlin15.zip (look in /kernels) in a directory on your DOS partition. 3. Select an appropriate kernel from a subdirectory under /kernels. The /bootdsks.12/WHICH.ONE document might be helpful in selecting the proper one for your hardware. Copy it into the directory where you put loadlin. 4. Put the rootdisk (NOT write protected) into the floppy drive, and use this command to boot it: loadlinx scsi root=b: ramdisk=0 ^^^^ ^^ |||| This should be the drive you put the disk in. This is the name of the kernel you selected. Then, install Linux. If you're using the boot floppy drive for the rootdisk, you will not be able to install from floppy disks. DON'T take the rootdisk out of the floppy drive for any reason during the installation! Also, since scratch files may be written to the rootdisk, you'll want to start with a fresh copy if you need to start over for some reason. Once installed, you'll need to have a way to start your new system. If you were lucky enough to have a second floppy drive to use for your rootdisk, then you'll be able to make a bootdisk at the end of the installation process. This is highly recommended. If your boot drive is occupied by the rootdisk, then you've got two options: Loadlin (a method of booting from DOS) or LILO. And, if you're using the UMSDOS filesystem then Loadlin is your only choice. To boot the system with loadlin, you'll use a command similar to the one you used to start the rootdisk, but you'll replace a: or b: with the name of the device you're using for your root Linux partition, like this: loadlinx scsi root=/dev/hda2 ramdisk=0 Once your machine is up and running, you'll probably want to switch to a different kernel, such as one of the ones on the A or Q series. The kernels in the /kernels directory are designed for installation and aren't as full-featured as some of the other ones. Or, you could compile a custom kernel especially for your machine from the source code in /usr/src/linux. This will provide optimal performance, since it won't contain any unnecessary drivers. Pat