I am a beginner in the Linux world and I have just tried the small linux
distribution and I think it is great!! It fits my 486 4Meg machine
perfectly.

I want to share my experience with other beginner on installing the small
linux onto the hard disk. I think there is a little mistake on the Small
linux FAQ: the question "Can I install Small Linux on my hard drive?", in
step 3 you have mentioned that the use the command: "cp -R -v /* /mnt" and
I've tried and it didn't work. I think it tries to copy the contents from
the symbolics as well. So I tried to use the command "cp -a -v /* /mnt" and
it stopped at the proc as in your case.

The followings are my steps on installing small linux on my hard drive:

1. Use FIPS to make a new partition from my existing DOS
2. Boot up small linux using the boot disk and the root disk
3. use FDISK to make a native linux partition and a swap partition
4. mkfs.ext2 partition then Reboot
5. Boot up small linux using two disks again
6. Use the command "mount /dev/hda? /mnt" where ? is the drive number of the
native partition
7. use the command "cp -a -v /* /mnt" to copy everything to the hard disk
8. reboot
9. Use the boot disk to boot up, at the first prompt type "mount
root=/dev/hda?"
10. It should be able to boot up linux now without the root disk
11. mount the floppy disk now using "mount /dev/fd0 /mnt" and then copy the
vmlinuz to the root using "cp /mnt/vmlinuz /"
12. unmount the floppy disk using "umount /mnt" and then insert a dos
formatted floppy into the drive and mount it again
13. copy the vmlinuz to the floppy using "cp /vmlinuz /mnt"
14. restart in dos
15. copy vmlinuz in the same directory as LOADLIN
16. use this command "loadlin -v vmlinuz mount root=/dev/hda?" to boot up
small linux

optional extra:
17. edit config.sys to add a new label in the multi-boot menu
18. edit autoexec.sys under the new label and add the command written in
step 16

I hope this can help other beginner to test drive the small linux on thier
old machine before they try to install the full distribution on their
powerful machines

Chris

"Chris" <ip@icon.co.za>
1999/6/12