How to partition a CF with Puppy Linux

Ok I am a complete linux noob but I want to try RTFMs linux image.

I have puppy linux running on my main PC via CD, I have my CF card plugged in and working but I am having a hard time understanding what commands to type to get the partitions set up.

My CF card is listed as /dev/sda1 967mb vfat

Now its a 1gb card and it reads 967mb... where is the full 1gb, I cant find any files on it!

I have typed in some commands and tried some stuff form various posts but I cant seem to get it partitioned. I have tried to search for helpful posts on the forums but the search function times out every time

Any help on what i need to type into the console in linux would be very much appreciated

$ilver

Hi,

The answer is a few threads down!!!
http://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=8999&pos...

Ok I follow that but i get the message

"FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 0: Partition begins after end-of-disk press any key to exit cfdisk"

Should I format the whole CF card if it has some problems? If so what is the command to format the whole thing and start fresh?

$ilver

Try cfdisk /dev/sda, then create your partitions as shown in the how-to posted above.

About your cf reading only 967 meg vs 1 gig... thats just a game manufacturers play. They size the drive by the amount of mbs of info it will hold, while windows reports a gig as 1024. For example a 40 gig hard drive really only is about 37 gig. So basically all i'm saying is your cf card is fine and normal.

Cheers.

Ok when I try cfdisk /dev/sda I get a different error.

"FATAL ERROR: Bad primary partition 0: Partition ends in the final partition cylind press any key to exit cfdisk"

The CF card was formatted in windows xp before, will this be causing me the problems?

Also when I open cfdisk the only drive that is seen is hda1 which is my hard drive yet I can mount the CF card from the puppy drive mounter.

$ilver

Edited by $ilver 2008-01-08 4:18 AM

Ok I found the problem out.

On my main pc I have been using my printer to read my CF card and to work on it in linux (it has a card reader in the front). It does not seem to work well with linux.

Secondly my main PC wont read this 1gb CF card in a USB card reader, I dont know why but it reads my other 16mb card just fine.

So I have tried it on my laptop and I have successfully partitioned the CF card

Now I have 2 more problems

I have extracted the first part fat16.tar.bz2 to the smaller first partition but I get an error "wrapper exited with error" is this something to do with text files?

And another problem I have is when I try to extract ext2.tar.bz2 to the second larger partition my laptop dies half way through reading the file. Is this because I am running out of ram? If so how do I create a file for more space?

$ilver

Edited by $ilver 2008-01-08 9:30 AM

Your laptop "dies?" You mean it shuts down? Or just complete locks up? You're running Puppy fully in RAM, right?

If you said "yes" to two out of three of these (or all three) then yes, you're probably having trouble with high memory use. If so, I suggest booting Puppy again, doing NOTHING, and when you shut down, select the largest Pup-save configuration you can put on your hard drive. That gives you a bit more swap to work with.

Or, upgrade your laptop's memory sticks .

As for the fat16 errors, they are probably the same ones the rest of us get and can be ignored. Check out the main thread for RTFM's prebuilt, or the FAQ he now has on his download page.

My laptop switched itself off half way through unpacking the large file.

I also had trouble creating a file for puppy on shutdown, my laptop would not shut down properly and would not offer me the option to create a file. X was the trouble here and I had to shut that down first using ctrl+alt+backspace and then poweroff. Now puppy works just fine.

After doing all this and creating a 1gig file for puppy my laptop still switches off while reading the large file for unpacking.

I have managed to get the files unpacked and on the partition of the CF card \o/ but now when I execute the linux file on my jornanda i hit the I Agree button and it all locks up and wont go any further

At this stage I would pull my hair out but most of it fell out 10 years ago lol

$ilver