Hello: Yesterday I installed Caldera Systems OpenLinux on a Pentium 100 having a 1.5 GB hard drive and 32 MB RAM. I used the CD-ROM that came with the SAMS book. The book describes how to install it from Windows, to include partitioning the disk for Linux by using a Windows program on a the CD ROM.
I think this operating system can be installed somehow from DOS, but the book doesn't explain how, and the CD-ROM apparently has no DOS-based partitioning program for Linux. I am very puzzled as to why Caldera would have produced a CD-ROM for installing Linux from Windows instead of from DOS. Caldera does not like MicroSoft and they have in the past successfully sued MicroSoft for having bullied them around. I made a successful installation of OpenLinux on the described PC. OpenLinux appears to be running fine on this machine. Also I installed a boot loader program named BootMagic that came with the CD-ROM so that I may boot to either Windows 95 or OpenLinux. Next I booted to a DR-DOS version 7.03 system disk in the A: drive and did "sys C:" so that I could boot the hard drive to either OpenLinux or DR-DOS. The DR-DOS operating system files were transferred to the hard drive and all was well. I could then boot from my hard drive to either DR-DOS or OpenLinux. Then I ran a program named DELDIR.COM in an attempt to get rid of all my wincrap. This program works like the DELTREE.BAT that comes with DR-DOS. I did "deldir windows". This resulted in getting rid of most, but not all the wincrap. There still remained many empty directories and some files associated with my Windows 95 installation. I tried removing these directories by using the DOS "rd" command. This resulted in an error message saying "directory not empty", even though an inspection revealed that the directory was indeed empty. Also I tried to delete some of the few remaining Windows files by using the DOS "del" command. I would get an error message saying something to the effect that I could not delete files with long file names. Then I booted to A: using a WIN 95 boot disk. I couldn't delete the files having long file names even when I used the WIN 95 version of DOS. Also I could not delete the empty directories by using the "rd" command. It is very important for me to get rid of the wincrap because CHKDSK.COM will not even work if long file names are present on my hard drive. Also having the wincrap there is a waste of disk space. How do I get rid of all this wincrap? Please don't tell me that I will have to re-format my hard drive and take a different approach for installing OpenLinux all over again. Please don't tell me that unless it is the only answer. Sam Heywood -- This mail was written by user of The Arachne Browser - http://arachne.cz/
