Debian on an Old Laptop

[Complete]

I am using this version:

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/iso-cd/debian-testing-i386-xfce-CD-1.iso

Which is a single disk version of "ETCH"

(I have also made the 23 CD's of "ETCH" from here http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/weekly-builds/i386/iso-cd/

and they are ready if I need to use them)

Here is what happens.  I turn on the computer and it gives some sort of warning in white letters

in a red box that says that there is no partition.  I figure that this is OK since that is how

I remember setting up the system.  I thought that there was no issue with it having no partition

anyway.

Shortly after this, it gives me a menu option to pick from a default version or a single user option.

If I pick the default version it eventually goes to a blank screen

If I pick the single user option it eventually goes to a command prompt.

Then, if I type:

startx

it will also go to a blank screen.

So, thinking that the problem must be with the fact that my laptop has an ancient screen resolution,

I decided to connect a more modern monitor to the laptop and try again.  This time, it pretty much the same

as it did before except for the very end there was a different error instead of a blank screen.

I got a coworker to take some digital snapshots of the process.  The first are blurry bu they get clearer.

It says:

Partition doesn't exist

Save to Disk feature is disabled

Hit any key to exit.

The next screen shows the menu for starting in single user mode:

http://www.gelsana.com/debian/100_2412.JPG

Here are the following screens after I select single user mode:

Here is the part that is different, it shows this warning instead of a blank screen:

[Swimmer]

First welcome to the forum...

Alright.. I am assuming that you planned to run some type of X11 GUI on top of Debian?  Like Gnome or KDE..

I would start by trying to find the /usr/X11/bin folder.  There should be a file called xorgconfig..  execute this file..  What this basically does it rewrite the X11 file to fit onto your screen.  The folder could be located else where like /usr/X11R6 but it will be in the /usr directory.

The other thing is how in the world did you installed Debian without specifying a partition?