World: r3wp

Maybe I'll try that step again from the CD, hang on. Syllable installer 
created the partition, I am pretty sure it did anyway (it was very 
fast...)

It was a win98 FAT partition previously.

Did you use Syllable to create the partition?

Yes, from the Syllable Basic CD installer.

With our graphical DiskManager?

Yes.

Then it's probably a known problem of DiskManager not leaving enough 
space before the partition for the boot manager on some systems

any workarounds ?

It wasn't necessary to repartition because you could have used the 
existing partition

To get a correct partition, make the partition again with Windows 
or some other partitioning tool

Then in the Syllable installation, just point it to that partition. 
It will just reformat it

Ok, first I am going to try go back and see what those error messages 
were.

DiskManager is for when you only have free space and need to make 
a new partition

ok, the grub setup (hd0) messages:
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/afs_stage1_5" exists... yes

So what were the warnings?

Running "embed /boot/grub/afs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... failed (this is 
not fatal)

Running "embed /boot/grub/afs_stage1_5 (hd0,0)"... failed (this is 
not fatal)

Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) /boot/grub/stage2 p /boot/grub/menu.ls 
"... succeeded
Done.

(getting very fit here, running between the rooms.)

Yes, that's the lack of space that prevents the embedding in/completion 
of the boot loader. Dunno why it calls it not fatal

Ok, so I'll rumage around for a boot disk.

Getting even fitter :-)

I have to go protest against the government soon so I might put that 
on hold for now. Thanks very much for your help. I feel I'm pretty 
close to an install now.

OK, go get 'em

What's it about, anyway?

Industrial reform. Basically converting people into slaves.

Just repartitioned with win98 FDISK. Have to start Syllable install 
again.

Ok, my new reading of the instructions during the install means that 
I didn't have to start DiskManager at all.

Success! 19 sectors are embedded. Now booting Syllable from harddisk.

OK :-)

Logged, played around, shutting down.  Very good :) Now I can go.

Good luck

Thanks again.

No problem

First shutdown actually froze, had to use power button (sorry..:). 
Second boot and shutdown OK.

Third boot (I think) I changed window decoration and ps/2 mouse froze 
over the apply button, never to move again. I fumbled on the keyboard 
but did not find a way to shutdown without using the power button 
again (!).

Shutdown has never worked. Reboot does. Shutdown should work in the 
next version when we introduce ACPI power management. (Although maybe 
not on your old machine)

Control-Alt-Delete is also OK, although you have to use the upper 
delete key on the keyboard. This is a clean shutdown and reboot

The appearance preference applet is indeed broken in this version. 
It does freeze, and then Control-Alt-Delete is the best way out. 
As far as I've seen, the decorator does change after rebooting

The thing to remember about the file system is that journaling works 
well, unless you had a lot of file activity just before hard booting. 
This can damage your file system. A good thing to do after heavy 
file activity like big copies or downloads is to issue a "sync" command 
in the terminal

This is due to bugs in the journal recovery that we're still hunting 
for

So theoretically the filesystem is supposed to be bulletproof.

The BIOS does have power management features, but I didn't see ACPI 
written anywhere just now.

Is there any USB support ? I have a USB ethernet network interface 
which I could plug in.

Yes, it's pretty much bulletproof until you hit the bugs with large 
journal replay content

Shutdown is supposed to work with APM now, but I don't think it has 
ever worked

We have a USB stack, but few specific USB drivers, so only USB mice 
and mass storage devices like memory sticks are supported right now

There are drivers for UHCI, OHCI and EHCI USB 2, so all controllers 
should work

We released Syllable 0.6.0:

http://syllable.org

The most important enhancement is a new rendering architecture for 
the video framework. The contents of windows are now backbuffered 
in the video memory on the video card, so they can be restored much 
faster. Amiga smart window refresh, anyone? :-) But this time it's 
with hardware support

While the user interface was already fast and smooth for relatively 
simple windows content, this also makes the experience smooth for 
complicated windows that would otherwise take noticable time to redraw, 
like web browser windows. Currently available on nVidia GeForce, 
Ati Radeon and SiS video drivers