poor laptop needs your help!

[ShadowFolder]

i have tecra 500cdt...
(pentium 120mhz, 16mb edo ram, 1.3gb hd, cdrom)
(xircom pcmcia 28.8 modem & ethernet)

i wanna install any old linux distro... (maybe RH6.2)

the problem is:
it has no floppy drive,
it can't boot from cdrom...

i need help 4 HD installation...
(thanx 4 replies!)

 

[skab]

Will it boot of the modem or lan card?

 

[ShadowFolder]

nope, from HD...

 

[AllenSmoker]

one option is to use something like this to install the hard drive in your desktop and start the installation there.

You can get those cheaper, I just gave the link(quick google search) so you would know what I was talking about.

 

[ShadowFolder]

nope, i mean i wanna install files to laptop's disk!
i can't use bootdisks, i can't use bootable cd...
so, how can i copy a distro, directly 2 HD?
(which files?)

gui will be nice in that laptop,
because, it has color lcd...

but i don't think 16mb can work with gui...


first times i try to build a "trinux" laptop, for networking...
but now i want to install RH...

which RedHat 4 me???
(manage gui with 16mb, and pcmcia support needed!)

 

[moorcito]

I know with Slackware you could use a network connection, to install zipSlack onto the windows partition, and then boot Slackware from windows, initialize the network card, and do a NFS install. I've done NFS installs before, but I've always had the luxury of having a floppy drive to boot from.

I've got a Toshiba Portege 300CT, it's got a Pentium 133MMX, 32mb Ram, 1.2 GB hd, floppy drive, but no CD-ROM. I use windowmaker as my GUI, it runs a little slow, but at least it runs. If you give youself a nice sized (32-64mb) swap file, you should be able to run a barebones GUI.

But as far as a painless way of getting it to work, I'd have to recommend AllenSmoker's idea of putting the laptop harddrive into a desktop and installing RH that way. Once you put the laptop hd back into the laptop, you can finish the customization.

 

[Too Smart]

Shouldn't it be possible to start Linux from the cd with the loadlin program? Just put the installation cd in the cdrom, somewhere on the cdrom (proabbly in the /boot directory) there should be a program called loadlin. Just run that program and it will automatically boot into Linux using the cd and start the installation. At no point is a floppy required. Read the readme file in the /boot directory in order to know which parameters to pass to loadlin. Some linux distros (Debian for sure) have a batch file called boot.bat in the /boot directory which automatically does everything.

 

[ShadowFolder]

But as far as a painless way of getting it to work, I'd have to recommend AllenSmoker's idea of putting the laptop harddrive into a desktop and installing RH that way. Once you put the laptop hd back into the laptop, you can finish the customization.

i have usb adapter 4 laptop disk, i can connect it...

so, i'll burn RH6.2 iso files 2 cd,
and copy cd's file to HD...

slackware is alternate solution, 4 me...
if RH makes that babe tired, i'll try zipslack...

thanx 4 ideas...

 

[CrazyP]

i have the same problem as you. i hace resigned myself to get a floppy drive for it, because i dont have any other way to get win 98 off of there

 

[ShadowFolder]

i have the same problem as you. i hace resigned myself to get a floppy drive for it, because i dont have any other way to get win 98 off of there

it's almost 50$...
i'll never pay 50$ 4 a floppy!

 

[penquissciguy]

Shouldn't it be possible to start Linux from the cd with the loadlin program? Just put the installation cd in the cdrom, somewhere on the cdrom (proabbly in the /boot directory) there should be a program called loadlin. Just run that program and it will automatically boot into Linux using the cd and start the installation. At no point is a floppy required. Read the readme file in the /boot directory in order to know which parameters to pass to loadlin. Some linux distros (Debian for sure) have a batch file called boot.bat in the /boot directory which automatically does everything.

Used to use this all the time with my P133 that had no CD boot option. I think you need to be at the command prompt (restart in ms-dos mode) for it to work correctly, which may cause issues if you don't have drivers configured to use the CD drive in ms-dos mode.

Ken