Installing on very old Toshiba satellite t2155cds

aerostarlegacy · 04-16-2008, 01:22 AM

I have an old Toshiba t2155cds that I'm trying to install Linux on, I want a GUI, and basic functionality. It can't/won't boot to a CD, but it will boot to a floppy, so I got this boot floppy that'll let you select which drive to boot, but it still won't boot to cd. Is there any distro that is small enough to install via floppy, and without a net connection?

pljvaldez · 04-16-2008, 06:28 PM

You can try booting the debian installer with floppies. You'll have to download the floppy images. Here's the installation guide.

You will also need a CD image. If you want a desktop, I recommend trying the xfce-CD, which will install a lighter desktop by default. But you could use the first full CD as well.

aerostarlegacy · 04-16-2008, 11:13 PM

How many floppies do you think it'll take? What size would a minimal installation be (with a GUI, maybe xfce or fluxbox, etc). This computer is older than crap, it's a 32 mb RAM, 500MB hdd, and an intel 80486 at about 40 mhz or so. Would Debian even work? Does DSL have an install via floppy option/possibility?

pljvaldez · 04-17-2008, 11:35 AM

It takes two floppies and then the CD. A base (text only install) I believe is something like 20MB RAM and 400MB HD space. So maybe it's a bit large.

The DSL website seems to be down right now, but they may or may not have a floppy install. You also might check out DeLi Linux. It claims to run on 16MB RAM and 350MB hard disk space. A machine like that must have a floppy boot image...

aerostarlegacy · 04-17-2008, 11:10 PM

Thanks! I'll check those out right now. Do you think that the machine I have will be able to support a GUI? It currently runs windows 98 (slowly).

pljvaldez · 04-18-2008, 11:08 AM

If it runs Win 98, it should be able to support a gui. But just a light gui like XFCE or IceWM. The real trick is to use lightweight applications. DeLi linux is probably a good bet for that machine.

aerostarlegacy · 04-19-2008, 11:04 AM

OK, Thanks!

frenchn00b · 04-20-2008, 03:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aerostarlegacy

I have an old Toshiba t2155cds that I'm trying to install Linux on, I want a GUI, and basic functionality. It can't/won't boot to a CD, but it will boot to a floppy, so I got this boot floppy that'll let you select which drive to boot, but it still won't boot to cd. Is there any distro that is small enough to install via floppy, and without a net connection?

would you have a picture of the laptop ?

if it has windows, you can do :
http://goodbye-microsoft.com/

frenchn00b · 04-20-2008, 03:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aerostarlegacy

Thanks! I'll check those out right now. Do you think that the machine I have will be able to support a GUI? It currently runs windows 98 (slowly).

he would need to compile a kernel:
not a 2.6
but the lest 2.4 one would be great

this is my script that compile kernels:
http://yellowprotoss.ye.funpic.org/w...owtocompile.sh

conceerning the bin utils, that'll be hard to find old versions ...

frenchn00b · 04-20-2008, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pljvaldez

If it runs Win 98, it should be able to support a gui. But just a light gui like XFCE or IceWM. The real trick is to use lightweight applications. DeLi linux is probably a good bet for that machine.

DELI is great indeed for oldies, but it is very difficult to install. The installer cd is not great. And actually it would be better that it has 8mb cd-rom installer in case the cdrom is dead almost, and the pc get the packages through ethernet or wifi no?

A "very Debian distro" like etch stable, for old pc would be great ... i dont know if it exists with 2.4 kernel type

aerostarlegacy · 04-20-2008, 11:50 PM

Why can't I use a 2.6 kernel? And I lost my PCMCIA wired network card, and my pcmcia wireless network card *doh*. How can I check if the laptop will be supported (mouse, sound, screen, etc)? I don't want to install debian and not be able to get a gui running, as I don't have the win 98 rescue stuff.