Hello,

I have an old laptop that I would like to install Linux for my next weekend project... the following are its specifications:

Dell Latitude XPi P133ST (Pentium-133)
24 MB RAM
2167 MB HD
3.5" (1.44 MB) Diskette Drive

I do not have a CD-ROM, so I will have to start from the diskette drive. However I do have a LAN PC Card which I think might be useful for a Linux installation. It is a 3Com EtherLink III (3C589D-TP) For 10BASE-T.

Considering I am trying to find a Linux distribution with graphical interface and internet capabilities, my questions is: What would be a good Linux distro for my old laptop?

I have another PC (with Ubuntu already installed) with a diskette drive, so I could make a boot and installation diskettes from it.

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Andre W.

i run DSL on an ibm 365x.pulled the drive for the install,and swapped it back for the first boot and config.

Yes you definitely want DamnSmallLinux, which is what the previous poster meant by DSL.

PS: If you search the DamnSmallLinux (dsl) forums/wiki at damnsmalllinux.org you will find detailed instructions for how to install dsl to your laptop's hd via floppies alone. It's supposed to be a tedious way to install, but it's doable. There are also posts about network installs. I've never done either.

The dsl forum is full of people having great success with dsl on ancient laptops. 24MB is ok for dsl. It's even been got to run (albeit very slowly) on atticware 486's.

Damnsmall will also, booted 'toram', play dvd's quite well on a *recent* laptop just using the default VESA driver - yes, that's right, using vesa! No graphics acceleration necessary! Try that with Fat Fedora! This is because dsl is so light and fast.

Hello piscikeeper and WoofDeF, thank you very much for the advice.

I will be considering installing DSL. However, I am interested on more details on how to install it "outside the laptop", in case I decide to try it. Where do I temporarily install the HD? Inside a USB external enclosure/case for a 2.5" HD, or inside another laptop with a CD-ROM?

Just for the record, I did some research on the internet for "mini-linux" distributions, and I made a list of options, as follows:

DSL -- damnsmalllinux (dot) org
Puppy -- puppylinux (dot) org
Feather -- featherlinux (dot) berlios (dot) de
Minix -- minix3 (dot) org
muLinux -- mulinux (dot) dotsrc (dot) org
BasicLinux -- basiclinux (dot) com (dot) ru

* DSL, Puppy, Feather and Minix (unix-based) look like the best choices. muLinux and BasicLinux are even smaller distros available in floppy disks.

Thanks again for your suggestions,

Andre W.

Fellow linux users,

I am glad to report that I successfully installed muLinux using floppies alone. I also installed the add-ons, and I got the network card working. For the near future, I will be considering putting the HD inside another old laptop with a CD-ROM, and try to install a better linux distro... maybe Puppy or DSL.

More info about muLinux:
http://www.braintags.com/archives/20...ulinux_part_1/
http://www.braintags.com/archives/20...ulinux_part_2/

By the way, while I was browsing the forum, I also found other two related, but not identical, threads... and, by the time I am writing, at least one is still ongoing:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=412346 (new one)
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=404408 (old one)

Thanks once more for all the interest and help addressed to my question. I hope this forum will help others in same circumstances.

Best regards,

Andre W.

PS: In case the reader of this thread is looking for information concerning linux network installation, I have gathered some links that may help you.

About Debian network installation:
http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch04.html.en
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch05.html.en

About Gentoo network installation:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/altinstall.xml

About SUSE network installation:
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tip/15405.html
http://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/current/bootdisks/

About generic network installation:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Network-Install-HOWTO.html
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO...all-HOWTO.html
http://www.linux.com/howtos/Network-Install-HOWTO.shtml