Hi

I'm having a nightmare trying to install linux on a Dell Optiplex GXi.

I'm looking to build my own clean, minimal, and simple distro using LinuxFromScratch, but i'm stumbling at the first hurdle.

I can't find a floppy distro which will see the box's on-board NIC and has wget/ifconfig/other packages I need.

The redhat netboot.img (//ftp.redhat.com/) will see my nic and get out to the real world, but this has limited packages installed - essentially just enough to get the redhat install started.

I've looked at zool (//zoollinux.sourceforge.net), which has basically everything I could ever need to get started... but doesn't see my NIC, let alone my network or DHCP server.

I don't know where to turn next. I've tried CDROM distros, but they all seem to be extreamily bloated and sluggish on the machine.

Please help! Its driving me to tears!

Just to note, I've also tried Slackware's rescue disk & network disk, alfalinux, brutalware, leka, mulinux, Wolf, and bootE. No success with any of them.

Damn Small Linux might be worth a shot.

Try Knoppix

Can't use knoppix - unable to boot from CDROM. The CDROM distros I've tried have been initilised by boot floppies.

I'll look at damn small linux. Thanks.

Is there any way to merge the packages I need with the redhat netboot disk?

Can't use damn small linux - can't boot from CD.

Basically I just need a floppy distro that has wget, ifconfig, and support for my NIC. Finding one of those is hard though - I feel like I've gone through them all.

Can I merge some together? If so, how? I don't have any live linux boxes - currently on windows.

Damn Small Linux (and any other bootable CD) should boot off the CD if you use a Smart Boot Manager boot floppy.
Interestingly, the hd install link from the DSL site recommends trying Bonzai Linux for such a task because of the mixed packages on Damn Small.
http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/
http://developer.berlios.de/projects/bonzai/

How about zipslack?

Debian netinstall via floppy?

http://www.debian.org/distrib/floppyinst

Thanks farmall, but the Smart Boot Manager doesn't work on my machine. It doesn't see the CDRom drive.

I'll look at bonzai linux though - that might help.

I'll also look at zipslack.

Debian will be too bloated. I was looking to build my own distro - I'm a freak for minimilism and loath bloat - using linuxfromscratch.

Thanks anyways.

about a year ago, we were looking into running some sort of variant on non CD machines in our lab.

I found QNX to be what we needed. It works off of ONE 1.44MB floppy.

Here is a link.

QNX from Floppy

scroll down to the QNX 4 network floppy.

Now there's an idea. Didn't think of that one. Would at least help me download the packages anyways.

Thanks for that, I'll try that one too.

OK, Bonzai linux is a no-go - unable to boot from CD.

Zipslack is a no-go - the machine has been formatted for linux.

I don't think QNX will help either - the harddrive has been formatted with ext3 partitions ready for the install.

Grrr.

Do you have a conventional IDE CD drive you can slave in after opening the case? That would solve things.
I (now) assume your Optiplex is the small style with the laptop-style CD drive, which may explain why SBM no likee.

No, its the desktop case with a standard IDE CDROM drive. SBM just refuses to see it. At all. Not a sausage.