Virgin install on old 120MHz laptop
 

I'm trying to get any Linux on my Compaq LTE 5200. The problem is that it dose not have a floppy, and will not boot from CD or Network.

The distros I'm working with; Damn Small Linux, DSL-Not, Spri, Puppy, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu -mini, U-Lite, Watt, Crunch Bang (Lite), or DeLi.

I have a few other laptops that I can work with the HDD, and USB-HDD dongle. However, whenever I put the HDD back into the LTE 5200, I get all sorts of errors LiLo 99, GRUB 17, 2, 18.

How can I install on system {A}, to work on {B}? Is there a way to dd if=bootdisk.img of=/dev/hda1 so that it will boot? Other ideas?

P.S. Not quite a "n00b", but did not know where to place this question.

Is there an operating system on it now? Some distros, like Debian allow for installation from a file on your hard drive.

Also, are there any BIOS updates that might allow CD or USB booting?

The only other thing would be if you could somehow get PLoP installed on your machine, you should be able to boot from CD or USB using that (or Smart Boot Manager).

Yes/No with the OS. I tried to put one on it from an other laptop, but that did not work. (errors: LiLo 99, GRUB 17, 2, 18)

It dose have the latest BIOS, and still no CD boot (too old for USB).

Yes you can dd it or other ways to clone an install hard drive to hard drive. In some old laptops you may have a isolinux/syslinux issue. I think the old laptops need isolinux so you'd need to watch your distro's. Puppy has version for older laptops.

There is a command in grub that I think is called find or list or something like that to help you correct the grub entry. The grub entry would only be good if you had the same setup like hda in source laptop. We may be able to correct it if you start a post with the exact install and exact errors. All the grub errors seem to point to can't find hard drive.

Might be possible to pxe boot it (or the almost impossible pccard boot.) I have used pxe booted G4U to copy data from a tftp server. Do you have an option to pxe boot in bios?

I'd bet a nickel you will never get a bios update to allow usb booting.

pljvaldez: PLoP did the trick, or more accurate the PLoP Bootmanager. I installed to HDD. Found out the hard way I had to do low rez, but it has booted DSL, DSL-N, and Puppy from CD. Seems to mess up if I install anything else <shrug>

jefro: No bet on the BIOS. I'll keep this in mind, right now I'm going to work with PLoP