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Old 11-16-2006, 09:02 PM   #1
Kujila
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CHALLENGE: Install Linux... no CD/Floppy/USB/etc


  1. Fujitsu B2175 Notebook (specs)
  2. No floppy - purchased USB Floppy
  3. No CDROM - purchased PCMCIA CDROM
  4. Will not boot from USB; too old
  5. Will not boot from PCMCIA CDROM - System does not detect PCMCIA devices w/out OS drivers
  6. WILL boot from USB Floppy... HOWEVER after loading ONE Linux bootdisk (Debian, Vectorlinux, etc), the floppy drive vanishes from the installer's sight and the installer continues to prompt for the second disk on the new nonexistent drive
  7. Has PXE boot support, although I'm oblivious to this

I am desperate. Windows 2000 chugs too slow on this tiny thing; I'm dying for my XFCE 4 :
 
Old 11-16-2006, 09:29 PM   #2
rickh
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Quote:
System does not detect PCMCIA devices w/out OS drivers
Debian's install floppies include cd drivers. Not sure if you're trying to use those or not.

Also, there might be something helpful here:
http://marc.herbert.free.fr/linux/win2linstall.html

Last edited by rickh; 11-16-2006 at 09:34 PM.
 
Old 11-16-2006, 09:42 PM   #3
Kujila
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rickh
Debian's install floppies include cd drivers. Not sure if you're trying to use those or not.
Yeah the problem is however, after the first floppy (boot.img) is finished, it prompts for the next disk but fails to recognize the USB floppy drive from which it booted from initially.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rickh
Also, there might be something helpful here:
http://marc.herbert.free.fr/linux/win2linstall.html
I will take a look thanks
 
Old 11-17-2006, 01:49 AM   #4
J.W.
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Assuming you have a network connection, you should be able to install Slackware (see Q11). Dunno about Mandrake. Good luck with it
 
Old 11-17-2006, 01:57 AM   #5
craigevil
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You could try:
Instlux: Upgrade your windows
Quote:
Upgrade your windows to a Linux system the easiest possible way: running an installer on your Windows. Do not worry any more about configuring your system to boot from a CDROM/DVDROM. Choose the linux of your choice and the media source (from a CDROM or directly from Internet). Download instlux and start migrating your systems to Linux.
Never tried it myself so I do not know how well it works.
 
Old 11-26-2006, 08:29 PM   #6
Kujila
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instlux works dreams, what a great tool. The network installable ubuntu is the best!
 
Old 11-26-2006, 09:40 PM   #7
Sir Loin
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Install using a Tape Drive. lol
 
Old 11-26-2006, 09:53 PM   #8
jiml8
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FC4 and 5 will install over a LAN using pxe. Don't know what else you can do without getting into a genuine development effort.
 
Old 11-27-2006, 02:09 AM   #9
craigevil
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kujila
instlux works dreams, what a great tool. The network installable ubuntu is the best!
Nice to hear, I have yet to try it. Good to know it works.
 
Old 02-25-2007, 08:24 PM   #10
Kujila
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Hello again all! I'm back again, a few months later. After my previous posts, I had abandoned Ubuntu + XFCE4 because it felt too sluggish on the notebook.

I was wondering if anyone has had any luck with distros using LOADIN from DOS.

If you have, please let me know; I've specifically been trying to get Slackware installed since it's supposed to run amazing on ancient hardware.
 
Old 02-25-2007, 11:36 PM   #11
tychovi
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Have you tried to pop the HDD, stick it in a usb caddy and load a network install image? I have a 6 year old Dell that I run Debian Sarge on, The CDROM boots so I use an ISO and install from the net. I wonder how hard it would be to rebuild the ISO boot image so that it boots from the HDD instead of the CD?
 
Old 02-25-2007, 11:49 PM   #12
beagle2
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You could try vector which is slackware based, they have a few methods of installation either from within windows or an existing linux install http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/docs/v...#installation- .
 
Old 02-26-2007, 12:26 AM   #13
Kujila
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tychovi
Have you tried to pop the HDD, stick it in a usb caddy and load a network install image? I have a 6 year old Dell that I run Debian Sarge on, The CDROM boots so I use an ISO and install from the net. I wonder how hard it would be to rebuild the ISO boot image so that it boots from the HDD instead of the CD?
Nah, this is a little 10" Fujitsu touchscreen, I don't wanna take anything apart

Quote:
Originally Posted by beagle2
You could try vector which is slackware based, they have a few methods of installation either from within windows or an existing linux install http://vectorlinux.osuosl.org/docs/v...#installation- .

I remember trying to get it to boot from LOADLIN, but as many other distros, I could not. (Probably due to the limited memory and whatnot of the notebook itself)
 
Old 02-26-2007, 01:15 AM   #14
beagle2
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Just tried it myself and failed for the same reasons I think. I'm going to try these instructions http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.p...g_without_a_CD to install vector on my old sony vaio, they worked with a little tweaking when I installed damn small linux.
 
  


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