I have an old laptop with very little ram so I am going to install a small linux distribution on it. It currently has windows 3.1 on it. I know it might be windows but does anyone know how to get to dos from that version of windows. Anyway I need to know how to install Linux from DOS. If I install from DOS, will I still be able to repartition and everything ??

Thanks

Does it have a CDROM drive? If so, then just install it like usual. If not, you'll need to do a hard-drive install. You can't install directly from DOS, but if you have a bootdisk, you can mount the ISO (stored on your hard-drive) using kernel loopback and install that way.

What are the specifications of your machine? I've also have a laptop, with a 386 processor and I run grey cat linux on it:

http://www.dekoningonline.nl/linux/

it runs from a folder inside DOS, so you don't need to partition the harddrive or anything.

I warn you that this is quite a limited distribution though... you can, however, go into Slackware's homepage and get packages for the version 3.5 and install on your GCL without a problem.

In reply to Scuzz :

1) no cd rom drive

So ur saying that I make a ( LINUX ) boot disk and store that .iso onto my windows hardrive and then use Kernel Loopback ? Btw sorry but what is Kernel Loopback ? Is this process sort of like just putting the image file on windows and then executing it or what. Thanks for your help btw.

I reply to Megaman X

Its old really old

Like maybe 4 mb ram or so and really small hdd and prolly 386. Its one of the 1st Toshiba Satellite laptops

What would u recommend as the best ( Small ) Linux that I use. I need one that runs on very low ram

Thanks guys

Kernel loopback is a device that allows for an iso9660 filesystem (the kind on cd's) to be mounted, whlie stored on the hard-drive.
Yes, you'll need to have the ISO on your hard-drive. You should be able to get ahold of an old slackware on floppies if this is impossible and install that way.

Afterthought: or, if it has a NIC, you can install over NFS.

It has no NIC, where can I get Kernel Loopback

If I want to use antlinux or something like that, do they offer an iso image file download or what ?

Thanks