I just got an old Compaq from someone, and I'm gonna turn it into a server. However, it can't boot from CD. How do I install Slackware from a floppy? (Preferably from Windows - my old Windows laptop is the only other PC that still has floppy of course I can use Knoppix if I need to. . . talking about actually creating the floppy disk of course).

Hi,

Refer to /bootdisks/README.TXT on your Slackware CD for all the answers.

Ciao.

OOps! I interpreted your message to be you had no CD drive. The previous message is correct. You can still install from the CD if you wish by loading the right drivers...

In the good old days, folks actually installed via a stack of floppies. It was not much fun. The network install is likely better, if you have high speed.

In Windows, form the c:\ commandline, run rawrite. From Linux, use dd.

Download what you need from here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/...0.2/bootdisks/

and from here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/...0.2/rootdisks/

Suppose you are going to do a network installation and bare.i has all the drivers your hardware needs:
download bare.i and install.1 and install.2 and network.dsk

Instructions are in http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/...ork.dsk.README

This works but it is vey cumbersome because you have no CD drive. You only need to do it once, though. This is the way many distros used to be installed. Do it for nostalgia, if you like. Because floppies are so unreliable, I prefer CDs. You could borrow or steal a CD drive temporarily for the installation...

Look for the boot disk called sbootmgr that comes with Slackware - this is a single floppy boot disk that emulates CD Booting for those computers too old to boot from CD.

You put that image on a floppy disk, boot from it and it will then boot as normal from any Slackware CDROM (or, indeed, any bootable CDROM, e.g. Windows etc.).

A much better solution. Fewer floppies=more happiness.

It's just a shame that Smart Boot Manager isn't maintained any more (at least since about 2000 and there was a call for a new maintainer on the SourceForge webpage back in Jan 2005).

It would be wonderful if someone were to take it over and provide extra facilities such as booting from USB etc. for older computers that don't support USB booting but have the ports (or a suitable PCI card).

Personally, this is one of those disk images that I put on any rescue CD I ever make (along with a copy of rawrite) as it's a life saver when BIOS's don't provide easy-to-access boot options or booting from CD.

Funny you should mention it. . . that's actually what I ended up using to install Slackware (found it on one of the install CDs)

. . . what good does that do if you can't boot from the CD?

means the BIOS does not have code to do that. These little gems have the necessary code on the floppy. You boot the floppy which gives you a menu, and you choose to boot from the CD. Works very well.

I know but he just said he puts it on his rescue CDs. It doesn't do him much good there - he needs the floppy to get it to boot. And if the system is broke and needs the rescue CD, he probably can't boot normally to put the file on a floppy. . .

In this case, true, but the tool can do more than boot from CD. It can boot from almost anything. It is a bit like a friendly GRUB. Floppies can break too. We need every resource.

I always have a new laptop on me with CD and floppy drives - hence I carry a CD/harddrive/USB-key full of floppy disk images (Freesco, Windows boot disks, Windows SCSI drivers, Linux, Password reset disks, DOS disks, driver disks, etc.etc.etc) and a copy of Rawrite to put them onto a real floppy for fixing older machines. Much easier than carrying several dozen floppy disks... I carry two and a laptop (which I need with me 99% of the time anyway) and just keep overwriting them with different images.

The way I worded it may sound a bit odd but that's how I work - I wasn't suggesting other people do it!