[SOLVED] I need a small Linux Distro but all I have is 2 diskettes.
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I need a small Linux Distro but all I have is 2 diskettes.
Hello.I am 50% Windows (RETRO-7)and 50% Linux (retro-now).
I have ran out of Compact Discs and Unetbootin is not working.The only medium I have is 2 floppy diskettes.Text will do but it would be nice to have an ANSI Xserver(anything else that will fit)(Like Dos 7.1 install).Can anyone help me?*
-Thank You.
To who ever
solves this issue.
*This is now urgent,as my evaluation copy of WINDOWS POS READY 2009 is about to expire,so I really (REALLY!)need help.
Thank you
Last edited by windows50plinux50p; 10-26-2014 at 03:40 PM.
Hello.I am 50% Windows (RETRO-7)and 50% Linux (retro-now).
I have ran out of Compact Discs and Unetbootin is not working.The only medium I have is 2 floppy diskettes.Text will do but it would be nice to have an ANSI Xserver(anything else that will fit)(Like Dos 7.1 install).Can anyone help me?*
-Thank You.
To who ever
solves this issue.
*This is now urgent,as my evaluation copy of WINDOWS POS READY 2009 is about to expire,so I really (REALLY!)need help.
Thank you
Not urgent to anyone but you. LQ members are volunteers that provide their help gratuitously.
You do realize that a modern kernel will not fit on a 1.44MB floppy disk.
The best I can do is;
Quote:
tomsrtbt <- Linux on 1 floppy disk Good recovery use
If you have a LAN with Internet access and a spare USB Flash then;
Quote:
Pendrivelinux <- 'Pendrivelinux provides simplified information to make it easy for anyone to install, boot, and run their favorite Gnu/Linux Distribution from a portable flash drive! + Boot and run Linux from a USB flash memory'.
This is a good tutorial that you could use along with the tomsrtbt for Slackware or any distribution that you wish to download the ISO;
Pendrive linux had an error on my flash drive that said "boot error" on startup in the same old primative shell font.it has come to my attention that there is a portal http://www.linuxlinks.com/Distributions/Floppy/ and it has a LOT of links to these old linux distros and one of them, "xwoaf",even has a fully fledged xserver,however,some of these links and mirrors are dead .and all the mirrors on tomsrtbt are dead or are not for floppy diskette. I am still puzzled with the working linux distros.I dont think anyone could really help,its to confusing.
You did expand the downloaded archive? The download size is for the complete arc you must expand then use the scripts available to install to a floppy.
Look at tomsrtbt.FAQ which will be available in the 'tomsrtbt-2.0.103' directory that is created when you expand the arc. As I said, modern kernel will not fit, tomsrtbt uses a 2.4 kernel which will be compressed and a minimal config.
If you download tomsrtbt-2.0.103.tar.gz then from the download directory;
Code:
tar -xvzf tomsrtbt-2.0.103.tar.gz
This will create a directory within the download directory as 'SomeDownloadDirectory/tomsrtbt-2.0.103'. Within this directory;
Code:
tomsrtbt-2.0.103# ls -al
total 2056
drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 May 4 2002 ./
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Oct 26 22:06 ../
-rwxrwxrwx 1 505 users 2833 Apr 20 2002 buildit.s*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 505 users 421 May 12 2001 clone.s*
-rwxr-x--- 1 root root 108296 May 4 2002 fdflush*
-rwxr-x--- 1 root root 83036 May 4 2002 fdformat*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 505 users 538 May 12 2001 install.s*
-rwxr-x--- 1 root root 100640 May 4 2002 license.html*
-rwxr-x--- 1 root root 953 May 4 2002 settings.s*
-rwxr-xr-x 1 505 users 11585 May 4 2002 tomsrtbt.FAQ*
-rw-r----- 1 root root 1763328 May 4 2002 tomsrtbt.raw
-rwxr-xr-x 1 505 users 527 Mar 26 2002 unpack.s*
Looking at install.s;
Code:
#!/bin/sh
. `dirname $0`/settings.s
[ -d /usr/i486-linux-libc5/lib ]&&LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/i486-linux-libc5/lib
if [ ! "$1" ]
then
echo
echo "Don't forget to READ the FAQ."
echo
echo "Insert a blank writable 3.5\" floppy diskette then strike ENTER."
read J
echo "About to fdformat $FD"
./fdformat $FD||FAIL fdformat error
echo "About to dd floppy image"
fi
dd if=tomsrtbt.raw of=$FD count=$DZ
[ ! "$1" ]||exit
./fdflush $FD
echo "About to verify floppy image"
cmp tomsrtbt.raw $FD||FAIL compare error
echo "Succeeded!"
Look at tomsrtbt.FAQ for some helpful information.
No frustration for me, sorry to hear you are still having problems. You were able to create the tomsrtbt-2.0.103 boot floppy?
Pendrivelinux works most of the time. Which distribution did you use? Salix? If you want Slackware installed on this system then you can use; usb-and-pxe-installers/. Be sure to look at README_USB.TXT for install instructions;
Quote:
With the release of Slackware 12.0, the era of floppy-boot came to a definite end. The reason is simple - the Linux 2.6 kernel will not fit on a single floppy, even in it's most condensed configuration. In this README, I will show you how to use a bootable USB stick to install Slackware. This method - creating the USB equivalent of a boot/root floppy pair - is easy to use and fast. It requires that your computer is able to boot from USB-HDD.
BTW, you do know Salix does have LiveCD ISO. You did not try to move the LiveCD to USB using pendrivelinux? If you want a regular Salix ISO then look here: http://www.salixos.org/download.html
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
SALIX(1) General Commands Manual SALIX(1)
SALIX
This manual page allows you to read the essential minimum to administer
your Salix Operating System. Please refer to each command's individual
manual page for more details.
PACKAGE MANAGEMENT
spi Search for, install and update packages and SlackBuilds from the
repositories. spi is an wrapper around slapt-get and slapt-src
and is more convenient to use, but only offers the most basic
functionality of both. If you want to use more advanced features
of these tools, you should use them directly.
slapt-get
Search for, install and update packages from the repositories.
Gslapt provides the same functionality with a graphical inter‐
face.
-- MOST: *stdin* (1,1) 0% slapt-src
Search for, install and update SlackBuilds from the reposito‐
ries. Sourcery provides the same functionality with a graphical
interface.
spkg Install, update and remove packages that you have down‐
loaded/built locally. This is a faster alternative to the Slack‐
ware pkgtools (installpkg, upgradepkg and removepkg) which are
also available.
SALIXTOOLS
clocksetup
Set the system time and date.
dotnew
Dotnew is a utility to help with the management of .new system
configuration files.
keyboardsetup
Select your preferred keymap and keyboard settings.
-- MOST: *stdin* (23,1) 13% localesetup
Set the system-wide localization.
reposetup
Select your preferred repository mirror.
service
List, stop or start system services using the command line.
servicesetup
List, stop or start system services using a dialog-based inter‐
face.
usersetup
Users and Groups management.
Most of the tools mentioned here have graphical (GTK) counterparts.
MODULES
Modules are pieces of code that can be loaded and unloaded into the
-- MOST: *stdin* (45,1) 26% kernel upon demand. They extend the functionality of the kernel without
the need to reboot the system.
lsmod List all loaded modules.
modprobe -v module
Load module.
rmmod -v module
Unload module.
echo "module_name" >> /etc/modprobe.d/file.conf
Force the automatic loading of a module. You can give the name
you want to file.conf (ie. atboot.conf)
echo "blacklist module" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
Prevent loading of a module.
WIRED/WIRELESS NETWORK CONNECTION MANAGER
Wired and wireless network connection can be managed with a single
-- MOST: *stdin* (67,1) 36% tool, Wicd. Wicd uses built-in linux wireless-tools, such as ifconfig
and iwconfig to get and configure network info. Note that wicd and
wireless must be activated in the startup services in order to make
wireless networks visible on Wicd. If you are using a Desktop Environ‐
ment, you should normally find a Wicd icon running in your system tray.
Otherwise you can run one of Wicd's clients:
wicd-gtk --no-tray
This command starts the GTK Wicd client without system tray
icon.
wicd-curses
This command starts the ncurses Wicd client. X11 is not needed.
If you don't have wicd installed, you can configure your wired network
using netconfig (run it from a terminal with superuser priviliges).
netconfig doesn't support wireless connections.
SALIX DEVELOPMENT
-- MOST: *stdin* (89,1) 50% Translate
You can help with translating various componenents of the dis‐
tribution using. Visit the following page for more details:
http://salixos.org/translate.html
Package Submissions
You can submit packages for inclusion in the Salix repositories
using our package submission tracker (but please read the wiki
about package building rules are submission guidelines first).
You can find a link in the salix main project page.
Bugs/Wishes/...
You can either use our bugtracker (you can find a link in the
salix main project page) or the Salix forums.
ONLINE HELP
IRC Join the #salix channel on irc.freenode.net network.
Jabber / XMPP
Join the salix chatroom on the chat.meticul.eu jabber server.
-- MOST: *stdin* (111,1) 65%
Is this your only computer? You can setup a usb bootable thumb drive on any machine that supports the same architecture. I'd say come across a grub cdrom if you can, you can chainload the grub on the stick if your device doesn't support booting from usb. You can dd the iso image of a linux distro to thumb drive (in linux) and it should be bootable. You shouldn't have to deal with 1.44MB floppies these days. Even if you do you could get a bunch more of those disks from a thrift store or goodwill. Recalling when I first started using debian, and the 26 1.44MB floppy disks that it occupied for the complete set. With only the first two disks you had a kernel and basic shell prompt. No X or gui. And the modern kernel is 75MB (like 60+ floppies) just for the source tree.
Only need one floppy to gpxe a distro down. Can run what you want from memory if you have a modest amount. Distro's like Slitaz or go to Netboot.me for some basic things. A few others like knoppix work pxe/gpxe.
One way to make two floppies boot is a trick on bsd's. Linux can't boot a modern kernel over two disk's.
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I need a small Linux Distro but all I have is 2 diskettes.
.and all the mirrors on tomsrtbt are dead or are not for floppy diskette. I am still puzzled with the working linux distros.I dont think anyone could really help,its to confusing.
