Hello

I've got IBM T30 laptop, and a problem. It has BIOS with pass protection and it can't boot form CD (so set in BIOS). I have slot for floppy, or CD-RW/DVD at once. How can I install SUSE 9.2 in this situation? Boot from floppy (what floppy?) but what next...

HELP
Thx

Given that nobody has replied, I think there's no easy solution to your problem.

Obviously the easiest thing to do is get the password for your BIOS. I assume since you don't have it that your laptop is owned by your employer. You could try to make up a reason why you need the password, other than installing Linux (which I assume they don't want you to do in case it goes wrong and it messes up Windows).

It should be possible to install SUSE via a network, but I imagine that would be pretty diffucult for a new user.

You might be able to use a USB 3.5'' floppy drive, but I'm not certain that they are bootable. Perhaps using your 3.5'' drive and a USB CD ROM would be possible, since the CD ROM wouldn't have to be bootable. Of course either of these solutions cost money, which kind of defeats the object of installing open source sofware.

That's a couple of suggestions, maybe somebody else can say some more about these possibilities?

Or may be too easy

Have a look at the folder "boot" of your installation CD. There is a set of bootfloppy-images, that can be written to floppy under Windows using rawrite (in the folder "dosutils").

If I understood correctly, the laptop (I suppose it is not yours, otherwise you would know the BIOS password) has either a floppy or a CD drive. This might be the tricky part, since you have to boot from the floppies, then change the drive and load the rest from CD. But you could also use an FTP installation. In this case you don't rely on the CD drive, but you'll need a network card and fast connection.

Thaks Guys!

I've made it! Really simple After BIOS boot I have choise under F12 to choose temporary boot device (strange but after GRUB placed itself somewhere in MBR area i can't choose F10 option to recover system from hidden prtition, two other options F2 and F12 are available...) I installed SUSE 9.2 and I think this distro is very good. Now i need some time to polish it up. Nice looking KDE, i need to tune up services, all devices working! (even volume control with small button under TFT screen). But I miss connectivity to MS Exchange (since SUSE 9.2 comes with evolution 2 there is no smth like XIMIAN CONNECTOR to this version).

This laptop belongs to my employer, and everyone has installed WinXPPro by default, but i want to try prove to some people that Linux also can, do much things with less money and more power! No way I could get BIOS psw from Service and Hardware Department in my company, no way to install Linux by them! Windows Windows Windows.... I give You sign when everything will be at a glance! I try to put then comment on linux-on-laptops.com

Thanks