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10-31-2004, 04:25 PM
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#1
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Distribution: Gentoo, Slackware 9.1
Posts: 11
Rep:
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No Cdrom. A wireless network. A floppy. I want linux.
Hey guys!
As you can guess from the title, this is my situation: I have an old laptop (Dell Latitude XPi {32 megs ram, transplanted 10gig HD, 133mhz}). This laptop also doesn't have a cdrom, which is a big hamper for me to install linux. What I DO have, is a wireless network card, and a floppy drive. SO I'm trying to do some sort of network install of a linux distro (preferably slackware, but I'm open to suggestions) starting with nothing but a floppy disk.
I would greatly appreciate any info from you guys!
Just for some background, I managed to get my wireless network working through a one floppy distro of linux ( http://the.earth.li/~martin/sisela/), but it doesn't offer many features other than ping, an ssh, and an httpd server.
What I would really like is for someone to point me to the right direction on how to do a proper network install of a distro. I have some pretty significant experience with linux, but I've never done a network install (gentoo doesn't count in my mind), and I've sure as hell never done something quite as complicated as this.
I hope someone can help me 
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11-01-2004, 01:12 PM
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#2
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Senior Member
Registered: May 2004
Location: Sebec, ME, USA
Distribution: Debian Etch, Windows XP Home, FreeBSD
Posts: 1,445
Rep:
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Assuming you can get you wireless network card working under linux check this website out. Debian Floppies . It's not slackware, but the package management system is one of the best I've used. It's called APT and it's the easiest thing I've encountered. You said you got the network card working once? I don't know exactly how to configure the floppies so they use the wireless network but a little bit of putzing around may yield some answers.
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11-01-2004, 02:51 PM
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#3
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LQ Newbie
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Distribution: Gentoo, Slackware 9.1
Posts: 11
Original Poster
Rep:
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I actually tried that a few hours after I posted from a friends sugesstion. I didn't have very much luck as you need to use something like 20 floppies and, and even barring that it didn't (as far as I know) detect my network card.
When debian searches for the network card (during the part of the install when you look in as root and type stuff like "pcmcia" and "network" to install those modules), should it detect the wireless network card when you type network, or is it detected somewhere else?
The only problem with the program I'm using now is it doesn't detect any hard drives on my computer (it's not supposed to). In factm there's not even one listed under the /dev directory. Is there any way to add a hard drive and then mount it from the command prompt?
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11-02-2004, 10:45 AM
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#4
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Senior Member
Registered: May 2004
Location: Sebec, ME, USA
Distribution: Debian Etch, Windows XP Home, FreeBSD
Posts: 1,445
Rep:
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sorry, I'm fairly new to linux so I don't know. Like I said before I've never used the floppies so I don't know how they work. Google for some more information. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
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11-02-2004, 01:59 PM
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#5
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Member
Registered: Aug 2004
Location: internet
Distribution: slackware
Posts: 135
Rep:
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if you tried to install using a standard pcmcia card, the one that uses a wire, not a wireless, i would say that your life would be alot easier.
I did an install using a linksys np-100 card just now, slackware even. worked fine.
i can see trying to do this wirelessly as problematic. then again, perhaps not.
if you have a floppy distro that allows you to get your wireless working, one thing you could try is to transfer an place you slackware install files on the local machine, and then use to slackware install floppies, specify 'install from a local hard drive partition' ...
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