Hello LinuxQuestions community!

Im trying to install a Linux (I thought DSL would be a good idea, but any Linux is ok for me) on the mentioned laptop. It has no cdrom, but something like 4gb free hd space and 24mb ram so it should be enough for a Linux to run on it.

I made myself a parallel cable, and managed to copy the iso file from my PC to it. Then I extracted the iso with winrar and put the files to the c drive. I don't want to unnecessarily format the existing c partition which has Windows 98 on it because I use it to copy files and i rather wouldn't like to use like 50 times a floppy to copy a slightly bigger file. So I copied the files which was already an achievement for me but after I boot the DSL from it's boot floppy it doesn't work.
I entered to the "boot:" thing something like 'dsl', simply hit the enter key and some other long shots but none worked the message was "Boot failed: please change disks and press a key to continue."

So here is my question, or maybe some more than just 1...

1. Was it ok to leave the c partition unformatted with other existing files on it and the DSL files that I wanted to install from? If no is it a must to use the first partition (like the /dev/hd0) or can it be another one? I usually use livecds and now I'm not really sure how to install the system...
2. I didn't find a general text covering how the boot floppies work. It's not really convenient booting from a floppy and then not knowing what to enter. So I would be thankful for some general explanation or some links to learn from.
3. If I someday finally install the system I could use a Linux program that would copy files through the parallel port, until now I used... TotalCommander.

Where do I start?
You are going to have to shrink your main partition down but be careful you have enough ram to accommodate this, data has to go somewhere temporarily. Then put linux on the remaining space, of which you have little so it would have to be something like xubuntu or chrunchbang, even then would it not be easier to buy a cheap desktop for 30 quid or so and put linux on that?

Fred.

I did this successfully years ago, through what I remember as a very round about root, involving placing an iso of slackware on my hard-disk, using a boot linux from windows software and then installing to the unused space on my Libretto.

I cam here as I am now trying to upgrade the linux UI have in there to something vaguely recent.