Hi,

I'm trying to install linux for the first time, on a pretty old laptop. I can't boot from cd, and I can't use a floppy because my floppy and cd drives are interchangable.

I was told that a good way to install linux (Mandrake 9.1) would be to set up and use loadlin, but i'm having real trouble working out how to use it..can any one help?

Thanks!

Are you going to use loadlin to install Mandrake to your harddrive and do a harddrive install? Are you having problems installing loadlin?

yes, I want to install Mandrake to my hard drive. I don't want to do a hardware install as I want to completely wipe Windows from the laptop. As I said, I can't use either a floppy or cd boot

Someone told me loadlin might work...as far as I understood what they said, I could use loadlin to restart my computer into the lunix kernel, then I could browse to my cd drive and use the cd to install Mandrake...so that's what I'm trying to do, but I'm not understanding the documetnation. I've downloaded the loadlin program, and I've pulled the vmlinuz file from the cd and placed it in the same folder as loadlin but I don't know what to do from there.

Another option I've been trying - but also not figureing out it, is a network install. I can put the Mandrake cd's into another computer (running XP) and try to install over my network...but I couldn't work out how to set that up.

If anyone could help me with either of these, or tell me a better way, I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks

> I don't want to do a hardware install

I meant harddrive install..oops

Try this:
http://www.google.com/linux
Enter loadlin and there are some tutorials for it. Sorry, but I have not tried loadlin.

yeah...but I don't understand those

loadlin c:\loadlin\vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
^^^^^^^^^^^^

how do I change the part indicated by ^^ above so that it tried to get linux from the cd, not from the harddisk?