07-14-2004, 02:14 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
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Linux Distros
I am looking for a version of Linux that all of the installation can be off of floppies. I have an old laptop (1GB storage, 31MB storage) that I would like to but some flavor of Linux on it. Right now I have Mini-Windows 3.11 but would like Linux instead. I have searched for one but keep getting distros that boot right off a floppy.
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07-14-2004, 03:20 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 449
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Not sure of any floppy instalable Linux distros, but you might want to check out this thread at Slashdot for ideas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cliff
ryewell asks: "I have an IBM Thinkpad 390 Laptop, PII 266Mhz, 128 MB RAM, with USB 1.0 port and a 3.5 floppy drive being the most important stats I would assume for this question. So my hard drive died, and I've been using a DOS boot disk and a program called Mel to do my word processing.Would it be possible to boot the laptop in Linux using a 3.5 disk, then using drivers access the USB memory stick that had an adequate Linux system on it?" With USB thumb drives getting to be as large as 512 megs, memory sticks weighing in at 1 gig, and Compact Flash cards getting into the 2 gig range, this might not be such a bad idea. There's the Linux Mobile System that looks to implement something like this, but are there other distributions or similar projects that might be of interest? If you were going to put together a custom system for something like this, how would you do it? "If Linux can be configured this way, I would need no hard drive, and the created docs/info could be saved on the USB drive memory stick. This way, no hard drive means no moving parts, which means better battery life, and I won't have to buy a hard drive which at the best deal I can find is about $130 US after taxes, shipping, etc. And how cool would it be to run a laptop off of a memory stick! Unfortunately, I know nothing about Linux, but this might be a cool problem to solve for those smart and knowledgeable enough to figure it out. Thanks for any help you can provide!"
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There were some interesting suggestions there (I suggest browsing at at least +1. I saw one person mention a network installation of Mandrake 9.2, so if your laptop has network capabilities, you could attempt that. Hope that helps. I recently installed Mandrake 10, but don't use it because I have not found any way to run Steam on it (the multiplayer software for HL mods).
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07-14-2004, 03:48 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
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No that won't work. I want to install linux to the HD (1GB). I have no network access (no PCMCIA ) I only have a floppy and a HD.
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07-14-2004, 04:50 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,725
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Do you have a CD drive? How about installing bootable linux on the HD? Not sure exactly how that is done, but I remeber seeing an option to install to HDD when running knoppix or damn small linux.
edit: did a quick (search on) google and found this. Not sure if those will help or not.
edit 2: also found this. Good luck!
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07-14-2004, 04:54 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
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Like I said before NO CD-ROM. Just floppy and HD. If I had a CD I wouldn't have a problem at all. You can find Linux ISOs all over the place.
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07-14-2004, 05:01 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
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Quote:
Originally Posted by OSUKid7
edit: did a quick (search on) google and found this. Not sure if those will help or not.
edit 2: also found this. Good luck!
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Nope those won't work. Those are Live Floppies. And Libranet's floppies are only if you can't boot off CDs. How did people install Linux in the old days? There has to be a floppy install of linux somewhere.
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07-14-2004, 05:13 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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You realize any modern distro is going to have a bazillion floppies, right?
Is the hard drive removable?
--janak
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07-14-2004, 05:16 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,055
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I think if you wanted to install a modern version of Linux, you're going to have to move the drive over to a computer with a CD-ROM or network access. Then, install Linux on that drive and then move the drive back into your old computer.
I've done this in the past for aging 486 machines without CD-ROM drives. It worked fine, although the latest GUIs run painfully slow on the computers. I'd recommend using FVVM as a GUI or just sticking to Level 3 command line.
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07-14-2004, 05:20 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,911
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Yeah it's removable, I need to find my adapter to hook it to desktop mobo. I'm thinking I'm going to do that as I can't find a distro.
Oh and I know it will take a ton of floppies. I don't need to run Red Hat on it. I'm thinking like a 1995 version of linux with a gui.
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07-14-2004, 05:36 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 5,133
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dean_shan
Yeah it's removable, I need to find my adapter to hook it to desktop mobo. I'm thinking I'm going to do that as I can't find a distro.
Oh and I know it will take a ton of floppies. I don't need to run Red Hat on it. I'm thinking like a 1995 version of linux with a gui.
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Or you could get one of those business-card sized bootable Linux distros from EFF...
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