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Geek Culture / Linux installation on an old laptop

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Wik
21
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Joined: 21st May 2003
Location: CT, United States
Posted: 11th Oct 2003 01:49
Hi,
I have an old laptop (133MHz) and I want to install Linux on it.
I made the installation CD, but my laptop can not boot from a cd (but it says it can in the bios } )

I have a bootable dos floppy, but i cant use the floppy drive and the CD-Rom at the same time because you have to switch the two depending on what you need.

Is there any possible way to boot from that CD

The rock has rolled!
lagmaster
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Posted: 11th Oct 2003 01:55 Edited at: 11th Oct 2003 01:56
you can get floppy disks that can boot a cd.

have you tried bart's cd rom boot disk?

http://www.nu2.nu i think

good site with lots of stuff.

lagmasteruk - [url]www.lagmaster.net[/url] is alive! r.nash@ntlworld.com

Dark Snippet Pro V9 is out!!
Wik
21
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Location: CT, United States
Posted: 11th Oct 2003 02:06 Edited at: 11th Oct 2003 02:07
Yes,
But I can't run a floppy at the same time I am running a cd.

In other words, There is only one interchangable drive.



The rock has rolled!
Mattman
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Location: East Lansing
Posted: 11th Oct 2003 02:53
You mean, you can only have one crive in at a time?

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Wik
21
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Location: CT, United States
Posted: 11th Oct 2003 04:14
yes

The rock has rolled!
indi
22
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Joined: 26th Aug 2002
Location: Earth, Brisbane, Australia
Posted: 11th Oct 2003 12:00
u need to burn the cd booting contents to the cd and thats part of your linux install.

the easiest way to get around this is to invest a few dollars at the newsagency and get the latest red hat cd for linux off many magazine cds.The cd will boot straight up and install.


An alternative is to try the cd based linux called knoppix.
It should boot up and run from the cd while using a small bit of hard drive space.

make sure the cdrom is the first in your bios settings.

You may be delivered to a command line prompt if worse comes to worse and I would then reccomend looking for the mount command in linux and with a command line you would mount the cdrom and load it from there.

David T
Retired Moderator
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Joined: 27th Aug 2002
Location: England
Posted: 11th Oct 2003 12:15
LOL I've been planning this for a few weeks and have just come online to do the exact same thing

Wik
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Location: CT, United States
Posted: 11th Oct 2003 19:34
but my laptop CAN'T boot form a CD

The rock has rolled!
lagmaster
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Posted: 11th Oct 2003 19:53
ah well your stuffed then

lagmasteruk - [url]www.lagmaster.net[/url] is alive! r.nash@ntlworld.com

Dark Snippet Pro V9 is out!!
Wik
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Location: CT, United States
Posted: 11th Oct 2003 19:53
yes.

The rock has rolled!
Wik
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Posted: 11th Oct 2003 19:55
i gave up because it doesn't have much hd space either

ill try to get a new laptop. anyone know a cheap one that i could buy? it doesn't have 2 be good.

The rock has rolled!
lagmaster
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Posted: 11th Oct 2003 19:56
you can always try ebay. or some reconditioned laptop shops.

lagmasteruk - [url]www.lagmaster.net[/url] is alive! r.nash@ntlworld.com

Dark Snippet Pro V9 is out!!
the_winch
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Location: Oxford, UK
Posted: 11th Oct 2003 21:16
Pull out the hardisk and install it using your desktop pc.

Find the pin spec for the 44? pin ide and make a lead to connect it or buy a ready made one.
Wik
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Posted: 11th Oct 2003 22:03
I can't gett the stupid hd out of the computer!

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Necronian
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Posted: 12th Oct 2003 03:06
Does the laptop have a network card? Most distros let you do a network install. I know for sure Slackware does (cause I use it ), I kinda remember Redhat having one (although I really don't know) and I would bet that Mandrake would have on too.
Wik
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Posted: 12th Oct 2003 08:34
Ok,
I got the laptop HD out, but how do I hook it up to my computer?

The rock has rolled!
the_winch
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Posted: 12th Oct 2003 22:10
If it's and ide drive something like this,

http://www.pccables.com/00504.htm
Yian
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Location: Nicosia, Cyprus(the Greek half)
Posted: 12th Oct 2003 22:31
hey I also have an old laptop and desktop, would linux boost their speed?Never thought of it before..sounds like damn goood idea.

Jeriko The Slyz,Yian The Craft,The Mechanist,The Lost One,Master Of Dots,Bambos O Bellos,Zolos O Kolos
Wik
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Posted: 13th Oct 2003 04:15
its not that type.

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lagmaster
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Posted: 13th Oct 2003 20:26
most laptop hard drives are smaller than the normal desktop pc ones.

the laptop hard drives only have the ide cable in it. (from memory)
to put it into a pc you need a convertor.

your best bet is to use a floppy disk linux distro. something like basic linux http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/baslinux/ use slackware 71 base so it's a good starting block. it even shows you how to get x working.

you dont need to use the big linux distro's sometimes building up from the small ones is very good

lagmasteruk - [url]www.lagmaster.net[/url] is alive! r.nash@ntlworld.com

Dark Snippet Pro V9 is out!!
Wik
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Posted: 13th Oct 2003 23:52
Ok,
I loaded that BasicLinux and I was wondering...
You can install it to the hard drive so maybe I could boot w/that and have the CD drive in so I cou;d install a regular distro.

Would this work?

The rock has rolled!
lagmaster
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Posted: 14th Oct 2003 00:44
there's somewhere on the website or readme file that tells you can to install it on the hard drive.

i've installed it before.

i can detail it here, if you want.

lagmasteruk - [url]www.lagmaster.net[/url] is alive! r.nash@ntlworld.com

Dark Snippet Pro V9 is out!!
Wik
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Location: CT, United States
Posted: 14th Oct 2003 01:15
yes,
It's included with the os

The rock has rolled!

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