1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
|
<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<html>
<head>
<META NAME="generator" CONTENT="lgazmail v1.1J.c">
<TITLE>The Answer Guy 39: Plee for help</TITLE>
</HEAD><BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000"
LINK="#3366FF" VLINK="#A000A0">
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
<H4>"The Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"</H4>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
<center>
<H1><A NAME="answer">
<img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="(?)"
border="0" align="middle">
<font color="#B03060">The Answer Guy</font>
<img src="../../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="(!)"
border="0" align="middle">
</A></H1>
<BR>
<H4>By James T. Dennis,
<a href="mailto:answerguy@ssc.com">answerguy@ssc.com</a><BR>
LinuxCare,
<A HREF="http://www.linuxcare.com/">http://www.linuxcare.com/</A>
</H4>
</center>
<p><hr><p>
<!-- endcut ======================================================= -->
<!-- begin 19 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>Plee for help</H3>
<p><strong>From Ian on Wed, 17 Mar 1999
</strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
Hi there Jim....
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Actually, this is Heather; you sent this message to our consulting
services. However, since you addressed it to Jim specifically, I'll take
a first shot on behalf of The Answer Guy, since he's been really busy
this week.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
My name is Ian van Battum and I am a desperate man.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I have recently wanted to further my computer studies and have found
Linux to be a great OS to learn and master. Being a complete newbie
to Linux, I am not a stranger to OS's and what have you.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I have how ever a small problem. I have a laptop on which I would like
to load Linux. Unfortunately it only has a floppy drive. So I need to go
through the slog of installing off a 'million' and one floppies. This
is not a hassle though but I am stuck when it comes the old procedure
of doing this task.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Actually, you don't need to go through as many floppies as all that.
TurboLinux (from Pacific HiTech), <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">S.u.S.E.</A> all offer single
floppy starter disk images that you can download from the internet, put
in your machine to boot it, and then they'll use FTP across the internet
to get the rest. Of course this works best if you have a fairly solid
link to the net, and you have a buddy to help you cut the initial disks.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Somewhat more durable in their efforts are a 6-diskette <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> base
packages install (after which it will be able to use even a fairly
fragile connection, and retry as necessary).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Of course Linux hasn't got the only spot in this limelight.
<A HREF="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</A>
will also install via FTP given its single boot floppy, but you do need a
solid enough link to get the 'bin' distribution... although they do
have their 'distributions' (base file sets; yeah, I know, it kind of
confused me the first time I saw it, too) split into parts so they can
be copied onto floppies and recombined, I've never actually done an
install that way.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If it weren't a laptop then it would be pretty easy to swap your hard
drive into another system, apply the new OS, and then return it to your
system. Of course if it weren't a laptop, it would be worth buying a
super-cheap 2X CD-ROM... maybe even used, or as a giveaway from a friend
joining the multimedia age.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
As for adding peripherals, you may not be as out of luck as you think.
Most laptops have a parallel port, and ZIP support across parallel ports
has been in Linux for a while now. So, you could potentially get a lot
more files onto a ZIP. There are a few parallel based CD-ROMs such as
the Backpack, but I'm not sure how well Linux supports them. And, there's
usually your CardBus or PCMCIA slots... which I call "piecemeal"... as in
that's how they let you upgrade your laptop, by pieces.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
My own <a href="http://www.ricoh-usa.com/prodshw/minipc/">Ricoh Magio E
laptop</a> installed TurboLinux great from an Addonics PCMCIA based CD-ROM
(ATAPI/IDE drivers were used) with only the help of also using its
'additional hardware' disk, and making sure that the CD's
card/cord was plugged into the lower bay in the type III cardbus slot.
The only trick there is, the install floppy has to be able to spot your
CardBus or pc-card controller, and you have to use a device whose card
can be found in the card manager's database.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
If you have a 3'5" sized drive, you might actually be able to do this the
same way a non-laptop user would, anyway. (I had an ordinary 3.5" drive
on my Sager-Midern Pentium-60 laptop, in a special removable slide. It
was great. It's a shame the video finally broke and now it won't start.
Eventually I'll make enough free time to take it by a repair shop and see
if they can do anything for it.) If it has a PCMCIA sized drive, then
there are PCMCIA ports for desktop machines, as well. However, many
laptops have proprietary internal setups, and some manufacturers have a
policy that says you void the hardware warranty if you take out anything.
So, be sure what you're getting into before you consider that route.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Of much greater concern for an older model system, since Linux has pretty
darn good support for older hardware, is whether your hard disk has enough
space for what you want to do with it. The Sager-Midern mentioned above
fit a <A HREF="http://www.caldera.com/">Caldera</A> Network Desktop on a 500 MB drive fairly easily, but newer
distributions have more stuff, and certain packages (like X networking,
emacs, and source trees) have grown quite large over time.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Do you have any suggestions to resolve my problem as I have gone through
all the web sites? I would be really greatfull if you could shead some
light on this for me.
</STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Try the ftp sites instead of the websites. I hope I'm correct in assuming
you have an x86 based laptop, not a PowerBook or Sparctop:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Red Hat
<DD><A HREF="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/redhat/current/i386/images"
>ftp://ftp.redhat.com/redhat/current/i386/images</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
S.u.S.E
<DD><A HREF="ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/SuSE-Linux/6.0/disks"
>ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/SuSE-Linux/6.0/disks</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Pacific HiTech
<DD><A HREF="ftp://ftp.pht.com/pub/turbolinux/images"
>ftp://ftp.pht.com/pub/turbolinux/images</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><DL><DT>
Debian
<DD><A HREF="ftp://ftp.debian.org/pub/debian/dists/stable/main/disks-i386/current"
>ftp://ftp.debian.org/pub/debian/dists/stable/main/disks-i386/current</A>
</DL></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
...though admittedly they don't make it clear <EM>which</EM> disk images are the
one you need to do an FTP-based install. Their in-flight questions have
gotten pretty clear about telling you which disk to put in, and you
shouldn't need anything special from Red Hat unless you have an unusual
controller for your internal hard disk.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Many thanks
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><DL><DT>
Ian van Battum
<DD><A HREF="mailto:ian.vanbattum@eurobell.com"
>ian.vanbattum@eurobell.com</A>
</DL></STRONG></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Well, I hope that helps out. If you still have trouble, though, drop us
a line.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<!-- end 19 -->
<hr width="40%" align="center"><!-- ::::::::::::::::::::: -->
<!-- begin 20 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(!) " border="0"
>Plea for help</H3>
<p><strong>From <em>The Answer Guy</em> on Tues, 23 Mar 1999
</strong></p>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Pretty good, but you missed the possibility of establishing a
network with PLIP, then using a network-based install. All you'd need
is a parallel "laplink" style cable. Unfortunately I don't think the
distributions support this directly (though Debian might, I haven't checked).
So, you'll probably need to get the minimal installation onto your system
first, but this would probably make the rest a lot easier.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE><dl>
<dt>The PLIP mini-HOWTO was just updated this month:
<dd><a href="http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/PLIP.html"
>http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/PLIP.html</a>
</dl></BLOCKQUOTE>
<!-- end 20 -->
<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
<P> <hr> <P>
<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/ssc.copying.html"
>Copyright ©</a> 1999, James T. Dennis
<BR>Published in <I>The Linux Gazette</I> Issue 39 April 1999</H5>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- begin tagnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::-->
<TABLE WIDTH="96%"><TR VALIGN="center" ALIGN="center">
<TD ROWSPAN="2" WIDTH="30%"><A HREF="../lg_answer39.html"
><IMG SRC="../../gx/dennis/answernew.gif"
ALT="[ Answer Guy Index ]"></A></td>
<TD WIDTH="6%"><A HREF="2.html">2</A></TD>
<TD WIDTH="6%"><A HREF="3.html">3</A></TD>
<TD WIDTH="6%"><A HREF="4.html">4</A></TD>
<TD WIDTH="6%"><A HREF="5.html">5</A></TD>
<TD WIDTH="6%"><A HREF="6.html">6</A></TD>
<TD WIDTH="6%"><A HREF="7.html">7</A></TD>
<TD WIDTH="6%"><A HREF="8.html">8</A></TD>
<TD WIDTH="6%"><A HREF="9.html">9</A></TD>
<TD WIDTH="6%"><A HREF="10.html">10</A></TD>
<TD WIDTH="6%"><A HREF="11.html">11</A></TD>
</TR><TR VALIGN="center" ALIGN="center">
<TD><A HREF="12.html">12</A></TD>
<TD><A HREF="13.html">13</A></TD>
<TD><A HREF="15.html">15</A></TD>
<TD><A HREF="16.html">16</A></TD>
<TD><A HREF="18.html">18</A></TD>
<TD><A HREF="19.html">19</A></TD>
<TD><A HREF="21.html">21</A></TD>
<TD><A HREF="22.html">22</A></TD>
<TD><A HREF="23.html">23</A></TD>
</TR></TABLE>
<!-- end tagnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- begin lgnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
<A HREF="../lg_toc39.html"
><IMG SRC="../../gx/indexnew.gif" ALT="[ Table Of Contents ]"></A>
<A HREF="../../lg_frontpage.html"
><IMG SRC="../../gx/homenew.gif" ALT="[ Front Page ]"></A>
<A HREF="../lg_bytes39.html"
><IMG SRC="../../gx/back2.gif" ALT="[ Previous Section ]"></A>
<A HREF="../lg_tips39.html"
><IMG SRC="../../gx/fwd.gif" ALT="[ Next Section ]"></A>
<!-- end lgnav ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
</BODY></HTML>
<!--endcut ========================================================= -->
|
