[Scottish] zipslack and lilo

[Gordon JC Pearce]

On Fri, 2007-08-31 at 07:52 +0800, Richard Wright wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I've still got this toshiba libretto 100ct laptop and can't quite figure out how to get linux installed onto it.
> 
> A while ago I tried to plug the hard drive it into a friend's computer and used the ubuntu distro, which is pretty 
> much fully automated. The installation worked fine, but was configured to my friend's computer, NOT the 
> libretto and would then not work when plugged back in. Lilo issues error 17, which I believe means the kernel is 
> not where it expected it to be.
> 
> The key problem with a linux installation on the libretto lies in the fact that it cannot boot from a cdrom drive, 
> or usb/pendrive. If it is without an O/S then just about all peripheral devices are unusable, presumably because 
> it is quite an old laptop. The bios seems only able to access a floppy drive. 

Remove the hard disk, install Linux in another machine, and then refit
it to the Libretto.

> To make matters worse, My only internet connection available is dial-up.
> 
> Zipslack seems to be a perfect solution to this problem. As you may be aware, zipslack allows you to download 
> a compressed version of slackware (give me slack or give me death!) that is broken down to fit onto floppy 
> disks. You can then install these floppies onto dos or windoze , unzip them and you have a linux system 
> superimposed on dos. 

It's a complete and utter waste of time installing any recentish distro
of Linux on the Libretto.  There's no way it will ever be fast enough or
have enough memory to be usable.  I've had excellent results using
NetBSD on a 70CT though.

Gordon