[Sussex] Laptop challenge

[John Crowhurst]

On Wed, February 1, 2006 1:00, Gavin Stevens said:
> Today I ordered a 32MB EDORAM card from Orca, which will give the 430CDS
> its maximum RAM capability of 48MB.
>
> The main problem with this 10 year old laptop is that it won't boot from
> CD-ROM. This leaves a few options:
>
> 1: I could copy a distro onto floppies (er.. I don't think so).

Your easiest step would be to create a boot floppy (I don't know if
DamnSmallLinux can do this, but Slackware certainly can), then load the
root = to the detected CDROM drive.

> 4: I visited a site where someone had taken an even older Toshiba laptop
> & got round the CD boot problem by temporarily transplanting the laptop
> hard drive into an ordinary PC & doing a HD install of DamnSmallLinux,
> then reinstating the drive into the laptop.
>
> This last option is the one I shall most likely choose for the following
> reasons:
>
> 1: I shall have to open the laptop up to install the extra memory.

I think the 430 has a memory door at the back to install memory to. I know
the later models do.

> 2: DamnSmallLinux will still autodetect hardware on every boot after a
> HD install - just like when running live, so it doesn't matter if the
> drive is in another machine for the installation itself.

Have a look at the forum, I found this one about Segmentation faults while
trying to install DSL.
http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=Print;f=8;t=2879

--
John