[Sussex] Laptop challenge

[Steve Dobson]

Hi Gavin

On Wed, Feb 01, 2006 at 01:00:55AM +0000, Gavin Stevens wrote:
> Today I ordered a 32MB EDORAM card from Orca, which will give the 430CDS
> its maximum RAM capability of 48MB.

That should help.

> 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).

Good decision.

> 2: I could try a network install, except I'm still in the early stages
> of networking. So not really ready just yet.

My guess would be not.  IIRC netboot support in the PC BIOS was added
after CD boot support.

While I told you last moot about installing a system that had no CD-ROM
drive that system was an SGI.  As a "proper" Unix workstation it supported
diskless booting, and therefore the BIOS could be configured to boot of
a network disk.  This type of configuration came to PCs much later.

> 3: I could open the machine up & try swapping the IDE cables over, so
> that the CD-ROM is on primary master. But I don't know if this possible
> or whether it would work.

Don't go there.  I find getting in side a laptop to be much more of a 
problem than getting inside a PC case.  PC cases are designed to be 
user serviceable, laptops (in my experience) are not.

> 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 is one way of doing it.  I've used that method myself on a number of
occasions.  My old Dell laptop (which must be almost 10 years old now) 
just requires two screws to be removed and the disk caddy pulls right out.
However the disk connector is not exposed on this caddy so I have to 
remove the disk from the caddy and then use a 2.5" to 3.5" converter
to plug it into a standard PC with a CD-ROM drive and install as normal.

> 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. 
> 
> 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.

This is a feature of the Linux kernel not the distro.  The same is just
as true for Slackware, Gentoo or RedHat (and of course Debian).

> 3: After a HD install, DSL can be "Debianised" by enabling GNU-utils,
> apt-get & Synaptic (this is according to the "Getting started with DSL"
> manual).
> 
> So, as soon as I have the extra memory delivered & installed, I shall
> give it a try & let you know.

You can install debian from floppy.  I never have because all my machines
boot from CDROM (or I've disk swapped), but a floppy installer should
allow you to configure the installer to get the Debian packages from the
local CD-ROM drive.  Just because you can't boot from the CD-ROM drive does
not mean you can install from it.

You can down load the floppy images here:

    ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/dists/sarge/main/installer-i386/current/images/floppy

The manual is here:

    ftp://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/dists/sarge/main/installer-i386/current/doc/manual/en/index.html

Read "4.3 Creating Floppies from Disk Images" for how to write the floppy
images and "5.1.4. Booting from Floppies".

If you are on broadband now then you could do an network install from the
floppies.  You will need a network card for the laptop (I doubt a 10 year
old one has network built in - but I could be wrong).

If you can get to Worthing for the BCF we can do a network install there.
Bring the floppies (I won't have Floppy hardware with me) but if you
let me know by Friday I'll make sure I bring enough networking to support
a network install (including a PCMCIA network card - but you may want to
buy one anyway at the show ready for you broadband days).

If you can make Worthing I have to make the following condition.  We must
start early (say around 09:00) before the fair opens.  It is important 
that the people manning the stand are there pushing the CDs to cover the
costs.  But if we start early then we have plenty of time before the
crowd hit to get your install up and running.

Steve
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