[Sussex] Laptop challenge

[Colin Pickard]

Hi all,

I've been lurking on the list for a long time without introducing
myself, but this thread has convinced me to go public :)

I'm in Haywards Heath, I've been mucking around with Linux for around
4 years, I have a Federa Core 3 desktop and Fedora Core 2 server at
home, I use RHEL3&4 plus AIX and HP-UX at work, and relevant to the
thread, I have a 'poor mans' install of Dam Small Linux on a Twinhead
486 DX100 laptop with 16Mb RAM and a 1Gb hard disk (which I also got
free :)).

On 2/2/06, Gavin Stevens <starshine at gavmusic.uklinux.net> wrote:
> > 2: I could try a network install, except I'm still in the early
> > stages of networking. So not really ready just yet.
> I know that others have done it, but I haven't had time to find out how
> yet.

I had the laptop working on another operating system (yes, that one)
when it arrived, and I was able to connect it to a desktop using a
Laplink cable on the parallel port, which was simple to set up and
use.  I don't have ethernet or usb as an option for that laptop.

Even if you don't have a functioning install at the moment, I can
recommend parallel port connections for transferring data to old
laptops.  They are simple to set up in any OS, reliable, and
surprisingly quick (I found I got nearly 10Mb/sec).  Of course you
need to the cable which not everyone will have lying around, but I was
able to get one for a couple of pounds on ebay.

What I did for my 'poor man's install' was to download DSL Embedded
RC2 image and the DSL RC2 boot floppy image and transfer both over the
laplink, use rawrite to create the floppy on the laptop and boot from
the floppy, using the 'lowram' parameter.  If you place embedded image
in C:\KNOPPIX then it will pick it up automagically.  There's some
more stuff on the DSL site on this, look for 'poor mans install' on
the wiki.

The performance is pretty terrible in graphical mode, as you would
imagine, but more than good enough to get the 'install to hard disk'
option up.  I've not done that stage yet but I imagine it would speed
things along nicely.  The 'joe' window manager seems to work well.

At the risk of boring you, I have even more written about the install
process here:
http://blog.thedruid.co.uk/2005/11/26/installing-linux-on-the-486-sort-of/

Hope this helps.

Colin.