HD Install :: HD Install on OLD IBM laptop from inside Windows?

Hi everyone-

I've been reading with interest the topics about HD installs, frugal installs, etc. I have a quandary-

I have an old IBM 765L Thinkpad, with a 3GB HD, 48MB of RAM, no floppy, no internet card, and this particular Thinkpad can't be configured to boot from a CD-ROM.

So I followed some tips to install Grub4DOS, which I have. It works and I can access the functions, including one that says "find and boot Linux with kernel installed". When I select it though, it times out and gives back that a kernel must be loaded first. How do I do that?

I have the DSL files copied to the HD C:\ directory off of a CD, so my question is, using Grub4DOS, how should I have the DSL files arranged? I already updated the config.sys file which is how I got Grub4DOS to work. How do I get it to recognize the kernel and start up the DSL installation?

Any and all help would be GREATLY appreciated, and as I'm a relative newb to Linux (I've had Ubuntu 7.10 on my main computer for about five months now) "he-must-be-stupid" spelled-out directions/walk-throughs would help me most.

Thanks for reading, and for any suggestions.

-toby

(Edit* I also already got as far as I could using this article: http://marc.herbert.free.fr/linux/win2linstall.html#loadlin just fyi. Thanks.)

http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Loadlin_Install

The wiki is a great place to start with

I did try to follow the loadlin steps, but I always get a "server not found" when I try to get loadlin from any of the links I've found. From what I understand, loadlin and Grub4DOS do pretty much the same thing, I just don't know how to make the DSL files that are in C:\ recognizable to the boot loader.

I was reading another post about someone trying to boot from a usb because the machine didn't have a good HD. Anyway some of the suggestions may work for booting a CD.

Maybe you could get the boot floppy copied to a directory on your HD.

Then have Grub look for the directory.

If it works the boot image would look for the CD.

Toby,

Try to get access to another laptop that can boot from a CD. Then you take out the Hard Disk from the IBM, put it into that other working laptop, install DSL and switch the HD back into the IBM.

Quite klunky, but it works because DSL autoconfigures itself depending on the hardware.

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