Laptops :: booting DSL on laptop with no cdrom drive



OK, I'm new to DSL so please be gentle.  :)

I have a IBM Thinkpad 560x running Debian. I used a network install to get it going. Now I am looking for a means to backup this laptop over the network. Unfortunately, this laptop does not have a CD-ROM drive so I can't use things like Sysrescd etc.

Someone pointed out that DSL might be able to help.

FYI, my BIOS boot options are:
floppy disk
pcmcia (as a pcmcia-to-IDE device)

This laptop does have a USB port, but the BIOS doesn't allow booting to it.

I assume I can use a floppy-usb combination to boot to a USB memory stick, but I have no idea how to set this up.

The floppy-usb method will work ok, but if I can avoid floppies altogether, I would be happy. Is it possilbe to put a DSL image on a PCMCIA drive and boot to it?

As an aside, I have booted this laptop to MSDOS via PCMCIA by using a PCMCIA media reader (the PNY 4-in-1) and a SD memory card that I imaged as a giant "boot floppy" with HP's bootable USB format utility from Windows XP.

Anyway, I grabbed all of the DSL files from a mirror, but there was no manifest or index file, so I don't know which files to use. I see several 50MB images and a couple of floppy disk images. Which files do I need to boot DSL from a USB memory stick via floppy? Also, if it is possible (preferred) to boot to DSL from a PCMCIA storage device, how can I do that?

Thanks.
To boot USB from floppy you need:

1) To copy the \knoppix\knoppix file and directory over to your USB device. Make sure to use lowercase letters.

2)  You need to download the DSL 0.8usb boot floppy image file from the website

3) You need to download a create-a-floppy-from-an-image-file program like Rawrite32.exe or rawrite2.exe

Use the rawrite/rawrite32 program to create a boot floppy using the image file.  Make sure that you use a good floppy disk.  Many floppies will not work if they have a bad sector or two.  If you have problems, try again with a different floppy disk.

Then insert the new floppy AND plug your USB device into the computer and reboot.
This page might help you
http://damnsmalllinux.org/faq.html

Pay close attention to the Install DSL from a single floppy and the net

Brian
AwPhuch
Quote (cbagger01 @ April 18 2005,12:29)
To boot USB from floppy you need:

1) To copy the \knoppix\knoppix file and directory over to your USB device. Make sure to use lowercase letters.

2)  You need to download the DSL 0.8usb boot floppy image file from the website

3) You need to download a create-a-floppy-from-an-image-file program like Rawrite32.exe or rawrite2.exe

Use the rawrite/rawrite32 program to create a boot floppy using the image file.  Make sure that you use a good floppy disk.  Many floppies will not work if they have a bad sector or two.  If you have problems, try again with a different floppy disk.

Then insert the new floppy AND plug your USB device into the computer and reboot.

This method worked OK and I was able to use DSL in "Live" mode, which is what I was going for.

Unfortunately, I wanted to backup to a windows maching using smbfs, but it looks like stock DSL doesn't have smbfs (smbmount) :(

I'm using a large USB device, so I can save the partimage files there at least and copy them elsewhere later on...
If you need to directly mount your smb shares you can install the samba.dsl extension, provided that you have enough RAM available.

If all you wish to do is transfer files you can use the smbclient FTP-like text utility program.
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