486 36 meg RAM 66 mhz CPU Best option?


Forum: HD Install
Topic: 486 36 meg RAM 66 mhz CPU Best option?
started by: arnie

Posted by arnie on Mar. 30 2005,11:08
Have a very well kept 486 with 36 megs RAM, 66 mhz CPU, an a CD drive... but the BIOS does not have the option of booting from the CD drive.
Question: How I can install Damn Small Linux to the hard drive of this machine so that I will boot from the HD, and use DSL instead of the WINDOWS 98 that it had before.
The hard drive is absolutely clean, to start an install from scratch.
Which version of Damn Small Linux I must download ?
Thanks... and you can send answers to inforhc@enet.cu
Arnie

Posted by mrbombastic on Mar. 30 2005,12:09
Assuming it has a FDD, go to the < Bootdisk Project > and scroll down to "Custom Bootdisks". The "OLDBIOS CD" bootdisk will allow you to boot a CD via the floppy :
Quote
You boot the PC from this floppy and then a small program on the floppy switches boot to a CD-ROM device

Then just proceed as if you'd booted directly from the CD.

Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 30 2005,18:37
Chances are that your 486 does not have a standard ATAPI / IDE CDROM drive.  Instead, it is likely one of them propriatary drives that is controlled by a chip on your sound card.

If so, it will be VERY difficult to boot your computer from CD.

Instead, do this:

Boot into MS Windows.
Insert DSL CD-R disk.
Copy \knoppix\knoppix file over to your C:\knoppix\knoppix
make sure that your new directory and filename are lowercase letters.
Download rawrite32 from the Internet
Download the dsl-0.8 boot floppy image from the Damnsmalllinux.org download site
Use rawrite32 and the image file to create a "DSL Boot Floppy"

Insert the newly created boot floppy and reboot the computer.

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