No CD and no USB, how to run/install?
Forum: Laptops
Topic: No CD and no USB, how to run/install?
started by: davismiles
Posted by davismiles on June 15 2006,19:42
Hi!I have got an old laptop without a CD and without any USB ports is there any good suggestions on how to install/run DSL on my mashine?
If I am able to transfer DSL with RS232 on to harddrive is there a way to boot it directly from harddrive?
Many thanks in advance
Marcus
Posted by pr0f3550r on June 16 2006,15:20
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Boot_Floppies
Posted by jonam on June 17 2006,01:58
You can do a Poorman's install as per the above link but use the Windows direct cable connection feature to transfer the CD files across to your laptop hard disk before using the boot floppy.I am assuming that your laptop has Windows on it already and that you have access to a Windows PC which can burn CD's. First burn a copy of the DSL CD and create a boot floppy.
Link the two machines (your laptop and the other Windows PC) together either using a serial null-modem cable or parallel cable and run the direct cable connection software included with Windows. Make sure you have allowed share access to both PC's harddrives and the CD-rom drive, then use Explorer to copy the KNOPPIX directory to your Laptop's harddrive as C:\KNOPPIX.
Defragment your laptop's harddisk and then partition it to create two partitions - one for Linux and another for swap space.
You can then boot the laptop off the bootfloppy and it will find the necessary files from C:\KNOPPIX to boot up. Type "install" at the boot prompt and DSL will automatically install in the partition of your choice.
I have done two laptops using this method without fail - both had 16Mb of ram and a 2Gb hard-drive which I split 50/50 and made them into dual-boot Linux-Windows machines.
If you find all this confusing, let me know and I will try and explain in more detail.
Regards,
Jonam
Posted by JustoTech on June 22 2006,04:12
Here's another idea that's a little harder:Pull the HD out of that old laptop and put it in another one. Then do an HD install and swap the HDs back.
You won't have any kind of hardware issues because DSL auto-configures all drivers on every reboot. It should work pretty well.
Posted by Zucca on June 22 2006,07:07
Nice idea indeed. 
I'll have to try that sometime...
Posted by dtf on June 22 2006,12:12
| Quote |
Defragment your laptop's harddisk and then partition it to create two partitions - one for Linux and another for swap space. |
Are you saying I should use windows to create 2 fat partitions or am I suppose to create linux partitions?
Posted by jonam on June 24 2006,03:10
Don't create FAT partitions but Linux ext2 and Linux swap ext3 partitions. My HP5700 partitions are setup something like:/dev/hda1 HP reserved partition
/dev/hda2 Windows
/dev/hda3 49M of ext3 Linux swap space
/dev/hda4 360M of ext2 Linux
I used Ranish partition manager which can be found on www.ranish.com and there is a simple PDF format tutorial on setting up dual-boot Windows/ Linux on the same site.
I had a Windows boot disk with Partition manager also loaded on it. The boot disk starts up in MS-Dos and from there you run Partition manager as per the tutorial. I used it to reduce the Windows partition size after defragmenting windows and then created the two Linux partitions required.
After that, I ran the boot disk and installed Linux off the hard drive image making sure to activate the swap space after the first install and then re-booting. Has worked fine ever since.
Regards,
Jonam
Posted by DaveJ45 on June 27 2006,18:25
Another trick you can use to install DSL on a laptop without a CD-Rom or USB drive is to load your dos-based PCMCIA drivers and then use a PCMCIA drive to transfer your DSL files to your machine. I have done this with a couple of minimally configured 486 laptops, and they both run DSL quite well, all things considered.I've also used this method to install Win98 on similar machines, for the same reason, no CD-ROM or USB ports.
Obviously, the best case scenario would be that you already have an ATA or CF disk to use in your PCMCIA slots, and then use a boot floppy.
Since the DSL image is so small, you could get by quite easily with a 64Mb device. Win98 on the other hand, requires 128MB+.
You can get reasonably good deals on these types of devices from private sellers on eBay. Watch out for the 'dealers' though, they tend to want to price theirs like corporate america is still dying for one.
The biggest hurdle comes in locating and setting up the DOS drivers for your PCMCIA controller if you don't already have them installed and working.
Good Luck!
DaveJ45