Load From Zip Disk?

Forum: Laptops
Topic: Load From Zip Disk?
started by: vrdeity

Posted by vrdeity on May 29 2005,21:10

Hi, can someone give me some tips on how to create a zip disk that will have DSL on it. I'd like to breath life into an old 486/50 laptop that doesn't have a cdrom or USB.

Can I create a zip disk and floppy disk pair that will boot a full DSL system? Something like zipslack, but better.

Thanks

Posted by clacker on May 29 2005,21:33

vrdeity, check out this section of the faq: < booting from a zipdrive >

(where it says "mnt/zippy" it should say mnt/zip)

Posted by Guest on May 30 2005,00:15

While the link above mentions that copying to the zip disk " isn't all copied until the disks stop spinning, and that takes about 2 minutes", actually this is not always true. The disk may stop spinning, but it is not an absolute indicator of completion of the writing process. This is especially the case when the system has A LOT of memory, since the system is not hard-pressed to purge its write buffer cache.

I'd suggest the use of the "sync" command everytime when it is absolutely necessary for the write buffers to be purged before doing anything further. Actually, many people (including me) execute the "sync" command at least twice just to be sure. Examples of this "sync; sync" command can be found in the DSL scripts.