DSL on an old Laptop, install problems, pls help!


Forum: Laptops
Topic: DSL on an old Laptop, install problems, pls help!
started by: daminatorr

Posted by daminatorr on Oct. 31 2005,20:57
Hi there,

I have an old Laptop, the manufactor is "Seh".

It has 16MB RAM and 133MhZ Pentium.

Windows95 runs very good on it, fast and even Office 97 runs on it!
So DSL with OpenOffice should also run what you think?

The problem is I can't install DSL!

The Laptop has a CD Rom Drive and a Floppy Drive but I can only use one at the same time.

It doesn'T boot DSL from the CD, what can I do?

Posted by clivesay on Oct. 31 2005,21:05
Honestly, if Win95 and Office run well on it, you may want to stick with them. DSL will be OK but maybe not as fast as Win95. Openoffice will defintely NOT run on that box. There just isn't enough ram.

Chris

Posted by cbagger01 on Nov. 03 2005,22:56
See the DSL wiki booting section for information on the "poorman's install".

Short answer:

1) Boot Windows95 with CDROM attached.
2) Copy file from DSL cd-r disk to C:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX  (note the uppercase letters)
3) Shut down computer and boot with floppy attached and DSL boot floppy
enter:

lowram frugal

at the boot prompt.

4) When already booted, you might want to create a DOS swapfile using the option in the DSL main menu.  This will improve performance.

Best of all, your original Windows95 system is still intact.

But you do need some free hard drive space in order to copy the file over and to make a DOS swap file.

Posted by Vladekk on Nov. 07 2005,15:25
Quote (cbagger01 @ Nov. 03 2005,17:56)
See the DSL wiki booting section for information on the "poorman's install".

Short answer:

1) Boot Windows95 with CDROM attached.
2) Copy file from DSL cd-r disk to C:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX  (note the uppercase letters)
3) Shut down computer and boot with floppy attached and DSL boot floppy
enter:

lowram frugal

at the boot prompt.

4) When already booted, you might want to create a DOS swapfile using the option in the DSL main menu.  This will improve performance.

Best of all, your original Windows95 system is still intact.

But you do need some free hard drive space in order to copy the file over and to make a DOS swap file.

I have IBM ThinkPad 365xd (120 Mhz, 48 MB RAM)
Its CD-ROM  usually cannot read CD-Rs. I want  to make poorman's(frugal?) install.
I copied KNOPPIX image in C:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX  from network and made a boot floppy under win98.
Floppy is working, but it cannot load image file, saying "Cannot boot" or something like this.
Any ideas?

Posted by Vladekk on Nov. 07 2005,15:27
Uff, forgot to say I've tried  "dsl frugal" option.
Posted by Wolfman on Nov. 25 2005,21:54
Quick hint for HD-install to Thinkpad 365X (and other similar laptops too). You can make HD-install partialy on some desktop (or other laptop) so you don't need Thinkpad's own CD or floppy.

Just put HD to some other computer (For desktop you need cheap adapter to attach laptop-HD) and start HD-install, after filecopy and bootloader install when system restarts change HD back to Thinkpad and finnish install there (maybe you can change HD to Thinkpad later too ?).

Ofcource you need to have some space on HD, I use whole disk (850Mb disk, no Windows on that Thinkpad). Only broblem with 365X is soundcard, no idea what address and irq it uses (and is it cs4232 like some other Thinkpads at same age ?)

Posted by indiepop on Nov. 25 2005,22:33
Quote (Guest @ Nov. 25 2005,16:54)
Quick hint for HD-install to Thinkpad 365X (and other similar laptops too). You can make HD-install partialy on some desktop (or other laptop) so you don't need Thinkpad's own CD or floppy.

Just put HD to some other computer (For desktop you need cheap adapter to attach laptop-HD) and start HD-install, after filecopy and bootloader install when system restarts change HD back to Thinkpad and finnish install there (maybe you can change HD to Thinkpad later too ?).

Ofcource you need to have some space on HD, I use whole disk (850Mb disk, no Windows on that Thinkpad). Only broblem with 365X is soundcard, no idea what address and irq it uses (and is it cs4232 like some other Thinkpads at same age ?)

I found some useful information here

< http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/ibm.html >

Unfortunately, the problem is getting the thing to run at anything higher than 8bpp in XVesa or Xfree86.

To install it, I actually created a boot floppy with rawrite2.exe and sbm.bin that I downloaded off the net.  That allowed me to boot from the floppy and choose to then boot from the CDRom (where I have the LiveCD of DSL).

I am still having problems with the color adjustments for the screen, but I know that I'm close to something.  If anyone has suggestions on that, I started another thread about it

Posted by akaDruid on Nov. 26 2005,11:06
Quote (Guest @ Nov. 07 2005,10:25)
Floppy is working, but it cannot load image file, saying "Cannot boot" or something like this.
Any ideas?

I had that, and I recreated the disk and it booted alright then.

akaDruid

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