thelinuxlink.net

I have a laptop that shipped with Windows 98se and currently has Windows XP on it. It runs like crap and I want to put linux on it in hopes of streamlining the system a bit. It is currently being used for web browsing, playing music off my network and MS Word. So a basic install + Open Office should be plenty. Here is the problem(s).

It's a Celeron 466 with 192meg ram. It has a 5gig hard drive and trident video. Here is the tricky part. The DVD drive doesnt work any more so I need to use floppy(s) or floppy + network install.

Any suggestions for a distro? Im a linux noob, so go easy on me guys!

Well, if you're not afraid of the command line and learning how to do some manual config. and setting up, I suggest ArchLinux ( http://www.archlinux.org ).

It has a network install feature and has some instructions on how to install from a floppy.

Their Wiki and how to install from floppies can be found here.

I've found Arch to be a fantastic Linux distro. But, it isn't for everyone. You either need to know what you're doing in Linux or (as I am) not afraid to read, learn, and do a bit of work. Although, the work is all up-front. Where Arch shines is in it's stability, speed, and ease of maintenance... at least as far as I'm concerned.

(EDIT: Nevermind, better recommendation above)


Any chance that it might support a USB device? If not, then I don't know of an easy install. There is this page:

Win2Lin Install

But if you're a newbie, that's quite risky. If things don't go well, and you can't boot into linux on the first try, you don't really have an option to boot with a Live CD and clean things up, and you might have wiped out your windows partition with only 5 gigs, so you wouldn't be able to boot into windows, either. So I can't say I'd recommend that route. I'll keep looking, but I would think replacing the DVD drive would be worth it if possible. Hopefully someone else has a better idea.

It would be much better to be able to boot to floppy, so you can boot up again if things don't go well on the first try.

Do you have another computer available, there's an interesting way to use a "Network Boot" if you have another computer running Knoppix.

Installation without CD-Rom

You might be able to do with Mandriva if you install like IceWM, XFCE or Window Maker.

Actually I have an old 450 MHz AMD K6 machine sitting next to me, and it runs very well with Debian Sarge (stable) with Fluxbox as the window manager.

Also, the good thing is that even thought new users might have a few issues with Debian, the official 3.1 almost never have dependency issues when you stick with the standard repositories and the Marillat repos.

You could do a floppy network install of Debian. The Debian network install is my preferred way of getting Debian on my system, since I can choose to install exactly what I want. I've never tried installing via a floppy, but I've never had any problems using the blank CD method.

http://www.us.debian.org/distrib/floppyinst
http://www.us.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/ (testing)
http://www.us.debian.org/releases/sarge ... installer/ (stable)

I've installed FreeBSD and OpenBSD via floppies a bunch of times and I don't think Debian is too different

Worked very well

Never tried it before myself, but an FTP install of Debian would probably be more newbie-forgiving than ArchLinux.

Judland wrote:Never tried it before myself, but an FTP install of Debian would probably be more newbie-forgiving than ArchLinux.

Debian is actually quite easy to install these days, the only thing is that Sarge is a little outdated with regards to the different versions of apps, but that helps prevent dependency issues so for newbies I don't think it's an issue.

Judland wrote:Never tried it before myself, but an FTP install of Debian would probably be more newbie-forgiving than ArchLinux.

Personally, I find the latest Debian installer to be extremely easy to use. It's not graphical, but it's about as simple, and straitforward as it gets. As long as you're not trying to dual boot Windows, and don't stray too far from default settings, it's hard to screw it up.

Shack, if you'd like to see exactly what's involved, you can check out some screenshots of the install process from http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slide ... 95&slide=1

Tsuroerusu wrote:

Judland wrote:Never tried it before myself, but an FTP install of Debian would probably be more newbie-forgiving than ArchLinux.

Debian is actually quite easy to install these days, the only thing is that Sarge is a little outdated with regards to the different versions of apps, but that helps prevent dependency issues so for newbies I don't think it's an issue.

That's why testing is great. You get almost all of the stability of stable, but applications aren't quite as out of date, and it doesn't break as often as unstable. If you want the latest Firefox, or OpenOffice, you can always pull down the unstable package and install that. I'm running testing right now, and couldn't be happier.

A couple of other options:

network install of SuSE via ssh:
http://www.opensuse.org/Network_Install

network install of Ubuntu through Windows (since Windows is already on this laptop):
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Installation/Wi ... verNetboot

traditional network install of Ubuntu:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Installation/Ne ... ootInstall

I also think that some of the mini distros like DSL, Puppy etc. have boot floppies.

HTH
-Chess

Wally Balljacker wrote:As long as you're not trying to dual boot Windows, and don't stray too far from default settings, it's hard to screw it up.

EXACTLY!! That's the big weakness of the Debian installer so far, and that's one of the reasons I'm not that happy about recommending to newbies, because the process of setting up a dual boot system is not fully automated like with SuSE.

Tsuroerusu wrote:

Wally Balljacker wrote:As long as you're not trying to dual boot Windows, and don't stray too far from default settings, it's hard to screw it up.

EXACTLY!! That's the big weakness of the Debian installer so far, and that's one of the reasons I'm not that happy about recommending to newbies, because the process of setting up a dual boot system is not fully automated like with SuSE.

That's true, but it sounds like he wants to wipe out Windows completely, so I don't think it's an issue.

Wally Balljacker wrote:

Tsuroerusu wrote:

Wally Balljacker wrote:As long as you're not trying to dual boot Windows, and don't stray too far from default settings, it's hard to screw it up.

EXACTLY!! That's the big weakness of the Debian installer so far, and that's one of the reasons I'm not that happy about recommending to newbies, because the process of setting up a dual boot system is not fully automated like with SuSE.

That's true, but it sounds like he wants to wipe out Windows completely, so I don't think it's an issue.

Of course, I was just pointing out why all the BS about Ubuntu being so wonderful and 0wnz everything else is all hype because it's founded by a billionaire.

Shack wrote:I have a laptop that shipped with Windows 98se and currently has Windows XP on it. It runs like crap and I want to put linux on it in hopes of streamlining the system a bit. It is currently being used for web browsing, playing music off my network and MS Word. So a basic install + Open Office should be plenty. Here is the problem(s).

It's a Celeron 466 with 192meg ram. It has a 5gig hard drive and trident video. Here is the tricky part. The DVD drive doesnt work any more so I need to use floppy(s) or floppy + network install.

I'd also recommend Debian or Slackware as a good distro for a floppy install. Debian + network is a good option.

For the sake of completeness, I'll mention that Windows XP should run OK on that system if you turn off all the pointless eye candy. I'd love to see anybody move to Linux, but the most important thing is for you to have a system that works for you, not for you to be running my personal favorite Linux distro.

Here's a page I wrote on making XP faster on low spec machines for people who are stuck on Windows and want better performance.