BSD install

[gsellis]

I suspect some N0cmonkey action here... 😉

I have been 'playing' lately with a Toshiba Portege 3110. It has only 1 USB port that I think is bootable. It currently has XP on it and it barely runs (128MB) on this older PII. No CD/DVD. I looked at Ubuntu and without the CD, I was scratching my head on installation (the forums did not have any previously posted tips that I could find.)

Originally, I installed XP using network boot to a W2K server with a OS load on it. That server has been dark at least 2 years now.

To the question - with BSD, is there an easy method on creating either a bootable USB key or device for install?

Oh, I noticed that an X?buntu variant of Ubuntu has been suggested for such a weak device, but it is not ready yet 🙁

 

[sourceninja]

http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

it has images for usb sticks

 

[kamper]

Does the network card support pxe booting? (That's a wild guess, I have no idea what your chances would be on an old machine like that.)

 

[n0cmonkey]

Interesting question. I know you can install from USB optical drives, but I've never tried a usb stick. Sounds like more trouble than its worth. 😛

 

[sourceninja]

I've done a debian install from a usbstick. I just wanted to see if it could work.

 

[Seeruk]

But if the box is that old its quite likely that 'boot from usb' is not an option in the BIOS

Otherwise ... it's easy

 

[cleverhandle]

Perhaps this was implied by your OP, but do you not have a floppy drive? BSD can still install from a floppy, unlike most linux distros these days.

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: cleverhandle
Perhaps this was implied by your OP, but do you not have a floppy drive? BSD can still install from a floppy, unlike most linux distros these days.

Maybe. I think we might have a USB floppy... Come to think of it, the only machines I still have with floppies in the house are a PII450 that we gave the person living with us and a PP100 that has been off for 2 years (the W2K server). The laptop is the only one that does not have either.

Thanks folks. You have given me a few ideas. At least big keys are getting cheap. I need to check the BIOS again too.