Help installing XP and Linux on laptop

[xobitx]

I just purchased a IBM Thinkpad 570 laptop, it has no cdrom and a external floppy drive. It came with no os installed will boot to dos prompt. I would like to install Suse Linux 9 and Windows XP, I have never installed linux before have only used bootable cdrom distros. I believe the easiest way to accomplish this is to start with xp then install suse and its boot loader, correct? I have a big issue though since I have no cdrom and no nic I cannot install from the i386 folder or boot from xp cd. I plan to very soon get a 802.11b card for it, is there a way I can install xp over that networked to my windows machine? The only current way I can think to install xp would be to purchase an Ultrabase with cd(Im too cheap though) or purchase a 2.5 hd adapter and connect it to my windows machine and copy the i386 over, is this my only options? Also could someone point me in the direction of a good suse9 install guide.

 

[RadBrad]

Yep, thats correct and nope, you got other options, and i'd point to the internet. Makes me wonder why you would need a think pad.

 

[johnjkr1]

You could pick up a real cheap pcmcia or usb cdrom off ebay too. $15-20 most of the time, even less for older ones.

 

[Zelmo3]

Here's the official Linux installation How-To. It's kind of long, but it won't all apply exactly to everyone's situation, so just skim it over looking for what you need to know. Be sure to pay attention to partitioning options and get familiar with how Linux names the drives. Everything else should be a breeze, especially with SuSE.
Once you've got that installed, be sure to grab the kernel sources if you're using the Personal edition (they should come with the Pro edition, but not with Personal). Note: the sources for SuSE 9.0's installed kernel used to be at ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/supplementary/9.0-personal/, but they're not there now and don't seem to be lurking elsewhere on the site. Let me know if you need them and we'll figure out a way of sending them to you. You'll probably need them for something or other.

 

[xobitx]

Well I would like to get linux installed and not worry about xp for now(maybe ever) because everything I plan to use the laptop for I can do in suse. I heard that there are distros that can be installed from floppy, what are these named and where can I find them. I still want to end up with a suse 9 install but dont mind starting with another distro and then going to suse9. I dont want to have to buy anything else to get it going, other than this inital install I wont have a use for an external cdrom afterwards. I read the above mentioned offical linux guide and it was helpfull and informative(thx zelmo3). So basically if someone could point me in the direction of a good distro installable from floppy(I have a dozen or so new ones ready), thanks to all for the info and help.

 

[Zelmo3]

Here are some that look promising:
2-Disk Linux
Basic Linux
Eagle Linux

You can find more (many, many more) at linux.org, but most are too big for floppies or too specialized to be useful for most people.

 

[xobitx]

Would it be possible to use a usb cdrom in dos or to boot from to install suse and xp?

 

[Zelmo3]

Probably not, unless your BIOS supports some really special boot options.
Perhaps you could boot from a network, though, and install that way.

 

[drag]

Debian is a good Linux distro for installing thru floppy disks.

Debian isn't for newbies, but you can have it for the life of your laptop and never have to reinstall again due to the nature of apt. You just keep your OS up to date continously instead of big updates.


Probably the easiest method by far is to get a laptop harddrive adapter so that it can hook up to a computer like a regular harddrive. Install whatever into there and then stick it into the laptop. If the drive arangement changes (from primary slave in the PC to primary master in the laptop etc) you just have to edit the boot configs (/etc/lilo.conf or /boot/grub/grub.con) and the /etc/fstab files and you'll be set.

Then set up something like apt, yum, or urpmi to upgrade and install packages automaticly over the internet from various specified online archives of current packages.