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HELP: no floppy, no CD-ROM

M

murphyslabrat

Senior member
OK, I have a fujitsu Lifebook B-2131, and I have a hard-drive. I want to put an OS on this hard-drive, and stick it in the laptop. I have a crappy IDE-to-USB adapter. I want to scream.


Question: any Linux distros ('cause it's free, and Win98 is unacceptable) would be installable in this situation, and how would I install them. Conditions are as follows:

1>No optical drive or removable media.
2>Does not support booting off of any kind of USB-attached media, excepting floppies....which are covered by point 1.
3>System requirements are equal to or less than Xubuntu; would work well on a 400Mhz Celeron w/ 128KB L2 and 128MB of RAM, and a 6GB HDD (500MB of which is allocated for Swap-space).
4>Either don't require advanced knowledge of linux, or such knowledge is readily expounded.

Thanks for any help, looking forward to responses.
 
That isn't an option. What I do have: an IDE(full-size and mini)/SATA to USB adapter. So, I can do external CD-ROM, but it won't boot thereto. No floppy though.

Though, using info from that link, I might be able to install a copy of Vector Linux or Xubuntu and reconfigure the graphics adapter. Though, I'd still appreciate thoughts on a version of Linux (other than DSL) that would run usably on this laptop.
 
Would that such simplicity would function! No success at all, I have already tried this with a few different ISO images. I have even tried using the contents of a boot-floppy, but no such luck.
 
I tried this with Xubuntu (Ubuntu with XFCE vs. Gnome), and the xServer failed to start.

If anyone could walk me through changing the configuration files in full console mode, then installing on a discrete system might work.

As an aside, it might have been caused by my uber-flaky PATA to USB adapter

--EDIT--
Hey, would I be able to extract the contents of a floppy boot-image to the root of the disk, and use that to boot off of a CD-ROM drive connected via USB adapter?
 
Desperate measure - get a spare PC or borrow one or something, start the OS installation with your HD in there, then when it stops copying files and is ready to reboot, kill power, yoink the drive and stick it in the machine you want to run the OS on.

 
I can't help with the installation, but give PuppyLinux a look. I'm going to install it on an old 200mhz Pentium in the next week or so, but I've been quite impressed checking it on a vm in my main box.
 
About the PuppyLinux thing, I really dislike the interface. The same goes for DSL, but DSL automatically reconfigures itself, so it is easier to install.

As for the spare PC comment, most Linux installers do everything in one go. They meld the whole installation together, so there is no intercession where you can swap the HDD into another PC. An irony, as I am sure that was intended as a feature.

Though, when you think about it, the Windows installation intercession has got to be pretty convenient for mass installs, where you can ghost the HDD halfway through.

I haven't gotten a chance to get home and try that reconfigure command (I've been at school all day long), but I'll give it a shot.

--------
Quick question anybody, how does Linux Mint -fluxbox or nUbuntu handle?
 
As for the spare PC comment, most Linux installers do everything in one go. They meld the whole installation together, so there is no intercession where you can swap the HDD into another PC. An irony, as I am sure that was intended as a feature.
Click to expand...

It really doesn't matter though, as long as you use a persistent name (i.e. UUID or filesystem label) or LVM to identify the filesystems and the hard disk controller in the new machine is supported it should load the right drivers and boot fine. The only thing you'll probably have to fix is Xorg.
 
Omigosh, I finally got around to trying that, and it worked like a charm. I feel like such a noob....

Now I just have to wait for my new adapter, as the one I am using now is more trouble than it's worth.
 
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