installing from an external cd rom

[derwhite2485]

I have a P1 laptop with a 3 gig hard drive and I would like to install linux on it but I cant figure out how to get the parralel external cd rom to read after I boot from a floppy anyone know how to do this ?

[scott_R]

I think that's possible, but you'll need to boot into dos or windows to start the drivers that turn the cdrom on, then run the dos/windows based program to get linux to start up. It's been so long since I've done this that I can't remember what the exact program is, but if you search around google or your documentation a little, you'll probably find something that helps a little more.

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

What is the model of cdrom?

Certain parallel port CDROMs use specific drivers. What you need to do is boot Linux from the install floppy, and then load these modules one at a time with modprobe:


parport
paride

Once you figure out what model the CD-ROM is, you should do a Google for Linux (http://www.google.com/linux) search using the name of the CD-ROM drive. You should be able to find the driver the CD-ROM uses. Mine, for instance, is an old BackPack CD-ROM, and it uses the bpck module.

Once you get all of that done, the CD device will probably be /dev/pcd0