Linux on an ancient laptop w/ ONLY floppy drive?

[mage492]

Okay, here's the problem. I've got this laptop. It's an ancient Toshiba 486, with 12 Mb of RAM. I can use swap space to make up the difference, though.

Here's the problem...

It ONLY has a floppy drive. I've only found a few distros that use floppies. I've tried Tiny Linux, but it's far too stripped down. I need a distro with a reasonably attractive GUI (the one it has is ugly) and a GUI-based text editor (emacs is too complicated, even).

It's going to be used almost purely as a word-processing computer, for a friend of mine. All it'll be used for is working with word-processing documents and running a few shell scripts. It might also play Penguin Taipei, occasionally. ( http://www.delorie.com/store/ace/ ) I haven't broken down and put Windoze back on it, but I might have to...

Okay, what distro would you recommend for this? Would I be better off doing a Linux From Scratch, here? I already have Tiny Linux on it, so it wouldn't be a problem. If so, since I would have to compile the whole system, how long should I expect this to take?

Thanks in advance!

[mdwatts]

A popular question asked here at JustLinux of which you should not have a problem locating a few of the recent 'best distro for old hardware' threads.

http://delilinux.berlios.de/

http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/

[mdwatts]

This is one of those threads (http://justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106529) from earlier today of which contains some of the suggestions I already posted.

The http://old.lwn.net/Distributions/ should be very helpful.

[mage492]

My apologies. My main issue is the lack of a floppy drive, which I didn't believe was covered, anywhere.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by mage492
My apologies. My main issue is the lack of a floppy drive, which I didn't believe was covered, anywhere.

No problem at all. No floppy drive? I though you ONLY had a floppy drive.

Debian and Slackware can also be installed by floppies.

< searching keywords >

old hardware 486 floppy distro

[irlandes]

Originally posted by mage492
My apologies. My main issue is the lack of a floppy drive, which I didn't believe was covered, anywhere.

Here is what you said in your original posting.

>>It ONLY has a floppy drive. I've only found a few distros that use floppies.

Sorry, but this seems to be other than a mistake.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by mage492
Would I be better off doing a Linux From Scratch, here? I already have Tiny Linux on it, so it wouldn't be a problem. If so, since I would have to compile the whole system, how long should I expect this to take?


From what I know about LFS is you need to have a already installed distro in order to build LFS unless it has changed since I last read some of their documentation.

[drummerboy195]

there is a howto out there somewhere that covers how to install linux on a laptop with a floppy and 4 megs of ram. its and actual HOWTO, and can be found at www.linux.org, following the appropiate links.

[mage492]

Okay, this thread seems to have caused a few problems, for which I am sorry.

Yes, that was a typo in my second post. I did mean to say lack of a cd-rom drive.

Also, I hadn't found any posts about old computers that only used floppies (I did search, before making another distro-thread.). I must not have used the right collection of keywords. The links that were posted by mdwatts and drummerboy195 were very helpful.

Now, if I may request that this thread be locked, since it seems to be adding no value to the site (my fault), and we can get on with things. Once again, my apologies. Repetitive threads annoy me, too.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by mage492
Okay, this thread seems to have caused a few problems, for which I am sorry.

Now, if I may request that this thread be locked, since it seems to be adding no value to the site (my fault), and we can get on with things. Once again, my apologies. Repetitive threads annoy me, too.

We were only giving you suggestions to try some of the threads that have already been posted on the subject.

The links we provided should be exactly what you are looking for. Let us know how you do.

[CaptainPinko]

uhm i don't know if i'm being CaptainObvious here but throw a NIC in there and then download a distro for another comp? The min you would need is a cross-over cable (like $14 bucks) or you can you a patch cable if you have a hub/switch. i'm sure that even if all you had was this laptop you could find people to lend you the stuff you need for long enough to get your stuff together. now i don't know much about distros but Vector Linux seems to be pretty light, or brew somethign yup yourself using Debian et al. if you don't know what wm to pick just randomly type some letters and then "box" and use that one until you find something better. for starters openbox (http://openbox.org/) blackbox (http://blackboxwm.sourceforge.net/) fluxbox (http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/) and jsut to break the pattern (sand to porve that Linux is really about choice... you can choose a lightweight de not called *box...)enlightenment (http://www.enlightenment.org/pages/main.html) TA-DAA!


----

on second thought you could probably do a gentoo install if you used another computer to do all the compilation for you...

[mage492]

The Gentoo idea sounds really interesting. I'm wondering, however, if an external cd-rom can be used for an installation? I'm not sure if I could get my hands on one, but if I could... Otherwise, I didn't see an installation floppy image on their site.

I'd probably just compile it right on the laptop, anyway. I have no real shortage of time. (How long would that be, do you think? A month or two?)

Actually, I currently have Tiny Linux on it. I think that (if I put something like *box or IceWM on it) it might work as-is... I've put more thought into it, and I'm thinking that might just work best. (Now, to go back and install gcc...)

Thanks for the help, and the links were VERY helpful, as well! (I'll be sure to try more combinations of keywords, from now on.)

I'll let you know how it goes!

[CaptainPinko]

you'll probably have to go through compiling your kernel a couple of times before you get it right so you better have A LOT of time, nick and a nother box is still my recommendation

[mage492]

As for the nic, it's already got one in it, so it can access the rest of the network. (I was amazed. Didn't have to recompile the kernel or anything!) The problem is that non-Apple computers seem to come and go quickly, here. We've only got two Intels that stick around (and the other, I'm not to touch under penalty of death).

In order to do it on another computer and transfer it over, how would that work? I know you can compile for different hardware than the computer you're currently using, but how do you tell it to put the finished system on another computer? Would you have to do it with build targets, or something? I mean, with normal software, you could just copy it over, but when it's an already installed distro...

I won't really have any time to work on it, today, but I plan on doing some heavy installing, tomorrow (either Gentoo or individual programs)!