Slackware USB CD-Rom Install?

[Xaul]

I recently got a IBM Thinkpad 240 and i'm trying to dual-boot windows 2000 and Slackeware. I have a floppy drive that I can boot from and a USB CD-Rom(causes alot of troubles, read on). My bios doesnt support usb boot or cd-rom. The only way that I was able to install 2000 was to:

First make a modified win98 boot disk with USB support and install win 98 from the cd.

Then copy the windows 2000 I386 folder onto the hard drive.

The reason I had to copy the I386 folder to the hard drive was because when windows 2000 was installing from the cd-rom and it rebooted to complete the install, the usb drivers are not present. Hence, copying the install folder to the hard drive.

OK, basically is there a way to make a boot disk for Slack with usb drivers that would reconize my cd-rom drive to install my 8.1 iso disc I made?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, After I get Slack installed, I have found many sites on linux-on-laptops.com that have the info for configuring everything on the laptop.

Is this a possible option?
Originally posted by ph34r
You need a DOS bootable disk that has CDROM support/drivers on it, a copy of loadlin.exe on it, the appropriate kernel image from the install cd, and the path to the initrd file on the cd as well. Then you can use loadlin like

loadlin kernel_image_filename initrd=d:\path\to\initrd

The kernel image can be on the cd as well, you just need to supply the path to it the same way you do for the initrd file.


And that should be it.

[JohnT]

Not having tried the above I can't say whether it will work, but it does sound like a viable option. I'm assuming you don't have the "extras" cd, so go to this page and view the "README.TXT". That should have you on your way. You might have to try more than one.

http://www.slackware.at/data/slackware-8.1/bootdisks/

[Xaul]

Ok, I used the usb.i boot disk and it detected my usb cd-rom, I got the following after the auto detection (last 2 lines of detection):

hub.c USB new device connect on bus1/1, assigned device number 2
usb.c USB device 2 (vend/pro 0x4b3/0x4427) is not claimed by any active driver

Which rootdisk should I use to start up the iso install or can I? Thanks again for the help

[JohnT]

Did you try passing the parameters as mentioned in the other post...at the boot prompt?

[Xaul]

I'm kind of confused, do you by, at the boot promt type :
C:\loadlin f:\kernels\bare.i\bzimage initrd=f:\isolinux\initrd

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Xaul
I'm kind of confused, do you by, at the boot promt type :
C:\loadlin f:\kernels\bare.i\bzimage initrd=f:\isolinux\initrd

Couldn't you just boot from the first bootdisk image and when prompted if you have any modules diskettes, insert the one containing the USB drivers and that should detect your external USB cdrom and start the install from CD?

[JohnT]

This is the best solution I could find for ya......

http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/index.php3?body=about.html

According to the doc's you might need this compression lib

http://www.oberhumer.com/opensource/ucl/

[Xaul]

Originally posted by mdwatts
Couldn't you just boot from the first bootdisk image and when prompted if you have any modules diskettes, insert the one containing the USB drivers and that should detect your external USB cdrom and start the install from CD?

When does the "insert modules diskettes" show up, I have'nt seen it? The usb drivers are on the win98 boot disk, does that matter and would it reconize them?

Let me make sure I'm on the same page as you. First boot with the bare.i bootdisk and then it should ask if I have any "modules diskettes"?

Originally posted by JohnT This is the best solution I could find for ya......

http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/index.php3?body=about.html

I tried using it for about an hour with no luck, thanks for the help though:)

Can something I do something similar like with debian, If your system can't boot directly from CD-ROM, you can run E:\install\boot.bat under DOS (replace E: with whatever drive letter DOS assigns to your CD-ROM drive) to start the installation process. Thanks again for the help and suggestions!:)

[JohnT]

I tried using it for about an hour with no luck, thanks for the help though Well that tells me all I need to know.:D

[Xaul]

Well, I still havent found a working way to install Slack from the cd and tried debian with the f:\install\boot.bat option and i just get santax errors. I'm not about to give up yet (I still have some hair left on my head:D ) Anyways, I found this site (http://www.thpoon.com/~antipode/comp/tp240/) that a guy tells how he did it and I'm not fully understand what he did. Can some one enlighten me? My current HDD setup is just Win2000 on a 6GB partition,12 GB HDD total. and I'm wanting to put linux on the rest. Thanks for the help.:)

[JohnT]

To install Slackware Linux 7.0, I downloaded the minimum needed distribution files into a directory of the first (FAT) partition, keeping their hierarchical structure. Just read installation instructions for Slackware --- they describe what you will have to do quite well, so I will only mention TP240-specific things. Slackware's installation system can mount MS-DOS file systems. What don't you understand.....it seems fairly straight-forward.:confused:

[Xaul]

Here's the plan, I guess. I'll use partition magic to partition the rest of my hard drive with dos format. Place the Slack files in a directory on my C: (Primary), start the install if Slack and when it ask where the files are, point them to the directory on C:? Is this correct? I hate to ask but, can you break it down for me, on the install set-up? The only other time I installed a distro was on my old computer that could boot from the cd and I used Mandrake to make most of the decisions.

[JohnT]

Quote from Slack install: Select the source media for the Slackware Linux distribution. You can install from another hard disk partition, floppy disks, an NFS mount, a pre-mounted directory, or from CD-ROM.

The only thing you have to remember keeping the hierarchical structure when placing the files on your DOS partition in preparation for install. The install program expects things to be in a certain place when it looks for them.
Here's your guide:
http://www.slackware.com/install/


(So you don't get it right the first time....no big deal. You can't learn by doing it right every time)

[Xaul]

I finally got Slack installed, I messed some stuff up but it works!! Now that I know what to do, I'm goin to reinstall it proper. Thanks for all the help.:D :D :D

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Xaul
I finally got Slack installed, I messed some stuff up but it works!! Now that I know what to do, I'm goin to reinstall it proper. Thanks for all the help.:D :D :D Thats the spirit....learn from each install...good work.....not an easy install to do, your to be congratulated. Welcome to Slack.:D