Etch Install Floppies from H.E.(DoubleHockeySticks)

[gnuoob]

ok i have an older laptop that i was able to install 3.1 on.

i had trouble installing a new kernel and after a few attempts at getting help (online/LUG's) they could not help me either.

they told me to bite it and wait for version 4 to come out.

*reason i wanted kernel was for 2.6 wifi support

so now i have downloaded the 5 floppies for a netinstall and the stupid thing wont boot off of them.

*****cdrom is dead and the floppy is an external usb native with laptop (toshiba).

can the prevous 3.1 be messing with my install? how can i fdisk the sucker and start over? i have made the 5 floppies both on two seperate machines downloading the disks both times to alieviate corruption issues.

any ideas?

[je_fro]

There's no way a previous install can interfere with booting off a floppy...that's your chief concern....you gotta find a way to do that. A BIOS setting perhaps? Can you boot other floppies? Are you making the floppies correctly?

[Syngin]

Wow! I didn't realize they still put out install floppies. I haven't used those since Potato came out.

[gnuoob]

There's no way a previous install can interfere with booting off a floppy...that's your chief concern....you gotta find a way to do that. A BIOS setting perhaps? Can you boot other floppies? Are you making the floppies correctly?

the bios is some freaky thing where it gives pictures of 5 boot options. i will try a 98 boot floppy tonight and fdisk it.

[gnuoob]

Wow! I didn't realize they still put out install floppies. I haven't used those since Potato came out.


gee did i forget to mention that its a 5.25 floppy?

nothing to see...move along.

[knute]

Let's see here... An older laptop that can only handle win3.1 and you are trying to use a usb device to boot it.

Dude, unless you do a MAJOR update to the bios, I doubt that it's possible, simply because when that machine was in use, there was no such thing as a usb device.

Only other thing that I could think of to do would be to set up a network boot from some other machine, and go that way... that or get another cdrom drive for it.

HTH

[IsaacKuo]

I think the "3.1" he's refering to is Debian 3.1, aka Debian Sarge.

[gnuoob]

Let's see here... An older laptop that can only handle win3.1 and you are trying to use a usb device to boot it.

Dude, unless you do a MAJOR update to the bios, I doubt that it's possible, simply because when that machine was in use, there was no such thing as a usb device.

Only other thing that I could think of to do would be to set up a network boot from some other machine, and go that way... that or get another cdrom drive for it.

HTH

laptop was built in 2002?
1.1 gig p3
512 ram

bios is just a graphic of 5 boot options only. nothing to enter/modify.

the usb/floppy came with it from the factory/native purchase just for these issues.

cdrom is dead and i dont want/have the $$$ to replace it.

[gnuoob]

I think the "3.1" he's refering to is Debian 3.1, aka Debian Sarge.

ahhh... :)

i didnt think it would have been that hard to figure out so i "unintentionally" skipped that detail.

my bad

i was thinking where i said i was trying to put the 2.6 kernel in it was obvious

[IsaacKuo]

Bear in mind that few of us are familiar with the numbering/naming schemes of more than two or three Linux distributions.