Am I stuck?....

[rick420]

I just got me a labtop, a IBM Thinkpad 760xl, and I want to put Linux on it. The problem is that I have no OS currently installed ( it has basic dos--io.sys, msdos.sys, command.com) so I cant use the internal CD drive. It didnt come w/ a floppy drive, so what can I do? The BIOS is old and doesnt support booting up to a CD. Any help would be great, I'm so damn annyoed right now.... :mad: :mad:

[camelrider]

does you DOS include ms-cdex and whatever other stuff (it's been a while) DOS needs to allow you to read from cd-rom? If so, you could boot to dos and then install from cd-rom.
Not having a floppy drive must really suck!
:(

[rick420]

Nah, nothing at all....Am I gonna have to find a floppy?

[Strike]

Yeah, you need installation floppies. Most distros have them freely available on the web somewhere.

[FoBoT]

you could pull the hd out, use a 2.5" to 3.5" converter (http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=205-1991) for $4 to put it into a desktop as a second/third drive
then partition/format the drive
put a dos partition on the front
then um,...
make it bootable, and copy the files for debian and do a boot from a dos partition install (http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch-rescue-boot.en.html#s-install-drive)

maybe?

[ 18 May 2001: Message edited by: FoBoT ]

[-sureshot-]

i would just get a floppy drive, they shouldn't be too much, and they still have their uses...this probably won't be the only time you ever put an OS on this machine.

[rick420]

OK, when I get a floppy drive I have to take out the cd-rom. So I boot to a win98 disk and "start w/ CD-ROM support". Can I then pull the floppy drive out and put the CD drive in w/o turning off the labtop? I want to put Mandrake on it(the only distro I am comfortable with so far). Or do I gotta get some Mandrake floppies? The main problem I am thinking of is that I have to take out the cd drive to put the floppy drive in, will I be able to boot to the floppy drive, remove the drive, and put the CD drive in and use it? Thanks a lot guys

PS--I dont think I am quite ready for Debian yet.......

PPS--hmm, with that 2.5 to 3.5 convertor, could i just put it in my computer, format it, and install Linux on it there, then just throw it back in the labtop?

[ 18 May 2001: Message edited by: rick420 ]

[FoBoT]

um, check the ibm web site to see if that model is hot swappable flop->cd

good luck!!

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by rick420:
<STRONG>PPS--hmm, with that 2.5 to 3.5 convertor, could i just put it in my computer, format it, and install Linux on it there, then just throw it back in the labtop?
</STRONG>

maybe, i thought of that ,but wasn't sure
so i didn't want to suggest it

hmmm...
i just bought one of those converters for a guy at work, we just got a new eval laptop also (compaq)
i might be able to try that on monday, just to see if the theory is do-able
it would be interesting to know http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/cwm40.gif

[rick420]

This is from IBM in the manual for my labtop:
"The CD-ROM drive can be removed and replaced with the internal diskette drive supplied with the computer.

To install the diskette drive:
Note:
If you are using DOS or Windows, you can remove the CD-ROM drive without turning off the computer. Refer to the documents supplied with your operating systems. "

So, I guess I can hot swap them right? I found a floppy drive on ebay, and am waiting for it now.....Fobot, if you do that on Monday, let me know how it turns out...

[FoBoT]

sounds like a hot swapper to me

if the dude that owns the converter has it, i should be able to, things are a bit slow right now, and i am curious to see what it does, somebody here posted that they have a dual boot system, w2k / linux and changed out their mobo and vid card, and just moved the hd and both system detected all the new stuff and both came back up with no probs

[camelrider]

Aren't there some PCMCIA floppy drives out there? Of course it would have to be recognized by the BIOS in order to install an OS from it.

[element-x]

Install via NFS or Net Install.

End-of-Story :cool:

[rick420]

Install via NFS or Net Install.

I heard of net installs, but how would I do that w/ no OS installed to get to the net? Is there a way?

[ph34r]

I'd get a working Win95 boot floppy that has cdrom drivers, fdisk, format, and sys on it. Make a small 20mb or so partition, format it fat16, make it system, and copy the cdrom stuff to it. You can now boot to that dos partition, using the cd instead of teh floppy. Then install as you normally would, either leaving that dos partition, or converting it to ext2 and using it for /boot or maybe a swap partition.

[Muzzafarath]

http://home.planet.nl/~hkreb/tp760XL/Linux760XL.htm. Maybe it'll help you...

[rick420]

Thanks guys. I guess I will have to wait on that floppy drive to come and then I'll be set. Hopefully all will go well then....

[FoBoT]

i am pulling down mandrake 8 to take to work tomorrow, to see if the other works, just for my own knowledge ;)

if you have a floppy drive, then i think ph34r's idea is best

[rick420]

Yea Fobot, let me know if that works too. That would be good to know if I ever have a problem like this again. And yeah, I found a floppy drive, just gotta wait for it....

[FoBoT]

i got the 2.5" drive loaded with mandrake 8, the .iso i downloaded at home on my dsl was corrupted, had to re-pull it here at work
luckily i hit a fast ftp site, somewhere in france, got about 450kbps ;)
so now i am shutting down the desktop and will put the 2.5" drive into the laptop and see what happens :)

[FoBoT]

dude! :)
it pretty much worked
kudzu ran upon boot, since it detected different hardware
i had it remove the vid card, network card , sound card and stuff and i got into gnome! :)
i am trying to get the new laptop nic working so i can post from the laptop, but i don't have much time to monkey with it, if harddrake can't figure it out, then i will have to pull the drive and put it back to w2k pro

but it proves the theory! ;)

[FoBoT]

:o
there wasn't anything wrong with the nic, it was already working!
guess it was lucky the desktop was a compaq with a brandy new compaq nic

anyway, i am posting this from mozilla in mandrake 8 on a compaq laptop

if i can do it using this method, then almost any body can! ;)

i like linux! :)

so next time somebody doesn't have a floppy drive on a laptop, they could try this out

:D

BTW - just to clarify, i didn't fool with any of that dos partition stuff
i just connected the 2.5" drive to the primary ide controller on the desktop, then booted the mandrake 8 cdrom, and did a "recommended" install to the 10gb 2.5" laptop drive
after it finished, i rebooted a couple times to make sure it was a clean/good linux install
then shutdown the desktop, removed the 2.5" drive, took off the converter, put the 2.5" drive into the laptop and booted it up

quite easy actually :)

[ 21 May 2001: Message edited by: FoBoT ]

[rick420]

Hey, thats some good info for me to remember! I had never even heard of the 2.5" to 3.5" IDE convertor before you told me about it, thats a pretty simple way to get it working! I guess I could use a floppy drive sometime anyways, but thats a good thing to remember in the future! :)