Re: tlug: Giving an old pc a new purpose in life?

[John Seebach <jseebach@example.com>]

On Mon, Sep 13, 1999 at 11:45:07PM +0900, Jonathan Q wrote:

> Yeah, the floppy problem sure does add a twist.  If you have/get/can
> borrow a supported PCMCIA SCSI card and a drive, I think (someone please
> confirm this) you can use a bootable CD-ROM if your BIOS supports that
> (it may not, considering its age; fire it up and see if the BIOS has a
> boot sequence option that includes CDROM).

Nope. I'd already checked that one. 

> If you can't boot a CDROM, you may be able to start the install using
> the loadlin utility to boot Linux from Windows, but I don't know if you
> can use it to do a network install or not.  If you can, loadlin, a
> PCMCIA network card, and a local box with the Linux CD NFS mounted or
> set for anon ftp will do the job.

That's what I'm hoping to do, until I lost the floppy cable. I've been
halfheartedly looking for a replacement for a while now with no luck --
I'll check out those junk shops you mentioned (where are they?) 

Although part of me (clearly, the part that has way too much free time on
my hands) wants to see if I can figure out a way to do it without a floppy. 

Oh, and I think I want to try Green Frog, if it can handle a NFS install. I
once installed Windows 95 and SCO OpenServer (separate machines) entirely
from floppy in the space of two weeks at an old job, and I'd rather spend
eternity listening to Enka than touch that many floppies again. (My
apologies to you Mori Shinichi fans out there...)

> Anybody wanna try installing Linux on John's notebook at the nomikai if
> he can come up with a floppy cable by Friday?  :-)

If I can come up with a floppy cable, I'll bring it. The bigger problem is
getting to Tokyo, although I'd like to make it up for one of the meetings
if I can one of these days.

Thanks for the advice. 

anybody have any ideas of what I can use the little bugger for once I *do*
stuff linux into it?

john
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