Re: Laptop FAQ // Debian on Floppys??

[Adam Shand <larry@alaska.net>]

> I'm new to the Linux World and have been trying to install linux on it
> for about a week now, I think that it is my cdrom drive, I have made
> discs for Debian but I was wondoring if there was a way I could install
> Debian via only floppys. I know it'll take five million floppys, but so
> does windows and I know Linux is better that Win95.

yep it's not to hard to do, it takes just under ten disks.  in fact i just
installed debian this way on my old thinkpad 755cx (no cdrom).

go to: ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/disks-i386/current/

you need to make disks for all of these:

base14-1.bin
base14-2.bin
base14-3.bin
base14-4.bin
base14-5.bin
base14-6.bin
base14-7.bin 
drv1440.bin
resc1440.bin	(depending on your laptop you might need resc1440-safe.bin
		or resc1440tecra-safe.bin instead.  i've never needed them
		so i don't know much about them, but other have worse luck.)
root.bin 

if you already have a linux box somewhere you can make these by issuing the
command:

# cp image.bin /dev/fd0

if you only have a dos/windows box you also need the utility rawrite.exe
which can be found at the same place.  just run it and it will walk you
through making each disk.

boot off of the rescue disk and you get walked through the install just like
a cdrom.  once you finish you should be able to get support for networking
and do the rest with apt.

if yourr laptop pcmcia stuff is cardbus then it's a little harder.  you need
the pcmcia stuff from unstable which requires glibc2.1 which you'll have to
download and install by hand before you can upgrade, it's easy but a pain.

hope this helps,
adam.