Re: Windows 2000, Omnibook 500 Install Difficulties
Adam,
I just went through the same experience with my Omnibook 500. Win2K isn't the
problem. Its the nature of the USB floppy. The Debian boot disks for the Omnibook
require that you use the floppy in the docking station. I was able to do an install
of RedHat 7 using their net install floppy, since its all on one floppy and doesn't
require a floppy change to install. Ultimately, I bit the bullet and ordered the
docking station and cd-rom from Page Computer, and now have a working Win2K/Debian
dual-boot system.
I hope you didn't get rid of the first partition, Linux needs that for hibernation.
I was able to successfully resize the Win2k partition with a Partitionmagic boot disk,
for some reason I couldn't get Parted to work right with the USB floppy.
Someone else mentioned this page:
http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/projects/omnibook/details.php?MODEL=500
Chris's work on the Omnibook and Debian was one of the deciding factors in
chosing this laptop and this is a great resource.
Kent
On Tue, Jul 31, 2001 at 10:49:51AM -0400, Adam Kessel wrote:
> Hi All:
>
> It doesn't appear to me that anyone has addressed the difficulty of
> installing Debian on a laptop with no CD-ROM drive, external floppy, and
> Windows 2000 pre-installed (I've checked the lists archive and
> linux-laptop.net, so please point me in the right direction if I'm missing
> something).
>
> Although I can boot the Linux boot disk, when it asks for the Rescue disk,
> the system can never access the external (USB) floppy. I've tried different
> options, including floppy=omnibook, root=/dev/fp0, root=/dev/hda2 (with the
> linux bin files in the root directory of my hard drive), etc..
>
> Ideally, I'd just run loadlin under W2K. Unfortunately, W2K does not appear
> to have any DOS-mode option--if you boot 'safe mode with command prompt'
> you're still in the multitasking environment, and if you boot 'command
> recovery console' you can't execute any binaries.
>
> I sort of found a workaround by creating a Windows 98 boot disk (and running
> in DOS mode), and then was able to execute loadlin from the hard drive.
> This only worked, however, because my laptop came pre-installed with the
> hard drive formatted as FAT32. If it had been formatted NTFS, I would have
> been SOL, right?
>
> Once I booted into DOS mode I tried to split the partition with FIPS, but of
> course there is something towards the end of the disk restricting the size
> of the partition. I defragged in W2K, still no luck. I deleted the W2K
> swap file, still no luck (other than W2K would no longer boot).
>
> Ultimately, this isn't too much of a problem because I don't care about
> keeping W2K once Linux is up (at this point, I'm just deleting all the files
> other than the Debian install, hopefully this will free up the space needed
> to split the partition). But it seems like this is a very difficult
> procedure for a semi-novice who wanted to keep W2K on a laptop, particularly
> if their drive were formatted NTFS and/or they weren't luck enough to have a
> Windows 98 or earlier boot disk.
>
> I would be happy to help create a "Windows 2000 to Linux" mini-howto if we
> can figure this out and if one doesn't already exist. Amusingly, a google
> search for "windows 2000 linux install" gives you "How to Remove Linux and
> Install Windows 2000 or Windows NT on Your Computer" from
> support.microsoft.com.
>
> (who would want to do *that*?!?!?)
>
> --Adam
>
>
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