Re: Prospective Newbie
On Thu, Jan 13, 2000 at 09:15:15AM -0500, Charles O. Hartman wrote:
>
> I'd like to install Linux (dip toe in water!) on an ancient Zeos machine
> (AMD 386DX, 6Mb RAM, 120Mb disk). However, this machine has no CD drive,
> and no net connection yet.
>
> 1) Is it reasonable to try to install a beginner's system on this
> machine from floppies?
Yes, but see below.
> 2) Is there a way to do so with only a Mac connection to the net for
> downloading the disk images? (The problem: when a Mac writes or even
> reads an "IBM" floppy, it puts on a couple of hidden files that, though
> just 1k, make a file like "base14-1.bin" not fit.)
This probably won't work. There might be a Mac equivalent of the DOS
rawrite.exe, but don't bother. Instead, just use the 1.2 meg disk
images. From a Mac, you probably can't make them bootable, but you
can copy them to 1.44 meg disks, then copy the images to the DOS
partition on your Zeos and install from there. There's an excellent
Installation Guide on the Debian web site that will help you.
Note that with a 120 meg hard drive, you will be *extremely* limited
in what you can install, particularly if you have to leave a DOS
partition in place to install from. Can you network the Mac and PC
together so the 386 can use some of the Mac's drive space?
> 3) If the floppy idea is crazy, should I pay MEI-Micro $25 for an EIDE
> controller and $40 for a CD drive?
If you plan to use the system for anything beyond very basic tasks
(e.g. a router) I would advise not only the CD-ROM, but a bigger hard
drive. As an alternative, again, you could network it to the Mac for
storage and installs and just use the HD for booting and maybe swap.
--
Carl Fink carlf@dm.net
Manager, Dueling Modems Computer Forum
<http://dm.net>
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