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botulism
n00b
Joined: 27 Oct 2003
Posts: 24
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 Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2003 12:54 am Post subject: probs with usb cd/dvd laptop install |
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i want to install gentoo linux on my sony pcg-505f laptop. i've got a sony mpd-ap20u usb cd-rw/dvd-rom, and a megahertz xj-10bt nic. there is a floppy drive on the sony. i also have a pc running on the same network. the pc is running windows xp. it has no floppy drive. the sony bios does not support boot from usb.
seems that the suggested alternate install procedures are (1) boot from floppy, load the cd-rom drivers and then boot from the cd and (2) boot from floppy, load network drivers and then boot from network. i think neither will work in my case because (1) the cd-rom is usb and (2) i have no other linux computer on the network to serve the boot cd via tftp.
to make matters worse, the sony is running windows 2000 with an all ntfs -formatted hard drive.
i would like to end up with a clean install of the latest gentoo linux stripped of all unnecessary bits for maximum speed on this ancient machine.
i think i can get some sort of freeware tftp server for the xp machine, but would i have to use the gentoo 1.2 LiveCD then? is there any disadvantage to using that distribution in terms of support for my usb cd dirve?
alternatively, could i somehow use the loopback device to boot from an iso image on the laptop hard drive? how exactly would i do that? does the ntfs make that impossible? if i did that would i then be precluded from repartitioning and reformatting the entire hard drive for the new os?
note: after i posted this i realized that the tftp serving is hardly a problem, so i decided to download the gentoo 1.2 liveCD. Where is it? Doesn't seem to be available for download. So what's the deal? What should I do? |
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cyrillic
Watchman
Joined: 19 Feb 2003
Posts: 7313
Location: Groton, Massachusetts USA
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| Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 3:41 am Post subject: |
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| botulism wrote: | | note: after i posted this i realized that the tftp serving is hardly a problem, so i decided to download the gentoo 1.2 liveCD. Where is it? Doesn't seem to be available for download. So what's the deal? What should I do? |
You can find a Gentoo 1.2 CD here :
ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo/releases/build/1.2/gentoo-ix86-1.2.iso
It seems like a rather tricky installation you are attempting. Good luck, and let us know if it works (or if you need more help). |
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botulism
n00b
Joined: 27 Oct 2003
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 5:50 am Post subject: |
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ok. i burned a cd with that image and got my machine serving it with tftp no problem. seems i could use grub with network support to boot the image off of my tftp server. problem is now how to make a bootable grub floppy that will support my pcmcia network card.
there is a linux driver for my card (smc91c92_cs). dunno if that helps. sorry i'm a little new to this. |
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Installing Gentoo
