Gentoo *needs* a floppy!

woodwizzle · Apprentice Joined: 30 Nov 2003 Posts: 225

Am I the only one who wishes it was possible to install gentoo on systems without cdrom drives, but rather with a floppy and a net connection. It might even bring in some more users!

teknomage1 · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 4:11 am Post subject:

you can install it from any floppy based linux environment. Nobody said you have to use the live cd. Just find a floppy distro that contains the chroot command.

woodwizzle · Apprentice Joined: 30 Nov 2003 Posts: 225

But wouldn't an official gentoo floppy install be nicer and more convinient?

oniq · Guru Joined: 02 Sep 2002 Posts: 597 Location: Connecticut

If your system doesn't have a cdrom drive, its time to upgrade :lol:

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Clete2 · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 4:29 am Post subject:

Well, it's one less CD burned.
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nerdbert · l33t Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 981 Location: Berlin

Snugglycat · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 2:43 pm Post subject:

If Gentoo really needed a floppy install, then I'm sure that one of the devs would have stepped up and provided one.

danbond_98 · n00b Joined: 23 Aug 2003 Posts: 8 Location: Exeter, UK

guess it couldn't hurt to produce a basic floppy and some instructions, might help those of us with not a clue, remember we were all clueless once, and some of us still need help.

TJNII · l33t Joined: 09 Nov 2003 Posts: 637 Location: for(;;);

There are some good posts on how to install without a CDROM. I used them when I tried to install Gentoo on an old p100 I use as a server. (4 hard-drives - No CD) They were mainly directed at Loadlin, not floppies, though.

[Edited] Install without CDROM. Duh, Tom. I need to proofread my posts better. [/edited]
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numerodix · l33t Joined: 18 Jul 2002 Posts: 743 Location: nl.eu

TheCoop · Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 11:10 pm Post subject:

all you really need is a floppy that can connect through a cable modem, fs drivers and you can download the stage from the internet...
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Moled · l33t Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 635

A while ago I know:

sparks · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 2:33 am Post subject:

I removed any presence of a floppy from my system two years ago...they are dinosaurs! To the floppy I say Die! Die!
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Moled · l33t Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Posts: 635

how do you update your bios etc?

pascalbrax · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 7:40 am Post subject:

meta · n00b Joined: 22 Aug 2003 Posts: 45 Location: Cambridge MA

Floppy drives are SO last century. When I built my current Gentoo box I didn't even buy a floppy drive. In fact, I went to great pains to get a case that didn't have a slot for one, because I didn't want a useless empty slot on the front. Now that you can get USB memory keys for $20, there's really no excuse for floppy drives.

sparks · Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 3:09 pm Post subject:

Rhysem · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 18 Dec 2002 Posts: 76

None of my 4 systems have a floppy. 3 desktop systems (2 linux, work/home, 1 windows, and 1 laptop).

Floppy is dead. 1.4 megs is too small to be useful these days.

woodwizzle · Apprentice Joined: 30 Nov 2003 Posts: 225

I disagree. First off, not all systems are systems for "these days". I think Gentoo is a great distro for older systems because you can squeeze out at least a little extra performance from them, and you can keep the amount of space the OS takes up to a minimum. As for USB drives, you can't boot from them so they're not as useful as rescue/boot/install floppy when you need that functionality. Also, not all older systems can run drives. For example a system with no secondary IDE and a full primary IDE would have no room for a CD-rom to be installed.

P.S. It wasn't my intention to start a discussion on the usefulness of floppies in general, I just believe that a gentoo boot floppy would be a invaluable resource to the gentoo community.

_dook_master_ · Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2004 11:26 pm Post subject:

but jeez man, how old of a computer has no CD drive? my dads P100 has a 4x CD drive for christs sake.

Berni · n00b Joined: 25 Aug 2003 Posts: 71

Some Subnotebooks don't include a CD-ROM-drive (only in docking-station which are quite expensive). However, a Floppy-Drive with a special cable is almost always included (in older models; new ones like the Thinkpad x31/x41 don't have any drive in standard configuration)...if you look for an example: Thinkpad 570 (E).

nerdbert · l33t Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Posts: 981 Location: Berlin

I guess we all know how to create a bootable cd/floppy. So what's the point?
Is there a need to discuss this?
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sparks · Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2004 5:19 am Post subject: