[Dclug] installing puppy linux on a 486

[craig]

Ah yes, the bad good old days.  circa that time I had similar 
experiences with a 486sx (16MHz 20MB(16added$$$))and slackware,... it 
makes it strange when hearing complaints about the state of Linux on the 
desktop.  Today is a shangri-la by comparison, but then again 
openwindows and fvwm were a pretty awesome OS/2 workplace shell replacement.


Ali Ziad wrote:
> This takes me back to 1998 when I was dual booting linux and nt on a 
> 486. I would never try it now ;) Its not worth the hassle considering 
> you can get a newer pentium class machine with a more capable bios for 
> dirt cheap if not free.
> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.setup/browse_thread/thread/6dc224b8398617ab/cfbea17ba8f526e1?hl=en&lnk=st&q=abu+zayyad+linux#cfbea17ba8f526e1 
> <http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.setup/browse_thread/thread/6dc224b8398617ab/cfbea17ba8f526e1?hl=en&lnk=st&q=abu+zayyad+linux#cfbea17ba8f526e1>
>  
> -ali
> 
> On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 6:57 PM, craig <craig at zenzic.net 
> <mailto:craig at zenzic.net>> wrote:
> 
>     Phil:
> 
>     I once used a boot floppy image for debian called *sbm.bin*.
>     The purpose of this floppy is to circumvent an old bios, and allows
>     you to use the install cdrom.
>     You boot the floppy and then it looks for the CD and somehow boots
>     the cdrom(its been awhile so I'll just wave my hands here).
>     Although I used this on debian I think it doesn't care what
>     installer is on the cdrom so it might work on puppy linux.
>     I used this for some old compaq and toshiba laptops and it used to
>     work pretty consistently.  This boils down to some simple steps.
>     a)down load sbm.bin
>     b)stick blank floppy in floppy drive, and try to use a relatively
>     fresh one.
>     c)* dd if=sbm.bin of=/dev/fd0                             *<--- this
>     writes the image to the floppy*
>     *d)stick floppy and puppy cdrom in target machine
>     e)if it doesn't work, try the process with a different blank floppy
>     I had some subtly damaged ones not work.
> 
>     Here is a pretty good link...
>     http://www.infodrom.org/Debian/doc/maint/Maintenance-install.html
> 
>     "If still doesn't work because your BIOS may be too old and may not
>     support ISOLINUX you write the Smart Boot Manager image sbm.bin to a
>     floppy which you can find in the install directory. This will boot
>     an OS independent boot manager. To write the image to a floppy *use
>     dd if=sbm.bin of=/dev/fd0 *(for GNU/Linux or Unix) or use rawrite
>     (for MS-DOS). "
> 
> 
>     The other thing I would consider would be looking around for a
>     netboot floppy that will work with puppy linux, (if the bios doesn't
>     cdrom boot, the bios probably won't pxeboot either).  But this
>     requires a dhcp and tftp setup on another networked machine(to serve
>     the images) AND the puppy boot images AND working network on the
>     targeted machine. (all definitely complicated if you haven't done it
>     or seen it done)
>     All the netboot type installing that I've been doing lately has been
>     using BIOSes that support pxeboot, so I'm not very up on the
>     nonpxeboot options currently available,... but debian used to have a
>     floppy for netbooting/netinstalling and I came across (just now)
>     this thing called UNetbootin (- The Universal Netboot Installer)
>     that seems to serve the same purpose as the netboot floppy but with
>     the expressed purpose of supporting a variety of distributions,
>     including puppy linux.
>     http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/#faq
>     But I haven't tried this so....?  let us know if you try it.
> 
>     So you might try some of those things to solve your problem, if it
>     were me, I'd definitely try the SBM boot floppy before trying the
>     netboot/netinstall option.  And like someone on the list said, a
>     floppy puppy installer would be the easiest approach if such a thing
>     exists.
> 
>     Craig
> 
> 
>     Phil Shapiro wrote:
>>        hi group,
>>
>>            a friend of mine gave me his 486 computer with windows 95 on it.  i'd
>>     love to install puppy linux on it, but ran into a hitch.  when i reach the bios,
>>     it says i can choose a boot sequence of Drive A and then Drive C, or Drive C and
>>     then Drive A.
>>
>>              nowhere is the CD-ROM drive mentioned. (which is Drive D, which I can
>>     see from the desktop of the computer by double clicking on the Computer icon.)
>>
>>               any ideas of what to try? this computer is an AT&T computer. i reached
>>     the bios with an F1 key. 
>>
>>                i'm happy to drive this over to anyone's house who'd like a shot at
>>     getting puppy linux installed.  when that's done, i'll be making a video for
>>     youtube showing puppy linux in action, surfing the web with seamonkey.
>>
>>                   phil
>>
>>
>>                
>>       
> 
> 
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