Very old laptop with only a floppy drive and zip drive

[Botkiller]

Hi all,

I have an old 486 laptop with only about 100MB harddisk space. I want to try and get a small linux distro on it, but the problem is, it only has a floppy drive and a zip drive, I tried mulinux, but somehow it didn't make it through the installation process.

Do any of you have a sollution for me? Because I can't find anything else after months of searching the internet.

[TheCotMan]

Hi all,

I have an old 486 laptop with only about 100MB harddisk space. I want to try and get a small linux distro on it, but the problem is, it only has a floppy drive and a zip drive, I tried mulinux, but somehow it didn't make it through the installation process.

Do any of you have a sollution for me? Because I can't find anything else after months of searching the internet.

Google: bootable linux on a zip disk

From there, I see something about "puppy Linux" and a web page someone put up in 1998 about how to install an older copy of slackware onto a 486 machine with 120MB HD.
And there was also a howto for buiilding a bootable Linux Zip Disk.

It would seem an older release of Slackware, or Debian might work too, andpages would exist for them too.

After months of searching, what else did you find and test on your own?

[Botkiller]

Google: bootable linux on a zip disk

From there, I see something about "puppy Linux" and a web page someone put up in 1998 about how to install an older copy of slackware onto a 486 machine with 120MB HD.
And there was also a howto for buiilding a bootable Linux Zip Disk.

It would seem an older release of Slackware, or Debian might work too, andpages would exist for them too.

After months of searching, what else did you find and test on your own?

Most I came up with were OR to big OR stopped before or during install, don't remember the names very well, but I believe also something like babylinux and other stuff. Been a while since I looked, had lots of time back then but right busy with work and school. I'll go try puppy linux asap.

[Thorn]

If you have a Parallel (printer) port, the 'Parallel Line Interface Protocol' installation is also a possiblity. For example: http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO...all-HOWTO.html

Google "plip" for more.

[skroo]

It would seem an older release of Slackware, or Debian might work too, andpages would exist for them too.

Funnily enough, even current Slackware releases still support ZIP Disk installations. IIRC they need around 150MB to install on, and the files should be found in the /zipslack directory on the first install CD. I'm actually using Zipslack as a roadmap for the second iteration of my MAME cabinet: since the hardware's never going to change until the next rebuild, the idea is to have a similar bootable-from-disk minimal distribution rather than the more bloated one on there now.

[xwred1]

You could always pull the hd, put it in another machine, and install a tiny Linux distro from there.

[noid]

Another option is to do a network build. Get your hands on a PCMCIA NIC or one of those Xircom parallel port NICs and go from there. Thats how we used to do it 'back in the day'.

[Botkiller]

thanks for the tips guys, I'll let you all know how it'll turn out :D

Does anyone know if WiFi cards are supported on a 486?

[Cowthief]

Older laptops.

Hello.

The first thing I would do is get a bigger harddrive, how much can something like a 2 gig cost now?
While you are ou shopping, buy a 2.5" to 3.5" adaptor, be SURE you know where pin 1 is, on BOTH sides!
Now, take your new harddrive and adaptor and connect this to your desktop.
Install all of your files to the laptop drive from the desktop, be sure that you install the drivers you will need for the laptop at this time.
Now, transfer the "new" laptop drive to its new home and you are all set.
You have to be sure of the height of the replacement drive, make sure it will fit.

[skroo]

The first thing I would do is get a bigger harddrive, how much can something like a 2 gig cost now?

Probably $0 if he asks around. Unfortunately, that machine is old enough that the BIOS may not be able to handle anything larger than 520MB.

[TheCotMan]

thanks for the tips guys, I'll let you all know how it'll turn out :D

Does anyone know if WiFi cards are supported on a 486?

The answer is yes, but not all. To understand this, check out google.

Remember, it is good to do research on your own. What does google say? I'll give you some search terms:
486 pcmcia-cs 16bit 32bit cardbus.

Good luck
[Added:]
(It is good to offer proof of your own effort when asking questions. We have a /dev/null section full of threads where people did not do this.)

[converge]

I know for a fact that there are wifi cards that will work, the first wifi I ever used went into a 486 toshiba ... I doubled its memory for $4 with an additional 4mb stick from eBay back ages ago (I would guess between 1998/1999 by my work history, right around the time they started pumping out cards on the agreed standard). The card was lucent branded, more popularly know as other hermes-based brands of Orinoco, Avaya, Agere, et al.

[Botkiller]

Hey all, I want to thank you all for the help and the tips, I have it running now I found a 250MB harddrive in my components box and got it working with puppylinux.

Thanks all, and sorry that I didn't inlcude my searchresults, will think about that next time.

[Thorn]

Just out of curiousity, what method did you use to load it?

By the way, just to reiterate what converge said. A ORiNOCO (or other Hermes chipset-based) wireless card will with a 486.

[converge]

35 floppy images, one floppy disk ... whats the count boys?