floppyless install

[jangnim]

I have a small laptop computer on which I want to install linux. I have no cdrom on this unit but have installed the slackware vsn 7 product to my g: partition. The unit has a USB port for a floppy.

First question at this point is, does Slackware, or anyone, make a version that will continue to see USB yet?

When I try to do the install from USB diskette, I get the 'bare.i' diskette to go fine, but when prompted to insert the 'color' root image, it fails to read the USB drive.

I know that this is because the 'bare.i' isn't smart enough to know the USB disk is present when it reaches the insert command.

Can anyone tell me how to install using the 'loadlin' command? Or some other method?

I have both a linux partition, and a linux swap partition on the harddrive. I just need to figure out enough to get things to boot. Once I have that I can perform a setup from the harddrive image, however I don't see any doco that will help me out.

Thanks in advance.

 

[horndude]

the bare.i kernel your using if it fits on a floppy wont have usb support, none of them do, the newer kernels are all too big to fit on floppy with much more than IDE and basic stuff supported unless its formatted for like 1.6mb(which is possible btw), but its unlikely the stock kernels on the setup disk have usb support

dunno what to tell you, I had a similar situation with an IBM laptop a llong time ago, ended up using an internal floppy drive, early IBM laptops had the hotswap for cdrom/floppy internally set by DOS.

go here: http://www.linuxquestions.org and ask around, good luck

 

[jangnim]

I think I mislead you. I mean I have a downloaded image of linux Slakware on a Windows partition. I guess my question is how do I get a ramdisk root writen to begin the install? The crazy thing is I have been working with loadlin to accomplish this and when I get to the end of what I get, I either get an error "Cannot find init console" with a panic or I get an error that the image I am using is outdated. Depending on the bzimage I use.

 

[horndude]

Well, have you tried putting the kernel image and boot up disk files on the hard drive too then using loadlin to boot em from the hard drive rather than floppy, cause thats your only other option.The boot kernels that go onto the install floppy DO NOT have usb support, hence your problem, so when that kernel gets loaded and takes over all of a sudden your floppy goes dead and you cant get the second disk loaded.

change loadlin to get those files from your hard drive, change the autoexec.bat file too if needed.

 

[jangnim]

I have the images on hard disk, but still have an issue with the loadlin. As I said, the load proceeds normally until it is ready to transfer control to the new console. I have been attempting at every level and believe me when I tell you, you have offered nothing new. Thanks anyway.

 

[horndude]

well your autoexec.bat file probably looks something like this right:

loadlin zimage=/dev/ram rw initrd=color.gz

supposed you changed it to something like:

loadlin zimage=/dev/ram rw initrd=g:\color.gz----->point to place on gartition where color.gz is

or maybe even load the whole thing that way, put it all there:load zimage and color.gz to the top of g:\ and have loadlin run from there, then USB wont even matter

loadlin is pretty flexible as I recall, and it gets run from a DOS batch file, so you should be able to load from anywhere DOS recognizes

 

[jangnim]

Okay, this is my batch file entry, which I created days ago.

loadlin zimage rw root=/dev/hda5 vga=3 initrd=color.gz load_ramdisk=1

This one returns the Panic error that tells me to use the init= parameter on the kernel. I don't quite know what to do with this one. I've also used this.

loadlin zimage rw root=/dev/ram vga=3 initrd=color.gz load_ramdisk=1

This one goes through the boot process and panics with a kernel cannot load console error.

Both bzimage and color.gz/text.gz are located in the same directory as the loadlin program. From all the doco I can find the stupid thing should be booting, but the errors are somewhat insurmountable at this time.

I have alternated between various versions of these two entries making minor changes. Nothings gets past the error codes previously described, although I have had boot processes that died on initial boot. This has been really frustrating. I do appreciate your input here.

 

[horndude]

ok try:
loadlin zimage root=/dev/ram rw initrd=color.gz or:
loadlin zimage ramdisk=4096 root=/dev/ram rw initrd=color.gz

use the zimage from bare.i
may also want to try the text.gz instead of color.gz, there is a text mode boot up option too

do that while in dos from the gartition prompt with zimage and color.gz located in that directory

if it gives you grief over not finding color.gz change the last part to:
initrd=g:\color.gz

see if that works, im real curious now,

you also may be having issues with your laptop to begn with, what kind is it?

doing this with some old laptops can be very tricky, some are easy, some just dont want linux on them
****************EDITED***************
Oh ya, just ran across an interesting thing, check your version of loadlin, make sure its a version ABOVE 1.6a or it wont work with the 2.2x series of kernels

Also, all this may end up being for naught, after doing some digging around, the kernel they use--->zimage may be hardwired to look for the filesystem color.gz on a floppy no matter what you tell loadlin,if thats the case none of this will work, without a working linux system to make a new kernel your not going to be able to do it, however I think I can make one pretty quick.

 

[jangnim]

well I did get a different error this time. This time the Panic said something about VFS HPFS not recognized.

You asked what machine I am trying to install to. I have a Sony PCG-SR17 with 128 MB ram (Maxed out). I have a 100 Gig Harddrive on it too. It is a great little 700 Mhz machine but the limitations of one USB and no built in CD or Floppy are debilitating, so I'm stuck depending upon the USB much more than I should, and native installs of any OS including WinBlows is problematic. I actually had to ghost off of the old harddrive to load that.

BTW I note that a prompt comes for the floppy but hard drive is accessed instead of the floppy.

EDIT*********

I used this entry:

loadlin bzimage ramdisk=4096 root=/dev/ram rw initrd=c:\loadlin\text.gz

and last 2 lines on start are:

isofs_read_super: bread failed dev=01:00 iso_blknum=1071384048, block=-214276 8096

Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 01:00

Any other ideas? I know I'm fresh out.

 

[horndude]

ok now were making progress, what kind of filesystem is your hardrive setup as, cause thats the error your seeing, if its NTFS this wont work

ext2,dos,fat16,fat32,ext3 filesystems should work

here's another possibilty, get a 2.5" laptop drive to IDE adapter and hook that drive up to another working system, install what you want on it, then put it back in the laptop.

also, check out tuxmobil.org and see if that laptop is listed and see if there's any hints available from others that have done it