portable, Laptop(vaio) install w/out cd-rom

Someone gave me a sony pcg-505fx and the pcmcia card for the cd-rom is
missing, and i don't feel like dishing the absurd money for one or a
new drive.

I want to install linux on it (this will be my first linux install). I
have a pc with winxp on it, a router, I imagine I could get a cheap
pcmcia nic card, and I assume the floppy drive works (original floppy,
so should boot I think). Unfortunately, I've read directions for a hdd
install(I don't want to do that- I want to format the whole drive and
start a new), and a network install but I didn't understand those. I
think I'd like to try the network install (if someone has a different
suggestion, please let me know)- but all the guides I've found were too
complicated for my newbie self. Any help would be appreciated.

Does a network install have to involve another linux machine, or will a
winxp machine work?

I was thinking of using vector linux. If anyone has a good suggestion
for a different distro, please let me hear it. The system has limited
resources and my main uses are: wireless internet, wathing avi movies,
and maybe some open.office. (and of course fooling around with and
learning more about linux).

Thanks!!

I also wanted to add that I have a USB network adapter, so if I could
use that instead of buying a NIC please let me know.
Thanks!

On 17 Jan 2005 10:29:14 -0800, Moe 512 staggered into the Black Sun and
said:

Doing an NFS/FTP installation is trickier than doing an installation
from CD/DVD. Borrow a desktop machine and try a "normal" installation
so you know what to expect.


? Using 'DozeXP as a router is like using a riding lawnmower to tow a
3000-pound trailer. What did you mean? "I have a 'DozeXP machine and a
router"?


Maybe. Some USB networking adapters work; some don't. You'll have to
see if your distro's installation medium recognizes the USB NIC, and you
may have to manually modprobe things. You don't sound ready to manually
modprobe things; hope that hotplug handles the device.


Read 'em again. If you didn't understand the directions, you will
probably make mistakes and waste time. If there are 2 or 3 points you
didn't understand, post 'em and ask for clarification.


Network installations usually involve NFS or FTP. If you can mount the
distro CD/DVD on the 'DozeXP machine, then export it with NFS, it
shouldn't be difficult. I don't know whether Free NFS servers exist for
'DozeXP though. FTP installations just require access to the Net,
though you'll want something that's faster than dialup for an FTP
install.


You're a newbie; use a newbie-oriented distro like Mandrake or SuSE.


What are its specs, then? CPU speed, RAM, disk space?


Movies play fine with mplayer on my 900MHz PIII, but my video card
supports XV (which makes a lot of difference.) OpenOffice is a RAM and
CPU hog; you won't be happy with its performance unless you have at
least 128M and an 800MHz processor. 802.11[abg] should work reasonably
well as long as the kernel's fairly recent, though you may have to use
ndiswrapper and the 'Doze kernel modules for some chipsets where the
manufacturer has refused to release specs. HTH,

--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
http://www.brainbench.com / Hire me!
-----------------------------/ http://crow202.dyndns.org/ ~mhgraham/resume

I'm also a newbie, but have tried a number of different distros and install
methods on several machines now. So far, none of my installs have required
a Linux partition, something I'm trying to avoid to save space to run
Windoze. I don't know if this will help, but here are some suggestions:

1. Get "Damn Small Linux" and do a "poor man's install". Basically you
copy the 50mb KNOPPIX. file and put it in a folder called c:\KNOPPIX and
then create a boot floppy. This works like a champ for me, and the 50mb
file wouldn't be hard to pass to your system over a null modem cable. The
DSL site has more details on this.

2. Copy an entire live CD's contents to your C:\ drive and use
"loadlin.exe" to boot Linux from DOS. I'm doing this with Damn Small Linux
on an old Pentium 133. Check their forum for my post on how I did it.

3. Get "Topologilinux" and install from Windows XP. I did this on my Sony
Vaio PCG FXA32. Now I can run Slackware from within XP or boot directly
into it. If you go this route, get the latest version, much easier install.
(Incidently, a version of this for Knoppix is in the works.)

4. Pull the hard drive out of your notebook and take it to another system
that has a bootable CD, then install to your notebook's hd. I haven't tried
this, but I know several people have.

You might also be able to create a Linux partition, then use Windows XP to
get an entire CD distro over a network, boot from a Linux floppy and then do
a manual install from the Windows partition to the Linux partition. I'm
guessing this would be -way- beyond the skills of a newbie like me ;-)

Good luck,

Paul

irst let me thank you all for your help.

Sorry, let me clarify that. What I meant is I have a winxp desktop. I
also have a d-link router (which I assume is necessary for networking).

You're right I won't be 'modprobing' anything anytime soon.

OK, when you say
"If you can mount the distro CD/DVD on the 'DozeXP machine, then
export it with NFS, it shouldn't be difficult."

What do you mean? 1) What and how do I mount on the windows machine?
2) How do I export it with NFS?

Sorry, I'm sure these seem basic to you, but when I try reading about
them they start talking above my level.

The Specs are: Pentium 266 w/mmx. 64MB RAM (Trying to upgrade this
cheaply, if possible). 4GB hdd. It has win98 on it now, but I plan on
wiping that with the install. I'm perfectly fine with no open office.


Dances With Crows wrote:
and
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http://crow202.dyndns.org/~mhgraham/resume

n 17 Jan 2005 12:32:31 -0800, Moe 512 staggered into the Black Sun and
said:

Please don't top-post. Message rearranged for easier reading
comprehension.


OK, no problem.


Boot from the distro's floppy disk (most distros provide a couple of
floppy disk images on the first CD; use RAWRITE.EXE to write them to
floppy if you don't have a Linux machine handy) and see if it recognizes
the USB NIC. If not, you won't be able to use it.


"mount the distro CD" under 'Doze means "insert the distro CD into a
CD-R* drive and wait for 'Doze to recognize the CD". Mounting a
filesystem is more of a Unix/Linux concept than a 'Doze one; I always
use Linux/Unix terminology for things because it's typically more
precise/useful than 'Doze terminology.

Exporting a filesystem with NFS on 'Doze isn't something I've ever tried
to do. I believe you'll have to install "Microsoft Services For Unix"
or something like that, then start up its NFS server and say you want to
export N: as an NFS filesystem named "foobar" (replace N with the "drive
letter" 'Doze assigns to your CD-R* device.) Then you can do

mount -t nfs 1.2.3.4:/foobar /mnt/somewhere

...replacing 1.2.3.4 with your 'Doze machine's IP address, and the CD-R*
device will be visible to the Linux machine under /mnt/somewhere.


I know the feeling; I've only been using Linux since 1999. I had to use
NFS to install Linux on a Thinkpad 600X with a broken CD-ROM drive in
2001, but that was easy since I already had a working Linux desktop
then.


OK, this is not going to work really well with OpenOffice or mplayer. I
don't have access to a machine this slow anymore, so I can't tell you
how well mplayer will perform, but I'd guess it'd drop frames. You're
going to want to use a lean window manager (that is, *not* KDE or GNOME)
and that'll probably annoy you. Oh well, good luck anyway....

--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
http://www.brainbench.com / Hire me!
-----------------------------/ http://crow202.dyndns.org/~mhgraham/resume

Do you have access to a USB CD drive? I just installed VectorLinux on a
ThinkPad-240 (no floppy or CD) and it went fine. It did have Win98 already
installed, which I used to download Vectorlinux to the HD.

If you don't have an operating system on the machine it will be trickier,
but you could pop out the HD and put it in an external USB enclosure.
Attach that to your desktop machine and install linux that way, then put
the drive back in the Sony.

--

-John ( XXXX@XXXXX.COM )

want to install linux on it (this will be my first linux install). I
too

I've done network installs of both debian and Red hat ES via boot
floppies. It's not that hard. I'm blind so I *normally* install linux
that way.

For each distro, you need at least 2 diskettes, a boot floppy and a root
floppy. With some you have to make some driver diskettes too. Debian
woody takes 4 diskettes So you make these diskettes, boot from the boot
diskette, put the others in when asked, and then you get a series of
screens walking you through the installation.

It should automatically detect your network card, even a pcmcia one. All
you have to do is select a mirror site to download the files from.

None of these things are all that difficult all by themselves. But
you're working on solving several problems at once. Installing on a
laptop can be tricky. Installing from CDs is easier than a network
install. And making the diskettes is another thing you'll have to learn
how to do. None of it's *that* difficult but it will take some patience
on your part.

So I finally got it on. I ended up putting the HDD in desktop and
installing it that way. I felt like it was cheating. Anyways, Thanks
for all your help!

I actually have another question. I'm not sure how these things work,
but since the topic is slightly different I'm starting a new thread- if
thats bad protocol, my bad, I'm new here.
So if you feel like helping me further... And Thanks again!