linux on lappy?

[stant093]

i have an old lap top i want to mess with but it just doesnt run windows that well.[amd 100mhz 12mb ram 500mb harddrive].it has win95 on it and im wondering if linux or maybe a sort of unix was ever loaded from a floppy,or is available on floppys, this has no cd rom so that kinda blows...anyone used an old lappy for any neat projects, OS wise?

[pbharris]

does it have a NIC?

[crouse]

http://www.ibiblio.org/peanut/

[DRF138]

I have heard of a linux variant that is 100mb in size....hmmm...no cdrom....I have also heard that linux on laptop is difficult...I'd like to see one...I'll try to find that link...
In theroy you could use alot of floppies and drag and drop them onto the hard drive....but how to install from there with win 95 is an enigma...If 100 floppies isn't vexing for you...
I guess you could partion the hard drive and copy the linux files to that partiton...then perhaps boot from that partion...I think you'd need a boot disk (lilo) just some thoughts Haven't a clue if they'd work...no cd rom makes it tough...David

[DRF138]

Start here its slackware..thing is though or rather it seems that they assume one has a zip drive-can you put one on that thing?
http://www.slackware.com/zipslack/

[stant093]

i have a nic coming for it, but im fearing the fact that it wont find it....and some bad news, i spent some time on this lappy the last few days and found the floppy doesnt work...yay


i can put a zip drive on it using a printer port, my girlfriends father has a external zip 250 that i might try....

[DRF138]

That'd be cool but I'd really research the process prior to installing it, keep the thread alive let us know how goes it...
David

[Peter M]

The difficult bit is the support for the graphics chip in there, and then to get the setup right so there is display on the flat panel screen. Plan B here is to use the (non-accelerated) VESA driver.

[ArcticFox]

The only way to see if it works is to try it, but I will add that my Gateway Solo (700 PIII, 128mb, 10gb, Mobility Rage) has performed flawlessly with any version of Linux I've thrown at it. You may want to use SuSE, Mandrake, or RedHat at first, as they have the biggest list of hardware they support.