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General discussion

Linux with a boot floppy?

Sep 11, 2005 3:50AM PDT

I have an older laptop (Thinkpad 380D) I am playing with.
With 150MHz Pentium, 80MB ram(max), and a 2.1G HDD, I am limited in OSs I can use. 98SE works fine other than new
10/100 Ethernet card is not recognized. Supposed to be backward compatible with PCMCIA and Windows 95.It is not being recognized. If I can't resolve this, I want to go
Linux of some type. Damn Small Linux sounds good (actually, any 1 disc system would work) other than there is no "Boot from CD" option. So I need an OS that has a bootable floppy. This has kept me from booting Knoppix to try to resolve the hardware issue. Any ideas? chuck

Discussion is locked

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What I found.
Sep 11, 2005 4:29AM PDT

Is that more 10/100 cards are PC-Card and the old machines are really only PCMCIA. There is a difference and a cause for the card to not work (in any OS.)

Name names and tell what make/model that 10/100 card is?

As to LOAF's, there are aplenty.

Bob

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D-link DFE-690TXD
Sep 11, 2005 4:52AM PDT

Was advertised as being backward compatible with older PCMCIA units. Otherwise I wouldn't have bought it. 56k modem (like watching paint dry) and 10T cards work fine. 10T card dongle is missing, or I would just use it. LOAFs? chuck

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Where is that advertised?
Sep 11, 2005 7:17AM PDT

I looked at dlink's page and read "The D-Link DFE-690TXD is a 32-bit Cardbus"... boom!

This card should not work in PCMCIA slots.

LOAF = Linux On A Floppy. Sadly this will not cure the hardware issue.

In closing I picked up a 10 pack of PCMCIA ethernet cards that don't use a dongle just for such occurances so I can safely bet Ebay has plenty of them. I got them for 5 bucks each.

Bob

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figured out LOAF
Sep 12, 2005 4:01AM PDT

later, since I had been looking at them earlier. Not really what I need. Knoppix would work fine, if I had a
boot floppy.
On the card. Both Newegg and Fry's list it as pcmcia form factor. Fry's specifically has copy about working on newer cardbus and older pcmcia. You have to do a small amount of trimming to make it slide all the way in. I think card is recognized, but drivers aren't loaded right. I just keep playing with it for a while (just reformatted and installed 98se again) before I panick. This is one time only plaything for me, so I don't need
10 cards. If I can find a larger HDD (10 or 20G), I can
load Mandrake using a floppy. Thanks for the input. chuck

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Can I be blunt?
Sep 12, 2005 6:33AM PDT

32-bit cards never work in PCMCIA slots. As to claims, they are not lieing that it's a PCMCIA form factor. Since we are well beyond the service life of any PCMCIA only laptop, they rarely will run into this old thing.

As to 10 cards, I'm an anomaly shopper. I got these for just the reason you stated. I'm sure you can find onesies for the price of a McD's lunch.

My last KNOPPIX had a script to write out a boot floppy. Try that.

Bob

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(NT) (NT) I'll try that
Sep 12, 2005 7:04AM PDT
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Bob,
Sep 13, 2005 7:44AM PDT

the Knoppix boot disc idea worked like a charm. Now all I have to do is get Beatrix (nice little distro) to boot from a floppy so I can install it. I'll move the pc card issue to hardware forum, I'm totally confused now on what to buy. Thanks. chuck

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The cards I found were Xircom Realports.
Sep 13, 2005 12:29PM PDT

These older PCMCIA cards don't have a dongle to lose. While I don't run into too many laptops without ethernet, these McD priced cards fix the issue.

Bob

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Had a thought
Sep 14, 2005 4:18AM PDT

Posted in notebook forum for a tutorial. Later remembered that here in Dallas we have a free electronic garage sale
every 1st and 3rd Saturday. Will take my TP 380D and go rumaging around. Wrote down the xircom as something to look for. Now loading a minimal install of Mandrake 10.2-couldn't make a boot-floppy of Beatrix (190MB Ubuntu version). Wish there was a Bios update to boot from cdrom. Oh well. chuck

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No luck with 98se
Sep 12, 2005 5:51AM PDT

No OS is going to recognize this card, probably. But I did download BeatrIX_2005 Linux. 190MB. Looks interesting. I'll have to copy to HDD, then boot from that. chuck

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Linux with a boot floppy
Sep 24, 2005 9:19PM PDT

I use Puppy Linux which is awsome. It is very similar to Damn Small Linux in size but it allows you to boot from a floppy which I did to keep from having to install Grub or Lilo. The best part about it though, is it runs in RAM so it is very quick.

http://www.goosee.com/puppy/

Good Luck.

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Thanks, I bookmarked and will look into it.
Sep 26, 2005 4:16AM PDT

Finally gave up and loaded Windows 98se. chuck