my laptop dosent have a cdrom drive

[endersshadow001]

ok i need help i have an old junky laptop and linux dosent require much so i thought i would put that on... on to the matter. it dosnet have a cdrom drive and i was wondering if there was a like a knoppix that runs from a floppy disk r a install kit that installs all from floppies and where to get them thanx


root

[paulius]

Dude,

Knoppix would need almost 1500 floppy disks! Use any minimal linux distribution. Find them at www.linux.org

[Philly_Blunt]

try feather linux or other cutdown versions of knoppix

[Teun]

If you can find a way to put the CD image on the HD then you're OK.

"knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1 Boot from previously copied CD-Image"

This is one of the boot options in the latest 3.3 update.

There are several ways of getting the CD copied, an external CD, via a network or put the HD in an other computer just for the copying.

Have a look below the update announcement on this page:
http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

[endersshadow001]

no i havent looked yet been busy but thanx i think ill put loaf on their r something thanks lots

[karisu]

I've got no cdrom either and no floppy too.
Is there a way to copy the image or better to install knoppix on the notebook drive and boot later from it?

thanks in advance
karisu

[mcaycedo]

You need to have some connection to anything where you can copy the knoppix cd to the laptop hdd. Some options are:

- External CD (connected by USB (ideal) or parallel (would take ages to copy one cd) or external ZIP drive (limit 100 Mb, so, you must use Feather Linux)
- USB pen drive (you laptop is old, so I think this is discarded)
- Network: Maybe this is the mos feasible option. One ethernet pcmcia card must be easy to copy. When you are connected to some net, must be easy copy the data.

[bigmoose]

Buy yourself a laptop drive adapter. You will plug the laptop drive into one and and a desktop IDE cable & power connector into the other end ... then you'll be able to boot that drive in a desktop with a cdrom drive.

Make sure you keep the laptop drive on its own cable, ex Primary IDE. Some laptop drives have funny jumper positions and its not worth the hassle for figure them out.

These little things are less than 10$US with shipping.

I have made many friends at my university with this tool. SO many students will have their windowsXP srew up beyon belief and it takes a long time to copy 20 - 30 gigs via network cable & knoppix so I just put the drive in my desktop and back it up and reimage their OS with restore cd's (if they rememberd to bring them). If they don't have their restore CD's I put knoppix on and when they get the restore cd's I put xp or what ever back on. I've had 2 students actually keep knoppix & bought a copy of cross over office (www.codeweavers.com) to be able to use MS Office.


but anyways ... get that drive adapter it'll make life easier if you want to put knoppix or any other distro on.

If your laptop doesn't have much power you can always put a minimum install on and then use VNC with a more powerfull computer to do major stuff.


~ryan

[bamarob]

bigmoose,

When installing to a laptop's HD from a desktop using a laptop drive adapter, do you use knoppix-installer, knx-install, or "knoppix tohd=/dev/hd**"? If you use knoppix-installer, do you choose a knoppix-type install, or debian-type? And, how does X work with the laptop's hardware if going this route?

Sorry for all the questions, but I've ordered laptop drive adapter and am planning to do a knoppix install on my laptop's drive as soon as it arrives.

Here's what I had in mind. Will this work?

• Connect the laptop's drive to my desktop using the laptop drive adapter.
• Boot my desktop with Knoppix 3.2 2-16-04.
• Run fdisk and create 3 partitions on the laptop's HD. A 2.1 GB ext3 partition (assume /dev/hda1), a 800 MB ext3 partition (assume /dev/hda5), and a 256 MB linux swap partition.
• Reboot.
• At the knoppix prompt enter: knoppix tohd=/dev/hda5
• Shutdown. Reinstall HD in laptop.
• Boot laptop with a knoppix boot floppy.
• At knoppix prompt enter: knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda5
• If this successfully boots, run knoppix-installer and install debian-style to /dev/hda1.

Does this sound like it might work?

Thanks,

BamaRob

[bigmoose]

bigmoose,

When installing to a laptop's HD from a desktop using a laptop drive adapter, do you use knoppix-installer, knx-install, or "knoppix tohd=/dev/hd**"? If you use knoppix-installer, do you choose a knoppix-type install, or debian-type? And, how does X work with the laptop's hardware if going this route?

Sorry for all the questions, but I've ordered laptop drive adapter and am planning to do a knoppix install on my laptop's drive as soon as it arrives.

Here's what I had in mind. Will this work?

• Connect the laptop's drive to my desktop using the laptop drive adapter.
• Boot my desktop with Knoppix 3.2 2-16-04.
• Run fdisk and create 3 partitions on the laptop's HD. A 2.1 GB ext3 partition (assume /dev/hda1), a 800 MB ext3 partition (assume /dev/hda5), and a 256 MB linux swap partition.
• Reboot.
• At the knoppix prompt enter: knoppix tohd=/dev/hda5
• Shutdown. Reinstall HD in laptop.
• Boot laptop with a knoppix boot floppy.
• At knoppix prompt enter: knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda5
• If this successfully boots, run knoppix-installer and install debian-style to /dev/hda1.

Does this sound like it might work?

Thanks,

BamaRob

BamaRob,

I use knx-hdinstall. The only time I had a problem was with an nvidia chipset.
You may have to reconfigure the xf86config file ... so get the specs for your laptop and you should be all set in that dept.

other than that you should be all set.

knx-hdinstall starts cfdisk and you partition and install and no need to reboot from my experience.


~ryan