Old BIOS, no Hard drive

[Majii]

Ok, I'm brand new to Linux and slowly being converted... (get windows to boot from a CD/ramdisk, heh.) Anyway, I've got an old Dell P100 laptop that I'd like to be able to use linux on since the Hard disk decided to give out on me and well... replaceing it isn't worth the cost. The big problem is that it won't boot off a CD from the bios.

I've tried SBM. I can get the floppy to work in my other systems, but not the laptop.
I've tried btmgr.sourceforge.net, no go there either.

Most of the info I've been able to find is for various linux installs on the HD and well, that's not an option for me. The most likely option I've found so far is LOADLIN, but I can't find anything for booting strait from the floppy to the CD either. I can't even find someone claiming to have done so. I'm not even sure knoppix is a good distribution to try this with, but it's GREAT on my desktop except for the slow part (ramdrive not big enough! MORE! :P ). So honestly, what I really need is a bit of instruction on how to make LOADLIN work without a Hard drive, and possibly reccomendations for a distribution that might better suit my lame (pun intended) laptop.

I suppose specs for the laptop would help eh? Dell Latitude LM, P100, 40Mb Ram (8 onboard). If possible, I'd like to get a graphical interphase and something that can use PCMCIA cards fairly effectively (namely a 3com/megahertz LAN/modem MO# 3CCFEM556B). What I want to do is what I used to do- A little light surfing and AIM over a switch to router to cable setup. That's what I WANT from it. Anything else is just a bonus. (AIM is kind of a bonus too, but it's a bonus I've had for a long time and I'm kind of used to it.)

Resources I have available to use: OS 9.1 on a powerpc, Win98se, DOS 6.2, LPT null cable (for oldschool interlnk.exe and DCC to get around lack of NIC on laptop). CD-writer. Also have access to RedHat 9 machine and win2k. Problem= win98se and win2k are lacking floppy drives, but I have virtual PC on OS 9.1 so I can technically use it although the porting seems to have issues.

I can only hope I've given enough info to get some help for this. You'd think with everything I've got I'd have to way to do this, but all efforts have thus far, failed.

[CrashedAgain]

Just a guess. Try Damn Small Linux (google for it). I think you can make a really basic linux system that will fit on a floppy, then boot that & chroot into the CD to run from CD. Might be a lot more complicated that that though.

Another possibility: Make a linux rescue boot floppy, boot that then switch to the CD. Just an idea, don't know how.

and another: Put lilo boot manager on the floppy (not sure if you can do this) & set it up to boot the CD. Not sure if you can do this either but it's probably the best solution if it can be done.

Guess I'm just full of ideas but no real help. Sorry.

[Harry Kuhman]

...... I'd like to get a graphical interphase .......

I couldn't see any mention of the answer to the obvious question, is there a floppy drive? If so you should be able to install SMART BOOT MANAGER to a floppy and use that to boot the CD. If not I can't see how you expect to get past the BIOS issue (with no hard drive).

As to that interphase, well with 40 megs of ram, 8 onboard, and who knows where the rest is, and no swap partition, I just don't see this happening.