Hi. I’m having some problems installing Mandrake Linux 7.0 on my Texas Instruments laptop and I’d appreciate some help. I realise that laptops can be very problematic, but it’s all I have at the moment, so I would like to install linux on it if possible. I’ll explain the history of my problems a bit so that noone wastes their time writing answers that I already know. However, my main questions involve being able to run the autoboot (from DOS) in text mode, and also the files necessary for an installation from the hard drive (in a DOS partition). My laptop can only have the CD _or_ the floppy drive in at the one time, not both. And as my CDROM is not bootable, I thought that the 2nd installation option (running autoboot from DOS) would be best. At first I had problems with it hanging, but that was resolved with the new autoboot file from the Mandrake website. However, a later problem with an error number 111 (errno=111) cropped up and I was told that it was a problem recognising my monitor or video card. I was also told that it could be avoided by running the installation in text mode. I couldn’t see how to do that with the autoboot file, so I moved onto the next installation mode. Next problem was the text mode installation. I copied the boot_txt.img file onto a floppy (with rawrite) and the installation went swimmingly until it asked me to insert the CDROM, or where it was, or something similar. Now, I can’t boot from a floppy and then change the floppy and the CDROM over, so I can’t see how I can proceed that way. I thought about an installation from the hard drive, but I don’t have that much space, and I wouldn’t be able to copy all of the files from the CD to the hard drive. If there were only about 100MB of files to copy and I knew which ones they were, then it would be OK, but at the moment it doesn’t seem to be an option. So, eventually, we come to my questions. 1. Does anyone know a way to get autoboot to run in text mode? That would, I believe, solve all of my problems. 2. What are the minimum files that must be loaded onto the hard drive for this installation, and how do you get this method to run in text mode? (with the boot_txt.img that I made, it seemed to assume that it was to be a loading from CDROM) 3. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I’d prefer not to have to use another distribution, like Debian, if possible, as I have the Mandrake disk here. So, if anyone can help me with my problem, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks in advance. Jamie
