On Mon, Oct 02, 2006 at 11:43:18PM -0400, Nathanael Nerode wrote:
> >Any other ideas? I would really like floppy booting to work since I can
> >make those on my 486.
>
> Floppy booting is suffering from the size of recent Linux kernels. I believe
> that it works for Debian 3.1, but don't quote me on that.
No, the kernel size issue was an issue then too.
>
> I think your best move at this point is to order a official CD or DVD set for
> Debian 3.1, by snail mail. Probably cheaper, and likely quicker, than
>
> http://www.debian.org/distrib/
>
I have sent an email to the Canadian vendor listed on debian's page,
but it hasn't been able to go through (they must have changed their
address if they're still in businsess.
> (If you have a dedicated phone line for your modem and have no per-minute
> charges for your dialup access, then maybe it's more convenient to download
> everything, but otherwise)
No per-minute charges, and can interrupt and resume using wget -c
>
> But If you don't want to do that, here's a possible scheme:
Thanks,
Its another possible way, I'll consider trying it.
The problem from a download perspective is that I want (since its
bleeding edge hardware) Etch and don't want to wait for the December
release. This means that all downloads have to be completed in the week
that they are valid.
Is there a sub-project that allows for a tiny initial kernel boot with
later download of the proper kernel to install? I've never needed to
compile a kernel and I can't now given the small memory and disk
available on the 486. Surely I'm not the only one on the planet who has
need of a fresh install without a CD burner. Some sytem with just
enough smarts to recognize a keyboard (PS/2 or USB), VGA text screen (or
serial console?), a modem for PPP, and basic networking. Given an
initial floppy image and an empty USB stick, it could do the download of
the USB stick install images and set up the stick for the standard USB
install.
I'll look into this further; I may be able to do this:
- on the 486, download the USB install images to zip
- boot the new computer using 3.0 install
- from the shell, install the USB files to the USB stick
- do a normal USB install.
If this works, then it becomes a flexible way to make the USB install
when only the target computer supports USB. The same method can be
used, using any transport to get the data from the old computer to the
new one: zip, network (NFS, scp), split files on floppy, etc; whatever
media the two computers have in common. For me, right now, it requires
that the 3.0 install CD (or floppy) recognized a USB stick; I'll have to
see.
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