Floppy/NFS Install Problem

[Michael Boyd]

Hello,

I am trying to install debian from floppies on 2 old 486 machines.  I can't 
use a CD as neither of them have drives.  The floppies are ok as I have 
managed to install the base system ok on one machine.  The other is an old 
Intel machine at least 10 years old.  It has a SCSI card and 1MB disk and no 
IDE connectors.  When I try to install the base system from the same 
floppies I get right through the installation until it tries to install the 
system from base2_1.tgz but then does nothing.  I suspect the SCSI hard disk 
may be on the way out as it sometimes hangs when initialising the 
partitions, I can't test this easily due to the lack of IDE connectors.


In case the floppy drive is suspect I have tried to use the NFS option to 
install base2_1.tgz from the other 486.  When I enter Gamma:/home/mike as 
the path it generates an error message.  I installed the NFS module on both 
the machines.  If anyone can help I would be grateful.  If not, the machine 
may get binned!


I have tried using the floppies on 50+ occasions.  The installation has 
worked on one occasion but I made a mess of the partitioning scheme so had 
to start again.


TIA

Mike

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Re: Floppy/NFS Install Problem

[Michael Boyd]

 I am trying to install debian from floppies on 2 old 486 machines.  I 
can't

 use a CD as neither of them have drives.  The floppies are ok as I have
 managed to install the base system ok on one machine.  The other is an 
old
 Intel machine at least 10 years old.  It has a SCSI card and 1MB disk 
and no

  ^
If this is not a typo then you can forget about using this box until you
get more HD space, it takes 40M to install Slink (Debian 2.1).



It is a typo. I meant 1 GB.  The annoying thing is that if I hadn't mesed up 
the partitioning when the installation worked I wouldn't be in this mess.  I 
was hoping the NFS option would be a solution, or at least identify if the 
problem is due to the floppy drive.  It isn't the floppies themselves as 
they worked when installing on the other machine.  Anyone know what I did 
wrong when trying the NFS option?  The path I quoted earlier is where I had 
stored the base2_1.tgz file.


Mike


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