Very Computer

Hi,
    I'm planning to install Linux From Scratch (www.linuxfromscratch.org) on
a very old (1994?) Compaq Contura 420C laptop someone gave me. This thing
would be perfect for an LFS test - 350MB HD (4MB Compaq diagnostics/BIOS
partition, 24MB swap, 300MB Linux Ext2). The only problem is getting LFS on
there in the first place. I was originally planning to use a "loopback"
filesystem to create a 300MB Ext2 image on this machine (Phoenix -
K6-II/500, 128MB, 40GB, floppy, CDRW, 14" Samsung monitor) that I can
transfer over to the Contura's hard drive using a parallel "LapLink" cable
and PLIP. Now for the problem - I don't know how to do this, even if it is
possible.
    My other idea was to copy over the tarballs one-by-one and then install
them and nuke the source trees (start with the kernel, lilo, init, bash, etc
to get a usable system, then add Vim, etc to finish it off). Possible, but
I'm not very eager to do it this way (you ever tried recompiling the Linux
Kernel on a 486DX-75 with 12MB of RAM?)...

Anyone know how I could do this? None of the LDP howtos I've skimmed through
mention doing anything like this... The biggest problem seems to be LFS - I
can install Slackware over PLIP, but aparrently not LFS...

Please forgive my use of Windoze... I would have used Mandrake 8, but my
modem seems to be a bit flaky under Linux (no, it isn't a Winmodem).

And please, don't suggest using a laptop->fullsize drive converter. Finding
a spare point in the IDE cable that I can tap into is not going to be easy
in this machine...

Thanks.
--
Phil.

http://www.philpem.btinternet.co.uk/

Of course.

Quote:> Get one of those single floppy disk minidistributions that comes with
> plip or slip and NFS (client) support. Connect the two machines via
> parallel/serial ports. Boot linux off the floppy, nfs-mount
> the other machine's disk, put an Ext2 image or the individual packages
> on that disk, and start installation.

Tried a similar thing with muLinux - the packets from this machine were
getting to the laptop, but the laptop didn't seem to be sending anything...

I'll have a go with another Linux install, but at this point I don't even
think I'll be able to put a severely trimmed-down Mandrake on the Contura...

Later.
--
Phil.

http://www.philpem.btinternet.co.uk/

Just a little add-on to my previous posting - even when I insmod parport and
parport_pc, /proc/parport fails to appear. Any reason why this might be
happening?

Thanks.
--
Phil.

http://www.philpem.btinternet.co.uk/