From: Peter Heslin (Peter.Heslin at domain ucd.ie)
Date: Wed 05 Jul 2000 - 13:07:53 IST
On Wed, Jul 05, 2000 at 10:30:25AM +0100, ndowney at domain silverstorm-ireland.net wrote:
> I have an old WfW 486 laptop at home but without a Cd drive. I also
> do not have a PCMCIA ethernet card or even a network to connect
> it to. I would like to be able to install linux on it. Could someone
> please help me with the following questions:
>
> - can I use a "windows" DCC parallel cable to create a 2 machine
> IP network and thus mount a from a desktop linux machine ?. If it
> is possible how do I do it ?.
>
> - Are the current distributions the best ones to use on what is a
> slow machine, with a small HD (not sure of size here and now) and
> only 8/16 M RAM ?. Any recommendations as to which distribution
> and version would suit best ?.
>
> - I really only want to use the machine as an Internet box (email
> and web). Thus I need X and netscape and of course a modem. Is
> there any issues I have missed ?
I am puzzled. You have no network connectivity, and yet you want to use
this laptop for email and Netscape? If you have a modem, then install
Linux over that: it won't take *that* long, and you only have to do it
once. Debian is good for that sort of thing. The base package is about
15 Meg, IIRC, and can be downloaded via Windows. Once you boot Debian,
you can use dselect to download only those packages you wish.
You could play around with muLinux, as others have suggested -- it
comes with lynx and a small X server. You can see how your box will
perform -- you will probably be happier with lynx and a console-based
mail program.
FWIW, I have a 25MHz, 8 Meg Ram B/W laptop that happily runs Debian
2.1. X is dog slow, and I only use it a bit for xdvi, since I have a
full TeX installation on it. This box's network connectivity consists
of a 2400 baud modem, so I did the install via a SCSI Jaz disk connected
to the parallel port via a converter.
Peter
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