Monk_

I recently recieved a free laptop from a friend and i want to use it for internet only

Getting no internet connection atm from a wireless adapter needs drivers online which i cant get to.

I would like to format the drives and install linux

Can i get some basic instructions or sites for how to do this properly

I have some basic-intermediate computer know how

Any suggestions would be welcomed
Thank you

dai

moved you to linux

wmorri

Hi Monk,

First I would like to know the specs of the system. If you know some of the generals that would be great. Things like amount of ram, processor, hdd space.

Cheers!

Monk_

64 mb ram
intel pentium 3
4 gbs memory
compaq laptop

wmorri

Hi,

Thanks for that. As far as I know the only linux distro that will run on those specs is Damn Small Linux. Take a look at it and the wiki for information about it.

Cheers!

Monk_

can i format c drive or d drive then boot the disk?

wmorri

You should be able to format any of the disks, then boot from a livecd or bootable flash drive. This will allow you to install the OS on whatever disk you want and then boot from it.

Cheers!

Monk_

I accidently formated the c drive and the linux wont boot up

wmorri

Hi,

Ok do you know how to make a bootable cd? If not then I would have a look at the getting started wiki page and then go from there. You will need an ISO file to start with but you will read all of that.

Cheers!

ComradeHaz

Hey Monk,

What you want to achieve is actually to remove the 'c' and 'd' drives as linux uses a different way of labeling drives to windows and indeed a different file system too. So don't worry too much!
(In Linux ide drives are referred to as hda hdb, etc and partitions on those drives as 1, 2 etc. So the first partition on the 'first' drive would be hda1. The filesystem linux machines use most these days is ext3 as opposed to ntfs for recent windows distros and fat32 for win 98.)
You don't need to worry about preparing the hard drive too much before you start as you should be able to do all that from within the setup for whatever distribution you decide to use. (wmorri's suggestion of damn small linux is a sensible one for a machine of those specs.)
Assuming you have downloaded a CD image and burnt that to CD, what you want to do now is make the laptop boot that CD. To do that, get into BIOS by pressing <del> or <F2> as the computer turns on and look for boot order. Set the CD drive to be at the top, followed by the hard disk.
Now when you save and exit it should boot the linux install CD.
I'm afraid I can't talk you through all that as I've never used damn small linux, but when it starts asking about partitioning the drive, delete all old partitions and tell it to use just one partition for everything. (It will probably be asking for separate partitions for /home /var /usr /root and so forth, but should let you just have one).
Use ext3. /boot will be a seperate partition. If you need to make this yourself, about 100MB is more than enough.

I know there's a lot to take in there, but hopefully as you start to play about it will all start to make sense. The last couple of lines in particular!
Good luck, let us know how you get on,

-Tom

Monk_

Im using a floppy disk

Horusrogue

NONONONONO!

Don't condemn the poor guy to the depths of the ugliest h**** by recommending that distro.

Slitaz linux. Fully functional, huge repos, runs beautifully on my NEC Necra 266mhz with 64mb ram. Full internet (wired) through PCMCIA. Can run wireless too.

http://www.slitaz.org/en/

Monk_

Ill try that ty