# Fordy,Im trying Puppy Linux....



## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Actually Dingo and boy is it ever slick! Within minutes Im online with DSL,playing DVD's etc,just a very nice package.

Soooo....I have an old dell laptop I would like to go linux on,but how?

It has a 1.3 gig HD,20 megs RAM.Will only boot to floppy or HD,wont boot to CDROM.Can only load win95,wont take 98 even.Have external CDrom writable and a pc slot wireless card I'd like to use but that wants win98 or greater,but it works well in tests on other machines.Can I get a linux running that will accept it maybe,wine or some such?

I cant go online with it to download at present.

Any idea how I can get this machine into Linux,and even better,a way to use puppy?

Thanks,replies from everyone welcome,just wanted Fordy to know he is right,puppy rocks! Beats UBUNTU hands down for simple user friendly.

BooBoo


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

mightybooboo said:


> It has a 1.3 gig HD,20 megs RAM.


20mb ram is very low. People have got older stripped Puppy installed with maybe as low as 16mb, but more of "how low can we go" exercise rather than having anything useful. Puppy basically has simular ram requirements as win98, meaning you need bare minimum of 32mb ram for it to truly be useful. Rememger its not just the operating system, but the software. Modern software tends to need more ram also.

Example, couple years ago I put Puppy on a stripped old laptop with 300mhz processor and only 32mb ram that was built in and couldnt be removed (the removable ram had been removed - stripped laptop). Amazingly it didnt do too bad, but Seamonkey (Mozilla) browser built into Puppy wont even run since it requires bare minimum of 64mb ram. Uptodate Opera browser would run and surf, but you really didnt want to push it too far such as keeping bunch tabs open. I increased ram to 96mb and Seamonkey would then start and Puppy acted very normal. Puppy is very happy at 128mb ram with only problems if you try to run huge software such as Open Office, then that software will be kinda slow. 256mb ram will let Puppy run about any linux software out there. 

Easiest way to install Puppy on old laptop without being able to boot from cdrom is to remove the hardrive from the laptop and use a $5 adapter so you can install the laptop hardrive on eide cable in modern desktop computer. Install Puppy, then replace hardrive into the laptop. NOw Puppy has several ways to install but for old computers with low ram and slow processor, its suggested to do a full type 2 install with a separate linux swap partition. 

If you really cant go beyond 20mb ram, then post on Puppy forum and ask for whatever is current barebones Puppy. Puppy fans have made all sorts of custom versions of Puppy for special uses. Barebones is very stripped down Puppy but still has a gui interface. It will be older version most likely and around 40mb to 50mb in size compared to Dingo which is close to 100mb. There is always OneBone Puppy that is commandline only with no gui interface. It will run on any pc out there I imagine, but doubt that is what you are looking for.

Oh, you might look for linux called BlueFlops. http://sourceforge.net/projects/blueflops/ Linux on two floppies and it is capable of surfing. Or you can look for an old QNX release called Demodisk that boots to a gui from a single floppy. Quite amazing even today. Dont expect lot from its browser, this is old release of QNX (QNX is unix derived but not linux) but if you ignore javascript errors, it will still surf. There was a version of demodisk for dialup modem and another version for ethernet. Easiest place to find demodisk is to get the UBCD (ultimate boot cd -dos version) free. It is a bootable cd with lot dos tools and includes old QNX demo disk, both versions. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html Floppies if you didnt know are PITA anymore, seems the manufacturers dont know how to make them anymore and if you buy a pkg at store, expect it to include lot of duds.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Thanks HJohn,you gave me some very good ideas.

1st roadblock is my Hard drive,found I can get an IDE to compact flash adapter for 12 bucks,and an 8 gig cf card for 25.

POOF! Instant 8 gig hard drive.

Heres the parts....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208340
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186050

or a double cf adapter...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200153

So for pretty cheap I can make a pretty nice solid state hard drive,WOW!

Then I should be able to copy operating systems right to the card reader on my desktop.

I need win 98 or better to support a wireless internet card and a plug in USB port.

I want Mrs to be able to use this wireless,play some simple online games.

I want to use it in my car to run a program called Vagcom.Its Volkswagen Group of America communications.It allows you to use your laptop from USB plugged into the OBDII port and gives you the full function of the massive machine VW uses at the dealer to diagnose and manipulate the cars computers.

The ram bottleneck will remain,but win 95 does everything we ever needed online,just wont deal with external pcmcia cards like wireless or USB.

With the dual cf reader I could even get fancy and dual boot both a stripped win XP at 1.3 gigs on one,and a linux on the other,hopefully being able to copy them to the cards on my desktop.

Hows that for a possible plan?


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

mightybooboo said:


> Thanks HJohn,you gave me some very good ideas.
> 
> 1st roadblock is my Hard drive,found I can get an IDE to compact flash adapter for 12 bucks,and an 8 gig cf card for 25.
> 
> ...


Windows uses swap files, not a good thing for lifecycle of flash card. Type one install of Puppy ok on flash card, but as I said with super low ram you have, type two install of Puppy with a separate linux swap file is better way to go. 

The Asus EEE mini laptop or at least first generation used a flash card type hardrive. They chose to sell it with cut down commercial version of linux. But since then everything from dos to Vista has been installed by users on these. Puppy even has a specialized release just for this computer.

The last version "c" of win95 did support usb but not well.

My current laptop that I take to library to use their free wifi hotspot is like 366mhz, 20gb hardrive, and 256mb ram. I bought the hardrive new, but otherwise the computer I got off ebay without a hardrive for total shipped price of $27. Sometimes just cheaper to buy a complete different computer than to mess trying to upgrade a P-1 antique. I would also give good look at your present laptop, I had an old P-1 few years ago that best it could do is win95 due to oddball video chip that nothing newer supported (basically just win3.1 or win95), but i was able to buy some cheap laptop memory that fit it and get it upto its max of 40mb ram. Made lot difference though with just 75mhz processor it never was going to be a speed demon. Finally screen faded too much and it became a doorstop....


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Its a Dell Latitude xp 4100t.In really good shape.

I would like to play with it.Also it wont really be getting much use.

But I agree,it may be time to dump it and upgrade,just I dont want to,LOL!

OK,just went in and checked,its a Intel DX4-100 and I was wrong,it has a whopping 32 MB Ram in chips (an 8 and a 16) plus 8 MB onboard.Looks like 40 mb maximum.

It also will run my vagcom program,it does need a usb port though.This is really a biggie in what it needs to do.

Funny you should mention the ASUS,it was looking at toshiba libretto's that lead me into using the flash drives (folks doing it),and yes,Im aware of the wear issues.Of course it will never be a speed demon,but if its a running demon thats something else again.It always surfed the web just fine back in dial up days.That will be the primary use.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Its a 72 pin SODIMM ram chips. Is it possible to use higher MB Ram,or am I limited to two 16 MB ram chips due to board or DX4-100 processor?


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## fordy (Sep 13, 2003)

................Welcome Booboo ! You're talking about stuff that's above my pay grade , lol . Correct me If i'm wrong , but I thought Linux was a friend of Charlie Brown . , fordy:bash:


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Info on Dell Latitude xp 4100t seems non existant. Bunch of places wanting to sell a replacement power supply and cmos batter for more than you could buy the computer. But nobody offering memory or information. There was some info on Latitude lx 4100t and Latitude xp 4100c. All these seem to be limited to 40mb or less. So I suspect if you have 32mb ram, thats about all possible and even if you could up it marginally, wouldnt be worth it.

Puppy as I said can deal with 32mb ram, you just arent going to be able to use software needing more ram like a current version of Seamonkey(Mozilla) browser. Probably not Dingo, but there is an updated version of 2.14 that should work fine. 2.14 was an especially good and stable version of Puppy. I still have it on my laptop and only updated on desktop because newer kernel had built in support for some hardware I wanted to use.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Oops Fordy,got you confused with HJohn! You are the car guy LOL!

John,I will be working on this project in the fairly near future,its really an exciting way to bring this oldie into a usable config on the cheap.Im pretty sure I can do it.Very exciting.

Thanks so much for your advice and ideas,you really helped me onto a track that may be possible.


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