Couple of suggestions;
1. Someone else has tried a similar working method, with no success. I
believe Linux cannot detect the 'hot swap' of the floppy and the CD-ROM? And
the hardware config at boot seems to be a subset of what's really there,
usually consisting of the most common basic hardware. You may find the
backpack CD-ROM is supported, just not from the install.
2. This is the method I use on my machine, a variation may work on yours. As
I haven't got access to a CD-ROM on my Linux box, I physically take the hard
drive over to my main machine, and copy the files onto a FAT16 partition on
the hard drive. I then take it back, and install from hard drive. I can then
delete this install partition.
What I'm basically suggesting is to use DOS/Windows or similar to load a
partition from the Linux CD-ROM (If you're short on disk space, you only
need the RPMS folder), then boot from floppy and install from hard drive. If
DOS can see your backpack CD-ROM, boot from a DOS floppy with the CD-ROM
plugged in the back. Or use a DOS floppy to get the hard drive partition
bootable, boot with the CD-ROM in place, and copy the files from there.
File transfer of the files off the floppy doesn't work, as you know. It's
not the same as DOS where you just need the system files. I think there is
the equivalent of the master boot record on a floppy, which isn't just a
case of copying files.
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael D. Kirkpatrick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 1999 8:48 PM
Subject: [newbie] Install problems...
I have a WinBook Laptop computer and I am trying to figure out how to
install Mandrake RH6.0.
I can not get the computer to recognize the CD-ROM drive.
Here is what is going on...
1. I insert the removable floppy drive and boot from the boot disk.
2. When I get to the point where it asks me to pick which cd-rom drive
to use, I remove the floppy drive and insert the cd-rom drive with the
CD #1 in it.
3. I went through the entire list for CD-ROM drivers and it can not
find the cd-rom.
4. It is not SCSI.
I have an external CD-ROM drive as well that hooks up to the parallel
port as well. I tried it and it can not be found. The CD-ROM is a
"Backpack".
I tried Fdisk the hard drive and copied the 9 files from the boot disk
to it to see if it may be a problem from swapping the CD-Rom with the
Floppy drive. I can not get it to boot from the hard drive. I fdisked
the hard drive using DOS 6.0 fdisk utility and formatted it. I copied
the boot disk to the hard drive and it would not boot from the hard
drive.
I just need to install Apache web server and X-Windows so I can show off
a working copy of my web site when I am on the road.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
