[lug] Installation Guidance Needed

[Peter Hutnick]

Charlie Rose said:

> I'm brand new to Linux, and need some hand holding. I want to install
> Mandrake Linux 9.0 on an old 50 MHz 486 machine I have (I'll move it up
> to  a better machine when I'm able). The hard-drive on this computer is
> kaput,  so I'm going to replace it with an unformatted, unpartitioned
> disk I picked  up on the cheap.

You might want to consider a "leaner" distribution for such a machine.

In fact, Mandrake won't run on a 486 as it relies on instructions
introduced in the Pentium line.  See
http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/pr-macmillancomplete.php3 (I can't find
any more recent requirements list than this, but one if the big selling
points of Mandrake is that it is all "586" native binaries.)

> I figure I'll install the hard drive, configure the BIOS for it, run
> FDISK  (from a bootable Windows 98 floppy I have)

MS fdisk is not capable of properly labeling partitions for use with any
UNIX-like system (to include NT :-P )

This is unnecessary anyway, since any reasonably "user friendly" distro
uses an installer that will allow you to partition your disks.

Besides MS fdisk has all kinds of lame limitations.  Only one primary
partition?  No choice of partition type?  Weak.

> and then format it.

We call it "making a filesystem."  The command is mkfs.

> But the Big  Question is: What do I do then? How can I get the computer
> to look at the  CD, and how do I get the installation started when there
> isn't already an  OS of some kind on the hard drive that will let me get
> to the CD?

Very few OSes will start their install from under another OS.  (Well, I
guess not that few.  NetWare, Armed Linux, BeOS . . .)  What you need is
an install boot floppy that goes with your install media.  Typically there
is a disk image and a (DOS/Windows) utility for making a disk from that
image on the CD.  (BTW, in *NIX the tool you need for this task is built
in, it is called "dd."  Don't run it as root until you get your feet under
you ;-)

So.  First, you need to find a "lean" distro that will run reasonably on a
486.  Next, you need to READ THE INSTALL DOCS for that distro. 
Particularly any parts about what to do if your system can't boot from
CDROM.

Google is your friend.  (http://google.com)

Don't lose heart.

Get a faster computer ;-)

-Peter

PS: Is it a DX or a DX2?  The 486 50DX was a bad machine in its day.  It
had half again the memory bandwidth of the 66DX2 and could still support
two VLB slots . . . one for video and one for disk I/O.  (Retro) drool.

-P