laptop from 1900's please help!

tjsniper

OK I made a bet with my friend that i would install DSL linux on a laptop that is soo old.I know im being extreme with 1900's but specs are 128MB HDD ,no networking,no USB's,Dial-up 28k,serial port!.WHAT KIND OF A LAPTOP IS THIS!.No brand,weighs more than my desktop if I were to drop it it would fall threw the floor and land in my kitchen.

My idea is to use serial port software to transfer the OS and do something.

PLEASE I NEED IDEAS FAST!!!!?

EDIT:Just after looking very closely scanning and i found a floppy drive!!.Its really bad and floppys get jammed but IT WORKS!!.now what I do?

mathias

Is that correct , a 128MB hard drive , is so then forget it , the only kind of system that will take is text based and must have been a dos system when originally bought , a really small linux distro might go on it , but text based only.

DSL requires a minimum of 16MB of ram , and the machine needs to be at least a 486

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

, by your description that machine sounds like its from the 80's not the 90's and is possibly one of the original 8080/8086 pc's.

What kind of ram has it got , and how much , if the hard drive is only 128MB the we must be talking the original dos amount of 640KB , is this correct?

If so then pay your friend and look happy

jhegarty

tjsniper wrote:

OK I made a bet with my friend that i would install DSL linux on a laptop that is soo old.I know im being extreme with 1900's but specs are 128MB HDD ,no networking,no USB's,Dial-up 28k,serial port!.WHAT KIND OF A LAPTOP IS THIS!.No brand,weighs more than my desktop if I were to drop it it would fall threw the floor and land in my kitchen.

My idea is to use serial port software to transfer the OS and do something.

PLEASE I NEED IDEAS FAST!!!!?

EDIT:Just after looking very closely scanning and i found a floppy drive!!.Its really bad and floppys get jammed but IT WORKS!!.now what I do?

there is a version of linux (or used to be , not sure) called monkey linux that fits on one floppy..

KTRIC

Try this

http://projectdevolve.tripod.com/text/download.htm

el Bastardo

I don't know about Linux but if it's a colour screen, then it must be at least a 486 (The laptop that I used to have was a 386 B/W screen, 40MB HDD, 3.5" floppy, no network, no modem).

Diddy Kong

HAL91 - Linux distro thats fits on a floppy Disk.

Here is a wiki resource on Minimal Linux Distros that might help.

niallb

128M HDD in a laptop would suggest it's a bit newer than that.
Get some pictures together of the laptop.
Include one as clear as possible of the bootup screen,
or type up what it says.
It should have BIOS manufacturer and date on it at least.
Any labels on the case? Anything at all written on it?

Serial port = networking :-)
Does it not have a PCMCIA slot?

BTW, move this to the Unix board. You're much more likely to get help there.

If DSL won't go onto it, you'll get a BSD in anyway!

NiallB

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.puppylinux.org - not sure about the RAM limit though

If you have DOS 6 you can use interlnk to copy files via a serial crossover cable ( pins 2x3 crossover and 5 goes straight through on ( or if it's a 25 pin cable it's pin 7 for the straight through)) transfer speed is like dial up.

if it's got an earlier version of DOS once you have MODE.COM you can reverse transfer interlnk to then pull down the rest of the files

If' it's got a pcmcia slot you can get an adaptor for CF flash - but how to read it

DonkeyStyle \o/

You'd get Windows 3.11 onto it nicely.
Used to run it on a 25MHz/4MB ram/60MB harddrive PC.

Or you might get one of those laptop -> desktop IDE converters, whip out the laptop harddrive, hook it up to your PC and just blast whatever you want onto it.

ressem

Has it got a parallel port?
I set up zipslack linux on a similar spec desktop using a parallel port zip drive seven years ago.

If you've only 4 MB of ram then it will probably require a swap file. Any less and I think that it will not work.

weeder

wanna sell me your laptop? :rolleyes: *












*that was a serious offer btw

mukki

mathias wrote:

Is that correct , a 128MB hard drive , is so then forget it , the only kind of system that will take is text based and must have been a dos system when originally bought , a really small linux distro might go on it , but text based only.

DSL requires a minimum of 16MB of ram , and the machine needs to be at least a 486

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

, by your description that machine sounds like its from the 80's not the 90's and is possibly one of the original 8080/8086 pc's.

What kind of ram has it got , and how much , if the hard drive is only 128MB the we must be talking the original dos amount of 640KB , is this correct?

If so then pay your friend and look happy

:rolleyes:

homer simpson wrote:

and the lesson to be learned here......

never try!

Capt'n Midnight

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

You'd get Windows 3.11 onto it nicely.
Used to run it on a 25MHz/4MB ram/60MB harddrive PC.

Or you might get one of those laptop -> desktop IDE converters, whip out the laptop harddrive, hook it up to your PC and just blast whatever you want onto it.

I've shoehorned 3.11 onto an 8 MHz 8086 640K with CGA graphics ( you can fit program manager and a few apps onto a floppy )
And you can fit the first release of windows 95 onto a 40MB HDD if you

copying stuff directly onto the HDD would be the fastest way for sure.

DonkeyStyle \o/

I kind of regret throwing that machine out now
My poor 386, I wonder what landfill it's buried in... probably rats living in it now.
Does anyone else feel sorry for old unwanted electronics devices?
Like one day they were brand-new out of the box, being fawned over by its adoring new owners... then one day, because something better comes along, it's cast aside and only worthy of the skip... even though it has faithfully served you for years and still performs just as well as it did the day you took it home.

Or maybe I just need some human friends.

MadsL

Does anyone else feel sorry for old unwanted electronics devices?

First Machine I ever wrote code on...

http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/pet8032.jpg

And the first I ever owned

http://www.geoff.org.uk/museum/images/CPC6128.jpg

zilog_jones

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

I kind of regret throwing that machine out now
My poor 386, I wonder what landfill it's buried in... probably rats living in it now.
Does anyone else feel sorry for old unwanted electronics devices?

I always to avoid throwing things out, much to the annoyance of my mother. There's 3 PCs in the front room (only one being used, the other being a PIII I "liberated" from work last year and a Pentium Pro I "acquired" from UL), my old 386 (our first computer) in the wardrobe, and a P75 in the attic, not to mention a C64 and a Spectrum... somewhere...

by your description that machine sounds like its from the 80's not the 90's and is possibly one of the original 8080/8086 pc's.

Borlocks! 128MB was loads in the early '90s - my 386 desktop bought in 1992 only had a 80MB disk, and that was kick-ass back then! Most 8088/86s would have no hard disk at all! My secondary school still had some when I was there in 1998, and we had to load DOS and WordPerfect off 5.25" floppies
I'd guess it's a 386, or maybe an early 486. About 4MB RAM if you're lucky.

nesf

MadsL wrote:

First Machine I ever wrote code on...

http://www.vintage-computer.com/images/pet8032.jpg

And the first I ever owned

http://www.geoff.org.uk/museum/images/CPC6128.jpg

Memories: http://www.fiv.upv.es/museo/museovirtual/imagenes/originales/144.jpg

scojones

nesf wrote:

Memories: http://www.fiv.upv.es/museo/museovirtual/imagenes/originales/144.jpg

I still have my sinclair, and yes, it still works!

nesf

sjones wrote:

I still have my sinclair, and yes, it still works!

The tape drive on mine broke ages ago, I think it's still somewhere at my parents. I still have fond memories of it though, I learnt to program on it and it (and Sinclair User) kept me entertained for years until we got a PC to mess around with.

Capt'n Midnight

I'm just waiting for a ZX81 user to drop by and bitch about the RAM pack.

http://www.handhelds.org/geeklog/index.php
But people have put linux with GUI on ipaq's and they are pretty low spec as PC's go. They've even got ipaq clusters going. http://handhelds.org/cam.html
http://www.codeproject.com/scrapbook/hosting.asp - bigger ipaq cluster

niallb

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

I'm just waiting for a ZX81 user to drop by and bitch about the RAM pack.

No bitching required, just a dairy based cooling system.
Pint of milk jammed firmly behind it, and no more crashes :-)

NiallB

oscarBravo

RAM packs? Luxury! The real fun of a ZX81 was learning to code efficiently enough to fit whatever you wanted to do into the basic 1K RAM.

niallb

POKE all your variables into a REM statement.
It'll always be the same place in memory, no paging at all to worry about.
Oh, but don't forget to make sure they're all integers... and small...
Oh, and don't try and LIST the program after you've done that.

ZX81 was luxury. The ZX80 couldn't cope with keeping the screen refreshed while reading a keypress. It'd go blank every time you pressed a key. We had one at school...

Sorry to the OP for going off topic, but if you won't post any more details
of the laptop, there's nothing more we can do :-)
NiallB