> From: news [mailto:n...@ger.gmane.org] On Behalf Of Stefan Monnier > Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 10:28 AM > Subject: Re: lenny on x86 > > > Does anybody nows if lenny installation on x86 machines > > using floppy is (or will be) available? > > Why would you need that?
Short Answer: Because there are still a lot of companies that use floppies for various utilities. There are also a lot of hobbyists that use older hardware. Many in my Linux user group still bring systems with floppies. Long answer specifically for me: I was given a bunch of Ricoh NP-50 laptops a few weeks ago. Nothing special, but I have been having fun tinkering with them while I watch Mythbusters / Dirty Jobs. They are Pentium 90mhz, 64MB ram, 4-6GB hard drives. They have no onboard lan, one usb 1.1 port (can't boot off of it), 2 PCMICA slots, no cdrom drive, and an external parallel-attached floppy disc. I have been using the etch floppy images to boot[1] and mess around with. The problem I am having is that all of the PCMCIA cards I have are either not recognized by these floppies, or in the case of one wireless PCMCIA card, it is recognized but I can't get it to attach to a wireless access point (no encryption). Yet, on another laptop (Debian Lenny is already installed) just about all of the PCMCIA cards work just fine straight away. So it would be nice to get a floppy install but then again I am just tinkering with it. I am not really in /need/ of it or anything. It just gives me something to do during the 40 minutes of coming-up-next/lets-recap of Mythbusters. Even if I get them running I am not sure what I am going to do with them. These things don't pull a lot of power so the only idea I have so far is a constant update screen for my MythTV system (load, mem usage, what shows are recording/upcoming, ect). If I can get internet working really well, they would also make for a good "let me check the mailing list right quick" devices too. Someone just recommended to me installing to a USB thumbdrive and using a floppy to load grub to boot off the USB thumbdrive. That would certainly make installing easier but I have not had a chance to really research that yet. If you know a good place to start, I would appreciate tips. Anyway, that is why I still use floppy installs. Have fun! ~Stack~ [1] http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/main/installer-i386/current/i mages/floppy/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
