Linus install - boot issue

[Yoda]

Picked up a Fujitsu E-Series lapdog off ebay. Works fine and will made an ideal Linux-learning box.

However ..... both Ubuntu and Xandros need the machine to boot from a CD-ROM. The machine has a CD-ROM, but it's an external jobby, linked via a Firewire PCMCIA card. Consequently the machine doesn't recognise the drive until after it has booted up and hence BIOS tweaking isn't any use.

A few vague thoughts are:-

1) Is there a conversion adapter/doobery that would allow the Firewire CD-ROM to plug in via the USB port? In which case an updated BIOS might allow a boot from USB?

2) Make/get a floppy boot disk which would have the drivers to then recognise the Firewire CD-ROM and do the install from there?

3) Partition the drive (I want to leave Windoze on there) and do a mini-install onto the partition - enough to boot from and read the CD-ROM and do the install?

Oohhhhh my brain hurts......

 

[lom]

I think your only answer is to create a partition so's you can select which partition to boot at startup.

I've had similiar problems in the past when I wanted to try Ubuntu on a Toshiba Portege 7200 laptop that had no CD-ROM drive and that's the only way I got round it.

I never stuck with Ubuntu - I liked it, but I couldn't get connected to the web and NTL, my ISP, don't offer any support for Linux users. (I was a complete Linux n00b)

I use XP now but I do, at least, know every hack there is for XP

 

[lom]

Have a read of this. And this.

 

[Yoda]

Brain fhart moment. Called the thread Linus rather than Linux.

D'Oh!

 

[Redboots]

You could try DSL - http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/download.html
Complete OS with browser/mail/word processor, USB and ADSL connect etc. in a 50meg package.

Boot from CD/DVD, flashdrive, HDD or RAM - lightning fast! (like OS2 was )

Good for noobs to get the feel of Linux

J