Linux Format forums

RE: Small distro

kevanf1 — Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:06 pm

Author: kevanf1

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:06 pm

No, I set it up using a parallel port Iomega Zip drive. In fact I've got two of those as well. One's a 100mb with the other being a 250mb. Here's a bit of history for you, the 250mb used to belong to a columnist here on LXF - good old Jono Bacon No doubt he'll be pleased to know it's still up and running and on a Linux tin.

The other two drives I have are both internal and I really must get around to installing them. I didn't realise that they went in without any other tweaking.

RE: Small distro

ladi — Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:40 pm

Author: ladi

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:40 pm

Mine's an internal drive that shares the IDE cable with my DVD writer. Of course. what I said won't be relevant if yours is not on an IDE interface.

RE: Small distro

kevanf1 — Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:23 pm

Author: kevanf1

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 6:23 pm

Ah, is that internal drive or a parallel port one? Or possibly one of the USB drives? I have a couple of internal drives that I haven't fitted - brand new and got them very, very cheap. I should really have qualified my term when I mentioned the drive sorry about that.

RE: Small distro

ladi — Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:01 pm

Author: ladi

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:01 pm

Quote:

How about a small piece on installing to a Zip disk though?

Excuse my ignorance, but isn't that a matter of installing the root filesystem on the Zip drive?. Not too familiar with grub, but with lilo, you could then do something like lilo -b /dev/hdd to install lilo as the bootloader on the zipdrive. (My Zipdrive is on hdd). Of course, if your pc can't boot directly from a zipdrive, then an external bootloader will be required.

Quote:

There are probably a good few people who have Zip Drives but don't know how to get them to run on Linux

Not sure what you mean by that either. My 100MB Iomega drive has always been detected by every distro I've tried and is treated as just another disk drive.

Unless I'm missing the point, of course...

RE: Small distro

kevanf1 — Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:46 pm

Author: kevanf1

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:46 pm

Ah, of course...slaps head due to stupidity I do indeed have that copy...somewhere.... I'm actually in the middle of cataloguing all my Linux mag's and books but it's about somewhere.

How about a small piece on installing to a Zip disk though? There are probably a good few people who have Zip Drives but don't know how to get them to run on Linux. There is a quick HOW TO on the Ubuntu site for Ubuntu/Kubuntu (I wrote it my little contribution to the open source world) but it may vary for other distro's.

RE: Small distro

M-Saunders — Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:10 pm

Author: M-Saunders

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:10 pm

We did a roundup of mini-distros (suitable for old machines) in issue 68, if you have a copy!

Mike

Small distro's on old technology

kevanf1 — Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:26 pm

Author: kevanf1

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:26 pm

Has anybody had any success in running the smaller Linux distro's on stuff like Zip Disks? DSL should run on a 100mb Iomega (or clone) Zip Disk. While there are others that are a bit larger that should fit on a 250mb Zip Disk. But has anybody tried it? Does it work at an acceptable speed? Perhaps not for everyday use but as a tools disk?

How about an article on this subject form LXF? After all, Linux is excellent for keeping older technology/hardware up and running.