[ltp] 760XL with a BIG HD Problem

[James Knott]

Adam Southerland wrote:
> Good Day...
> 
> I am attempting to Install Slackware 9.1 on my 760XL but I have a 
> problem...
> 
> First the Floppy and CDRom are swappable. I'm not able to pause the 
> booting process for the kernel to detect it.
> 
> Second, the only NIC I have with me is an RTL8139 and with my Laptop, 
> the 8139too driver fails so installation over NFS doesn't work...
> 
> third, I have a single HD system so I can't slave the big drive to 
> install Linux on..
> 
> forth, Windows DOS and MS DOS and PC DOS *ALL* fail  to boot with a 
> partition on the hard disk (the 6Gb limit thing) -- IBM DOS seems to 
> work though (comes with PowerQuest image center) - I don't have enough 
> DOS files to boot Linux from it.
> 
> fifth, I could cry... Anyone have any ideas for me? (I have NOT tried 
> freedos)
> 
> If I can get a DOS installed I can use LOADLIN to start the Linux 
> INSTALL with my CDROM drive detected... -- Note my Big Drive is a 10Gb 
> Hard drive - I tried making it say it was a 4Gb with the Hitachi util, 
> but DOS still didn't like it.

I have installed Linux on a 760E a few times.  However, I used an 
external floppy drive, with the CD drive installed in the case.  Can you 
borrow an external floppy from somewhere?

Another trick I tried with OS/2, was to set up the parallel port as a 
"NIC" and install that way.  It was slow, but worked.  I wonder if 
something similar could be done using PLIP?

Also, how big is the partition that fails to boot.  Those computers had 
a fairly small maximum bootable partition size, IIRC.