In message <41998C11.6080501@xxxxxxxxxxxx>you write: >> I am trying to install FC3 on a Toshiba Portege 7020CT Laptop. >> It has a pcmcia cdrom and the boot disks don't boot off the cdrom. >> It doesn't support booting off the usb either. > >See the README-en on FC3 disk1 for options including pxeboot. >Google.com/linux for: network aware grub boot floppy . PXEboot was a good lead. But for a one time boot, I would need to generate a boot floppy that knows about the laptop's pcmcia ethernet card and the pxeboot protocols. I found the etherboot site which solved everything except it doesn't seem to handle a pcmcia ethernet card - it assumes the card is directly accessible. >If the machine can boot an older version of Linux already, >then boot FC3-disk1:/images/boot.iso:/isolinux/vmlinuz and its >corresponding initrd.img. No OS is loaded on it's disk. It looks like a suicide double load is going to be the solution. Build up a FC1 image for ftp access on another machine, install fc1, then build up a fc3 archive, copy over vmlinuz and the initrd image, have grub load them, and pray that the fc3 load goes ok, since if it fails I have to start over at ground zero. >If you are really desperate, then try loadlin from DOS. No dos available. >And the ultimate may be to transplant the harddrive temporarily >to a "white box" machine using a 2.5-to-3.5 adaptor, do the >install, then transplant the harddrive back to the laptop. Knowing anaconda, it would would outsmart this by deciding not to load some of the packages that would be 'necessary' on the laptop. Leaving the whole escapade for naught. It would seem that unfortunately there remain some situations where a floppy boot is still necessary. steve
