[CLUE-Tech] Floppy Install of RedHat 5.0 on 386, 80mb HD, no CDROM

[David Anselmi]

Keith Christian wrote:
> 
> Anyone know of a how-to or other info explaining how to install from
> floppies onto an older 386?  I have a RedHat 5.0 CD but the computer
> has no CD, no network card, and is an older 386 (another reason I'm
> going to use an old distribution since some newer kernels require 486
> or Pentium class CPU's.)

Debian works well over a network--I picked up a few 3com NICs for $2 at
a used hardware place at Santa Fe & Oxford (though I needed the DOS
utility to set the I/O parameters).

Debian also has floppy images for install--see the install guide at:

http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/i386/ch-appendix.en.html#s-obtain

Section 11.2.3.4 is the list of the base files (20 1.44 floppies).

Slackware used to be broken into floppy sized chunks but that was many
years ago.  Maybe they still have something.

If you get an old CD-ROM be aware that it will probably not read CD-RW
disks.  It may read CD-Rs but that may depend on the recording mode. 
Look at the CD-R FAQ for details http://www.cdrfaq.org/.

You can set up networking over serial ports and a null modem cable using
PPP.  See the PPP Howto.  It doesn't look very hard, but you have to get
ppp on both machines for starters.

Dave