I’m now trying out Ubuntulite (in VirtualBox) and , though I like the idea, it is slow to get the stuff from the net. Ok for experienced users of linux, but otherwise forget it. I mention this ‘cos people have asked me for a ‘netinstall’ type for antiX via debian and Mepis. Nice idea but for small distros, flawed.

@puuque: Good idea. If I decide to try out some more distros, I’ll poke around with that one. Right now I want to work a little more with Ubuntulite, particularly since the Gutsy beta is due in a few days. Perhaps next month I’ll look it over. Cheers!

Either a more powerful laptop or even a desktop (with an adapter for the HDD interface), this allows for the contents to be read and installed from the CD onto the hard drive, where you then can set up appropriate SWAP space and the rest of the setup. Because Linux generally keeps all of its drivers in the kernel, unless you custom compile your kernel, its very likely that the new hardware (once put back into the laptop) will still be recognized and used just fine.

Generally, I let the installation’s first boot come from the destination machine, since a distro may try to customize it a bit at the initial ‘real’ boot; but for the install, its usually a generic image that can be performed anywhere. It also helps when the laptop’s CD drive is questionable or just too slow or won’t read a CD-R.

With some Debian experience, a Debian Etch install is a good choice since you can start the basic minimal (net) install and then add to it once the laptop is running. Apt-Get all that you need and have it be a customized machine! (I fought a Dell Latitude CP (Pent1) with this for a while — i finally learned that there were specific kernel parameters to add for some machines, and one that i picked worked. Moral — look into some of the more advanced Boot options!)

Good luck!

I’m glad you’re enjoying the saga. I was worried it would be rather boring, although I suppose it has an occasional high point. Cheers!

I’m rather enjoying following your continuing adventures with this little laptop. I’ve got a Pentium 200 MHz laptop with 160 MB RAM downstairs (currently serving as USB print server and “really slow machine”) that I’d like to tinker around with. Between DSL 1.5, Puppy Linux 2.10, QNX Momentics and Fluxbuntu “nBuild 1″ live CDs, I’d have to say that the Fluxbuntu seemed to hold the most promise.

I did have it running for a while as a temporary PC for my mom (with connected monitor, keyboard and mouse) with a Debian netinst setup, which was a little slow but surprisingly usable. Right now, it’s running… Windows Millennium… because. I’ve used Windows 98 SE way too much, and ME does have some usability features that I like!

I’m definitely testing more distributions out on it once I supply an interim replacement print server, though. Maybe BeOS or Haiku or something? Windows XP (ah ha, ha).

Also, puppy linux (http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1) might give you a pleasant (read fast) experience (I know it did for me on a 266Mhz K6 128MB RAM system).