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Message from Steven
===================

> I'm trying to get Linux running on a very old 
> IBM PS/2 model 70/80 PC. 
>
> this PC only has 12MB RAM, 

12mb is OK.  You should be able to do lots of stuff
with 12mb RAM (plus 24mb swap).

> so I couldn't load a GUI 

BL3 has a built-in GUI.  Did you try executing startx?

> I want to try to get Linux running without floppies, 
> so I downloaded the DOS version 

Did you consider installing BL3 to HD directly from
the floppy version?  That should work better.  First
you create a Linux partition and a swap partition
(using fdisk in BL3).  Then, you format the swap
partition (mkswap) and put an ext2 filesystem on 
the Linux partition (mke2fs).  Then you mount the
Linux partition on /hd and execute install-to-hd 

> When I ran "boot.bat", everything went smoothly... 
> except when it came time to find the filesystem image. 
> I got this error: 
> /baslin/fs.img not found on mount /dev/hda1

I suggest you boot BL3 (from floppies) and execute:
---------------
dmesg | grep hd 
---------------
Please tell us what that says.

If the above shows nothing useful, try:
---------------
dmesg | grep sd
---------------
Does that show your drives?

> The PC is so old it doesn't have a math coprocessor! 

No problem, the default BL3 kernel should manage that.
 
> I was wondering if the status of this issue has changed 
> since then, or if there's a fix?  If not, what else would 
> be able to run?

It is a very good sign that BL3 runs from floppies.
We should be able to figure out a way to get it installed
on your HD.  It might take a bit of trial and error, but
we should get there.

Cheers,
Steven