Baslinux mailing list

[baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org]

Hello people.  I have a Gateway Solo 9500 "Office" laptop without a cd-rom drive (busted out).  It has a floppy drive.  I bought this for $5 from a "scrap merchant."  I actually don't
think it was stolen because it's so fricking old.  But anyway, I had to wipe the hd because it
had some corporate security login. 
 
How do you get an operating system on such a machine?  Looks like you don't get BasicLinux 3.5 and attempt to bootstrap up from that.  Looks like you hope direct cable connection under DOS is going to work.
 
I tried to install gcc-2.95.1 (I guess I should have gone with 2.95.3) and this failed because of some missing cpp command with a path that should have included a gcc-lib directory, and some x86 stuff.  The failure was at the make all stage I believe, or maybe even just configure. 
 
I had attempted to install the five files from the slackware d1 directory (binutils, gmake, etc).
I don't really know if I did this properly.
 
This was all so I could compile the linux-wlan-ng modules (and the kernel?) for my Linksys wpc11 v.1 pcmcia card.  The existing pcmcia "start" script made a beep and got the red light to come on--that was it.
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I browsed the really long thread about that guy who tried to get his pcm card to work--he was less of a newby than me.  wa something or other.  He never got it to work.  And I never got mine to work.
 
You know what this distribution needs?  DOCUMENTATION.  Linux how-to's are really only good if they are exhaustively complete (to the extent they can be given all the different platforms and machines out there). 
 
But what the web site says about installing a c compiler (which you're going to need to do anything at all) is inadequate from a novice's perspective. 
 
I understand that the distribution is meant for much older, more feeble machines than mine, but this os is basically dysfunctional.  It's *some* of slackware 3.5, and only S.D. knows which *some* it is.  If he spent a mere fraction of the time he evidently spends answering questions on this mailing list on making good documentation, the whole minimalist linux community would be much better served.
 
ken t.

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