On 08-Nov-05 Anthony Anson wrote:
The message XFMail.051107083550.Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk from (Ted Harding) Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk contains these words:
/snip/
I've become a great fan of "Linux on a Floppy", aka "Tom's RTBT". See
This packs an amzing collection of useful Linux stuff onto a single bootable floppy, and it's great for diagnostic and testing purposes.
Suggestion: make a Tomsrtbt floppy and have it by you. It may come in handy.
/snip/
Well, I went there, but which one do I need? And going to a download site, I was even more lost.
You'll need to do this using an already working Linux system, of course, and you'll need a blank floppy (in good shape) and a floppy drive capable of supporting the higher-density formats (1722MB in this case) -- but modern floppy drives do support this.
--> Download tomsrtbt here = list of mirrors, choose e.g.
--> Tux.org and scroll down to tomsrtbt-2.0.103.tar.gz
and click on this -- what precisely happens next depends on your browser, but the end result should be that you save this file to disk.
So save it in a convenient place (convenient for root, that is). Then, as root
tar xzvf tomsrtbt-2.0.103.tar.gz
and you will find a sub-directory tomsrtbt-2.0.103
cd to this. First read tomsrtbt.FAQ especially Section (4), have a blank floppy ready, and then execute
./install.s
and do what it says. The rest is automatic. If the formatting or the verification fails, you may need a better class of floppy diskette or maybe your floppy drive isn't up to it (though I've had no problems on the latter front).
Finally test it: take any old PC/laptop and boot it from the floppy you just made. There are a couple of choices to be made as the boot-up proceeds, one of which is about the screen which you can probably ignore, the other is to choose your keyboard layout (e.g. English UK) which does matter a bit.
Then finally you get to log in as root with password "xxxx", and you're away.
Hoping it works out, Ted.
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