Alternative OS to MS OS's.

[michael diemer]

By all means, attend to the important stuff, don't worry about my problem. I hope your father recovers quickly from whatever the problem is.

I've been looking around, this does seem to be a sticky wicket. One possible solution is Debian 3, which can be installed via floppy disks. However, you need internet as it downloads files. And my wife does not want this computer on line. So that's out (unless I want to live dangerously).

Also, there are Linuxes that actually fit on a floppy. none of them have a GUI, however, which is a must for me. So, Getting Puppy to boot somehow still is the best option. It is a very impressive OS, full-featured yet light enough for that machine. So for now the quest will go on. Although I wouldn't give much for the odds of success.

 

[michael diemer]

To return to another point Snick made, namely, how is my CD connected to my computer? Well, it came with it, I did not install it. I did install a secondary Iomega Zip CD, so I could burn CD's, but I'm pretty sure I didn't mess with any settings on the original one (like changing the jumpers).

I just tried inserting my Windows 98 CD to see if that would boot. It did not. The computer came with W95, but included a W98 upgrade disc, which I used soon after I got the computer. That was late 90's, and I have no memory of how I installed it. Did I boot it from CD? Install from CD with computer running? I can't remember.

I'm going to look at the Ubuntu thread about installing when computer won't boot from CD and see if that looks doable.

 

[Snick]

Are you intending to run puppy from CD (Live) or do you intend to install it on the Win98 computer? I believe you have to start with the Win95 CD then switch to Win98. How large is your HDD. You could set up Dual Boot, Win98 and Puppy.
Installing Windows 98 from an Upgrade CD
or have a look see: Boot Puppy Linux With Pup4DOS

 

[michael diemer]

First, I hope things are better with your father. I have 2 HDDs, the 5GB that came with it, plus a 30GB one I put in years ago as storage.

As for trying to boot from W98 disc, I was just looking to see if any disc would boot, not actually install it. On your tip I tried the W95 disc; same result, computer immediately boots to W98. Oddly, when I try the Puppy disc, it at least spends some time thinking about it. I have also tried to boot Tiny core, no go there either.

My plan was to run puppy as live CD, certainly not install it on the drive my wife used heavily, don't want to endanger that. I would consider putting it on the other one. But if it won't boot, it's moot. Must be the heat, I'm degenerating into being a poet again.

 

[Snick]

We went to his DR's office earlier, he will be ok, infection, not life threatening. thanks for your concern!!

Can you access files on the CD from Computer? On windows 95 CD, if you can find setuo.exe and double click it does the boot?

 

[michael diemer]

Only getting to your post now, snick. Last night I figured out that with the W98 upgrade disc, you put into an already running computer, presumably running W95. I did that and it opened fine and I went a bit into the install process, so the CD-rom works fine.

I also saw the option to make a startup disc on a floppy, so I did that. I was able to boot the computer from the floppy. That establishes that the computer is able to boot from something other than a HDD. It was very detailed. What a robust system W98 was! Anyway, I chose option of booting one step at a time. Went through process and booted normally. I was just looking around. One thing I saw was option to include McAfee AV. so I'm wondering if maybe, just maybe, that's the problem. I plan to do it again today, this time choosing not to load McAfee. You never know, may get lucky.

I also saw option in W98 CD to install some extras. I chose the additional desktops. Wow. I now have the jungle theme, and it's really cool. Complete with chirps and growls. In those days, you didn't need the internet to enjoy your computer (and we never had it). It came with something like 20 CD's, everything from Maps USA to Encarta Encyclopedia. Who need the internet? We never bothered with it, but we enjoyed that computer very much. how times have changed. Now it's all about connectedness, up to the minute trivia re: one's personal activities, selfies etc. Then, computers were actually about quality and aesthetics. W98 was a great system.

 

[Snick]

Booting from floppy is supported in Win98. Is your CD drive connected via USB?

You didn't, by chance, install puppy on a DVD did you? CD ROM can't read it and I believe, win98 can't either.
If you installed puppy on CD, if you insert it in the CD drive while the computer is running windows, can you access the files on the disk via computer, click on CD drive?


Happy 4th of July to you and yours. Be safe.

 

[michael diemer]

No, I installed to CD, and it works in my 10 year Gateway. It just won't work in my 20 year old Gateway. I'll have to check about whether the CD-rom is USB connected.

I may remove both CD drives and change the jumpers, so that the one I put in after market is the master, and see if it can boot. I'm also considering installing an op. system on the 30GB drive. But that also becomes complicated. It may be that only one drive can be the boot drive, so I'd have to change the jumpers there too. I guess that's why people get rid of these old dinosaurs, they're too much trouble to bother with. And yet, in many ways it's a very modern machine. Just very low specs compared to today's. For it's time, it was pretty impressive, and with a great OS like windows 98, I hate to trash it.

 

[Snick]

I tried running puppy 4.3.1 on win95, couldn't get it to boot. win95 can read the disk but trying to boot from it throws error, disabled bla.bla.bla, even though it it enabled and set to auto. haven't figured it out yet. If you have enough drive space, you can dual boot win98 and Linux so Linux forums indiciates. Here's an interesting concept I found last night using Smart BootManager.

Can't bootup live CD on Win98 laptop
Nic

 

[michael diemer]

The drive that W98 is on is 5GB, and most of it is used up. there might just be enough to squeeze a small Linux Os on, but I can't risk messing this drive up, my wife would be livid. I would love to install something on the other drive, though. I've seen that tute on Smart Boot Manager, it's something I considered. I'll look at it again. but it does get complicated. To install on the other drive (30GB), I have to go in and make it the master so it's bootable. Then, there's the issue once more of, will it boot from CD? If no, then perhaps W98 would install on that drive (over W95 of course as it's OEM and W98 is an upgrade disk). but, even if that goes OK, I can't easily switch between drives. that whole master/slave thing again. If it wasn't for that, it would be a piece of cake. Of course, it kind of makes sense to have the larger drive be master. It is mostly free, like 80% or so. And I could copy everything from the 5GB drive onto it. Plus, I'd have the small drive as backup should the big one fail. I could even just clone the small drive to the large one, which gets around the problem of installing from CD. Then I'd have a drive that is big enough to do all sorts of things with, like a virtual Linux system. That may be the best solution, if there is no way to fix this booting from CD problem.

 

[Snick]

I believe you should be able to create dual boot, if you have open connection on your ribbon, and utilize win boot manager to select between them, not sure though. Man, it's been considerable time lapse from when I used Win95/98 regularly. Dad as PFS programs from back in the Tandy days, I believe it was Tandy 1000 that he first used it with. He has several thousand records he has indexed on PFS.
Software Publishing Corporation (PFS software)

 

[michael diemer]

I checked inside the desktop, and both HDDs are on the same ribbon. Similarly, both CD drives are on the same ribbon (tho a different one of course). I'm not sure what possibilities this leaves me with. But after installing the extra themes from the W98 install disc, and arranging the desktop nicely, I have fallen in love again with Windows 98. It's very fast for the offline apps it has, no need for Linux as a way of accessing documents for example. W98 opens them quickly enough. and no issues re: compatibility with another office app like Libre. The only thing I might do is try to install Windows on the secondary drive. It has no OS, and about 5.5 GB of files. That way, I have redundancy in case the original drive goes kerplunk. I could install the same programs and migrate over the files from drive one, and have everything on one much larger drive (30GB vs 5). But I'm not going to attempt even that unless I know exactly what I'm doing. W98 does not have Easy Transfer or any similar program. And since I can't hook up my external hard drive to it, I would have to save the 5.5 GB of files on CDs (7 would do it).

Anyway, for now, I'm content to leave things as they are. Since this machine has never online, it has no viruses or malware. It works fine. I can improve things by taking advantage of the other drive, but that's for another time. I thank everyone who has helped out here, especially snick. I'll be starting my own thread if and when I decide to install Windows on the secondary drive. Once again, thanks to all and see you around the forum.

 

[michael diemer]

Well, I decided to try something. I removed the original CD rom and switched the jumpers on the Iomega zip CD I had installed years ago. I made it the master, and put it on the first pin connector on the ribbon. I fired up my computer for the 50th time, and lo and behold, Puppy Linux booted! The original CD rom was the problem the whole time. It is now sitting on a shelf. just wanted to let folks know. I had pretty much given up, then lying in bed last night, I had this idea. I was shocked when it worked. Sometimes you just need to go one more mile...

Checking out PL now. I chose Wary Puppy, which is older and more likely to work on this old machine. I now have better options. I can keep W98 where it is, on the original HDD, and install PL if I want on the new drive. I can partition with Gparted. The possibilities are endless. What fun! I'll be up late tonight. Oh well, it's Friday. Actually, I'm retired, one day is pretty much like any other...

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Oh well, it's Friday. Actually, I'm retired, one day is pretty much like any other...

That's one of the nice things about retirement: everyday is Saturday! Of course, keeping track of the day and date can be challenging.

 

[michael diemer]

Yes, LF, and holidays sometimes catch you by surprise. You get the big ones of course, but then, you're listening to the weather forecast and the weatherperson says, "going into the holiday weekend..." and you're like, it's a holiday? Of yeah, Presidents Day. Gee, I'd be excited if I was working." kind of miss that...

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Gee, I'd be excited if I was working." kind of miss that...

I wouldn't.

 

[michael diemer]

I sure don't miss braving the elements and ***hole drivers first thing on a freezing Maine morning when any creature with sense would be fast asleep in its hole.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I sure don't miss braving the elements and ***hole drivers first thing on a freezing Maine morning when any creature with sense would be fast asleep in its hole.

I don't miss the Corporate America working environment. It was like working in a Dilbert cartoon.

 

[michael diemer]

I was fortunate in that regard, worked for social service agencies and then State O' Maine, where mere inefficiency and incompetence were the only issues.

 

[michael diemer]

Just to complete my detour of this thread: I have succeeded in having a nice dual-boot of W98 and Puppy Linux. Actually, it's a triple-boot, as I have W98 on the original HDD, and two versions of Puppy Linux on the secondary (slave) drive. I could not get Windows to boot with the grub4dos bootloader installed on the slave drive. I installed it last night to the master (Windows) drive, taking a small risk that windows would not boot from there either, but it did boot, as well as both puppies on the other drive. Everything works fine. I now have a faster computer too, as I maxed out the ram at 384 MB. Picked up some virgin ram for 30.00. So W98 is faster, and the computer also has Linux on it, in case we ever decide to put it online. For those with older computers, consider Puppy Linux. It is absolutely loaded with everything you need, yet is one of the lightest Linuxes out there. Usually around 100MB, the iso fits on a CD. And the forum is great.