install from floppies - can't get pcmcia recognized

[Guest]

Hi, I just acquired a new laptop (32Mb RAM, Pentium 166Mhz)

I want to install damn small linux, but the CDrom doesn't seem to work.
I have tried about 20 times, and only could boot twice. By doing exactly the same things, I get various error messages.
The two times I could boot, the computer froze one or two minutes after.

So I have decided to install Debian from floppies.
I got thoses 4 floppies :
http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/ ... es/floppy/

I put the boot floppy, then the root floppy.
But when I try to load modules from the floppy, I get :
error while running 'modprobe -v i82365'

Then,
when I try to detect network hardware, it tries again to load i82365.
Then, it ask me if I want to load pccard service. I say yes, I choose pcnet_cs, because, my PCMCIA card is highscreen profinet (=>)

and I get : the module pcnet_cs failed to load.
So I don't have the possibility to get connected to Internet.

If I use a shell and made modprobe -v i82365, I get

Code: Select all

Using /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-386/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/i82365.o
insmod: init_module: i82365: No such device
modprobe: failed to load module i82365

modprobe -v pcnet_cs gets me :

Code: Select all

insmod ds 
Using /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-386/kernel/drivers/pcmcia/ds.o
insmod: init_module: ds: Operation not permitted

and others lines telling that it could not load pcnet_csdue to unersolved symbols.

Does anyone have a clue of something I could do to install a distribution on my laptop ?
thanx a lot.

[Harold]

I suggest that you post your question to the Debian-Laptop Mailing List. Additional info would be helpful. For instance, what make and model of laptop. Also check Tuxmobile.org to see if someone else has already worked through the issues.

The floppy images you are using are from March '05. I would use a more current set of floppy images. Well, duh! I can't find the official Sarge July '05 floppy images. I do see the current Etch images at people.debian.org/~joeyh/d-i/images/daily/floppy/.