Arch Linux

lang2

Member

Registered: 2006-02-10

Posts: 386

Installing Arch on a very old laptop

Hello all,

I have a very old laptop (6 years +). The DVD drive on it is broken (well not entirely but broken enough to not read my CDR). It doesn't support booting from USB drive. I was stupid enough to set a BIOS password and forgot it. So my question is: can I install Arch (or indeed any new OS) on it?

Thanks,

dolik.rce

Member

From: Czech republic

Registered: 2011-05-04

Posts: 43

Re: Installing Arch on a very old laptop

Hi lang2,

Given the constrictions you listed (no DVD, no USB boot) and also assuming that PXE booting over network is not available, I think your best chance is to take the hdd out, put it in some computer in better shape, install Arch on it there and then transfer it back to the laptop.

Also when you are messing up with the hardware, you might as well reset your BIOS to factory settings AFAIK most of the hardware allows you to do that using a jumper on motherboard (refer to manuals for your particular model).

shulamy

Member

From: israel

Registered: 2010-09-11

Posts: 454

Re: Installing Arch on a very old laptop

first of all try clean the cd lens.

if you dare open the laptop

there should be a jumper to reset the bios including password.

ezik

lang2

Member

Registered: 2006-02-10

Posts: 386

Re: Installing Arch on a very old laptop

Thanks all for suggestions. I was hoping a solution without opening up the laptop. I've never opened a laptop before and my VAIO 505 doesn't look too easy.

Cdh

Member

Registered: 2009-02-03

Posts: 1,098

Re: Installing Arch on a very old laptop

For USB boot you can try the plop bootmanager:
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html#download

It includes usb drivers and allows to boot from USB without support from the BIOS.
Just burning the iso to a cd or dd'ing the .img to a floppy disk should do it.

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Inxsible

Forum Fellow

From: Chicago

Registered: 2008-06-09

Posts: 9,183

Re: Installing Arch on a very old laptop

For USB boot you can try the plop bootmanager:
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html#download

It includes usb drivers and allows to boot from USB without support from the BIOS.
Just burning the iso to a cd or dd'ing the .img to a floppy disk should do it.

+1 I have used plop to install on my old Dell Latitude C800 with 256MB RAM

works like a charm !

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