response 139 of 257:

May 11 22:51 UTC 1999

        No. M$ is completely igerment.

response 141 of 257:

May 13 05:54 UTC 1999

there may be another alternative....
  I believe that RedHat 5.2 CD-ROm is bootable itself.  I also believe
that there is a 'demo mode' which will create ramdisk, and then call for
mounting of the 'live filesystem' CD which is included in the boxed set.
This will let you get a feel for working with Linux without making any
permanent changes to your system.  Of course, it's dependent on having a
PC that can boot from CD.  Mine are all too old, so I can't try this
myself.  You said that your floppy drives have been disabled.  I wonder if
they also disabled the boot from CD option in the bios, as well.
  This method would give you a clean system every time you booted it, so
you couldn't do much in the way of customization.  The next step would be
to create an UMSDOS filesystem.  This does not require re-partitioning,
but instead is a unix filesystem creatted within a DOS file.  for that
matter, you can do a full linux installation in a UMSDOS filesystem.

Unfortunately, all my spare hardware is sitting right here at my feet in
Michigan.  The shipping charges to India would be much greater than the
hardware is worth.  For that matter, this weekend I'll be attending a
convention in Dayton, OH which is reputed to be the largest electronic
flea market in the world.  Typically, sunday afternoon the parking lot is
littered with hardware the vendors don't want to haul home.  I wish I
could think of a way to send you a container full of PC parts!

response 143 of 257:

May 13 17:13 UTC 1999

I don't remember an option, however, to boot a live system directly from
the CD.  The live-system-from-cd option I saw required a minimal
partition on the HD, I believe.  Granted, the last time I looked at it
was quite a while ago.  BTW, RedHat 6.0 is out.

response 145 of 257:

May 13 21:23 UTC 1999

Here is what the RedHat 5.2 FAQ says on the subject:

E.6.12.1 Question

I would like to be able to use the live file system on the cdrom to
boot. 

E.6.12.2 Answer

Red Hat Linux no longer supports the Live boot feature due to the change
to a modular kernel. Because of this change, booting from read-only file
system is not practical. The cdrom does contain data in
its /live section that can be executed in rescue mode, but one needs to
set the PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables. 

response 147 of 257:

May 14 01:26 UTC 1999

It means you can't boot the live system on the CD-ROM.  It's only there
for the rescue disk.  

response 149 of 257:

May 14 17:59 UTC 1999

No, you can boot the CD to install.  You can't, however, boot the *live*
filesystem on the CD.  Theoretically, you could boot a real, complete
system from the CD.  However, since the advent of kernel modules, you
can't have them on a read only file system (don't ask me why) so you'd
need at least one filesystem not on the CD, so they don't see a point in
allowing you to boot the one on the CD except for rescue purposes.  (I
hope that was clear enough...)

response 151 of 257:

May 14 23:01 UTC 1999

        Well, it's real HARD to mung up a R/O filesystem that CAN'T become
        writable, no matter what..


        And it frees up the HDD for all the files that change..



        Think about it.

response 153 of 257:

May 14 23:26 UTC 1999

Info World magazine a couple weeks ago had a columnist mention the Caldera
6.0 release of Linux.  Evidentally it had a very friendly graphical install,
and would even set itself up a partition on the same disk as Windows 95 in
a very cooperative matter.

response 155 of 257:

May 15 06:23 UTC 1999

        Well ! Since i think i was the one who started it all, maybbe i should
be a bit concerned about it. I have almost given up the idea of working on
Linux. Fortunately, my brother recently purchased a COMPAR Presario . So i
think i would try it out (this booting from Read only file system is still
a good idea for novices like me probably,who cannot actually say that their
HDD is theirs). But the major problem is that my brother stays in a different
place than i am and both these are 600km apart. So i guess..it is stilla
problem. 

BTW, someone said Redhat 6.0 is much easier to install and can even partition
the disk...if that is true i guess  m y job is further simplified.

        Thank you Rick, Marcus, Daniel, Scott , John and others.
 systems guys...Hope they won't take me to task..:):)

response 157 of 257:

May 16 00:52 UTC 1999

I'm sorry, that last response was a bit confused.  Would you care to
re-phrase with an emphasis on simplicity and clarity?  Thanks.

response 159 of 257:

May 19 00:13 UTC 1999

Hey, FreeBSD Release 3.2 was released the other day.  I should be 
getting my CDs in a week or so, so if anyone out there needs to borrow 
them let me know...  I'm in the southwest corner of Michigan, but plan 
to head up to Ann Arbor sometime in the next few weeks...

response 161 of 257:

May 19 11:18 UTC 1999

Wish my client had asked me for an on-site assignment in U.S..no non-bootable
floppy drive problems...no pestering people on BBS..no involuntary switching
of companies...hmmmmm..WISH  I WAS THERE..