project: ghetto fabulus

[pcgeek]

ok i am going to startt on a project ( for modding, upgrading ect.)
i figured i would put sumtin like linux on it for now cuz it has win 95 now .
any suggstions on what to do on the outside?

http://www.maximumcpu.us//getimg.php?img=P1010546.JPG
http://www.maximumcpu.us//getimg.php?img=P1010547.JPG
http://www.maximumcpu.us//getimg.php?img=P1010549.JPG
http://www.maximumcpu.us//getimg.php?img=P1010550.JPG

[neb1211]

I can't think of a whole lot that you can do to mod a laptop but you might want to look into painting it and then adding some el wire or something under the keyboard.

Also btw pcgeek could you please resize the images.  1600 x 1200 is a little big for a picture that is being posted on a message board.  If you need any help with it please feel free to contact me or you can also do it yourself by downloading the Microsoft Image Resizing power toy.

Also btw I am going to move this thread to the modding section.

[JsutTechy]

Well first whats the model of it? Do you have any external drives or anything like that? Any thoughts on what you want to do to it as of yet? Painting, externally modding it or something like that?

I have something like yours in a Toshiba and I've been thinking of modding it lately too so I'd like to see where this goes.

[pcgeek]

it doesnt have a cd drive so i am gonna updrade it to 98 over the network, once i do that i will be able to add stuff like usb cards and soon expand to external cd drives and possibly hdds.  so thats my plan i just ordered a pci lan card for it that has drivers for 95 on ebay for like 7 bucks.

[neb1211]

that laptop has a pci slot or do you mean PCMCIA?

[pcgeek]

pcmcia

[acemaverick1381]

lol, I was gonna say...Anyway I don't think you really care but Windows 95 has a version with USB support. To be honest, I'd use 95 over 98, but 98 may have more support for what you want to do.

I'd defiantely get that laptop a "bath". Is that dust, dandruff, paint or what on that thing? If you do deciede to paint it, IBM are very easy to take most of the case off of and you could get a nice paint job on it.

[pcgeek]

im not sure if i wanna paint it or not, i am far to lazy to take all the components out of it so i might slap a sticker on it or sumtin .  98 shouldnt be to hard to install, i ordered that part and i will just move the setup stuff for 98 over to the secondary partition and run it from a boot disk.

[pcgeek]

UPDATE: it broke . the power went out when it was riting to a vital file and now it wont go past the windows loading screen.  SO heres my idea:
run dos on it permanitly or hit it alot w/ a hammer and hang it on my wall. what should i do

[neb1211]

I would say just use it as a dos gaming computer.   I am sure that you could find lots of games for DOS...

[acemaverick1381]

Can't you use an OS like Dave's Boot and Nuke to wipe the hdd and then reinstall whatever you want? I believe DBAN runs off of a floppy.

[pcgeek]

Can't you use an OS like Dave's Boot and Nuke to wipe the hdd and then reinstall whatever you want? I believe DBAN runs off of a floppy.

i would do that but its an old laptop and the i doubt linus or whatever will have all the necisary drivers to run the display, keyboard,mouse and such. but if u know of an os that will lemme know, its an old ibm think pad

[acemaverick1381]

Don't underestimate my friend. I have gotten Slackware to run with the Fluxbox GUI on a 486 Packard Bell. Believe me, it can be done. I'm really bogged down with school and what projects I am coding now, but I'll try to take a break later on and find some links for you.

[pcgeek]

thank you, thank you.  i what distro of linux should i use, i dont care if it has a gui or not but i would rather have gui.

[acemaverick1381]

Here is the link to DBAN:

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

And I would suggest using Slackware Linux, but I'm sure the rest of the forum population would like to chime in with their opinion.

http://www.slackware.org/

[pcgeek]

alright, i will have to go check that out. but i have one question, whats a good way to insatall the os? it has only a floppy drive and no cd drive.

[acemaverick1381]

Aren't you going to get a PCMCIA ethernet card? If you do, you can do it that way.

[pcgeek]

well i have one but how would i install over the network, i have thought my method worked but apparently i was rong, how should i go about doing this

[neb1211]

Some versions of Linux have an FTP install feature that you could use.  I know Suse has this feature for sure but I don't know about other Linux distros.

[acemaverick1381]

Slackware =) My favorite Linux distro I have ever used and I will argue until my death, or until a better Linux distro comes out that it should be ranked very, very high. Slackware has a FTP install as well. I know SuSe does. Red Hat should also have a FTP install, but with the specs of your computer I would not recommend it.

[pcgeek]

wait will slakware run on my comp or not
 

[acemaverick1381]

Yes, defiantely. Why wouldn't it? And please say Slackware. Slakware can be confused with Slak which is a live-cd distro of Linux.

[pcgeek]

but with the specs of your computer I would not recommend it.

ahh. i got confused, what wouldnt work w/ my specs

[acemaverick1381]

Did you read the first five words before that quote you just used?   Red Hat is defiantely not a feasable option on that old IBM. Way to much overhead. In fact, it probably has more overhead than Windows 95. Defiantely a scary thought.

[pcgeek]

alright, i was looking at the website for it but saw no way to install it over ftp.  o well let me know how.