I highly recommend you check out puppy linux .Puppy linux is made for old computers.There are many varients for puppy .
but you should check out lucid puppy.. it ubuntu compatible..
full description of puppy
Download information of latest puppy variants
why Lucid Puppy(ubuntu compatible).
1)You don't have to install Puppy (to hard disk) to use it.
2) What's different here is that Puppy is extraordinarily small, yet quite full-featured. Puppy boots into a ramdisk and, unlike live CD distributions that have to keep pulling stuff off the CD, it loads into RAM.
3)This means that all applications start in the blink of an eye and respond to user input instantly.
4)Puppy Linux has the ability to boot off a flash card or any USB memory device, CDROM, floppy disks, internal hard drive.
Now complete guide to install Puppy Linux from floppy through usb drive.
note:
Wake2pup tool is specifically built for puppy linux..therefore it can be applied to all latest puppy variants (lucid,racy,wary,slacko).. so it may be not for other distro(havn't tested but if it can be done for other distro..i will edit this post asap
)
Limitation:-
The whole tutorial is tested in vmware by booting from floppy drive through usb drive ..which worked but still it is tested on virtual system , not on real system...
I am assuming that you have working windows 98 with working floppy drive.
A) Collecting Resources
1) A Working Floppy
2) USB Flash Drive
Minimum Capacity- 256 MB
Recommended -1 GB or higher
3) Download the latest lucid puppy (Size-129 MB)
4) Download Unetbootin
5) Download wakepup2-img-write
B) Now explaining How to use resources
1) Unetbootin for creating live puppy..
Open unetbootin ..and select puppy linux.. after that ..select the downloaded os location and usb location.
Helping Screenshot:
when completed , close unetbootin, then open the newly created bootable usb drive ,
here create a new text document and rename it to USBFLASH.
Helping Screenshot:
Note:when renaming clear the whole name including .txt
2) Create bootable floppy-drive
1) First format the floppy drive, go to computer and right click on the floppy drive icon and select format.
2) Extract wakepup2-img-write.zip
3) Open extracted folder and double click it.. it will automatically detect and install wakepup2 in the floppy drive.
Helping Screenshot:
That’s it ..now restart & make sure that floppy disk and usb drive is properly inserted…
These are the screenshots you will encountered when booted from floppy drive..
1) First Puppy Boot CD menu will prompted
Select menu by entering one of the given number . Don't press enter cause it will take you to option 8 (which is you don't want)
most probable by looking at the menu is option 1
if option 1 doesn't work for you .. try 2 , 7(scsi most common controller), maybe 8 too..
Option 1 or 7 both worked out for me
but check other options other than 1,7 if didn't work out for you..
2) Now it will scan for usb devices
3) scanning completed after founding jetflash usb drive and installed managing
software.Hit enter
4) enter 1 for normal boot
5) Copying Puppy to RAM ..
6) Here is lucid Puppy UI ...click the install icon on the desktop..
select universal installer..
Note:-
Now you can install anywhere you want according to your hardware support..i.e internal hard drive(support for ide,sata and scsi controllers),usb drive & external usb hard drive, cd drive...
In this case you should select internal hard drive or may be old scsi hard drive.
Just for info
A)
Common error when your device is not located(or installed)
ignore the message, restart and choose different option from the Boot Menu.
B)
You can boot from the following devices by creating a text file on the device(same as we did with the usb drive) and renaming it to the following names..these files are called
maker files.
1) Boot from a built-in hard disk: just create a file IDEHD
on your hard disk
2) Boot from a USB hard disk: USBHD
3) Boot from a USB flash pen: USBFLASH
4) Boot from a built-in IDE or external USB CD-ROM: no file is needed, WakePup2 should find the Puppy2 files anyway.