New Install troubles on a Toshiba T4900CT

[XPerties]

Ok, this is a very old laptop and I wanted to put something on that would not take so much resources up. So I tried to do a install with mandrake 9.0. I made the boot disk with the following and got the below errors...

cdrom.img: to install from a local IDE or SCSI CD-ROM drive. This has to be used in cases where you cannot boot your computer directly from the CD-ROM, by changing BIOS settings.

the cdrom is a external connecting to SCSI, and when I try to boot using the linux floppy is cant access the cdrom but I can load a driver, but the issue is it ask for a parameters to give to the kernal...

WTF? Where do I find these?

network.img: to install from a NFS, FTP, HTTP repository, your local LAN or via a PPPoE (DSL lines) network connection. The network configuration of the machine to be installed may be manual or automatic.

pcmcia.img: if the installation media is reached through a PCMCIA card (network, CD-ROM, etc.).

Not enough RAM error.

So my question is the laptop wont boot fromt he cdrom, well at least I can't find a manul on the net that will show me how to get into the bios to find out if it iwll boot. But anyways how can I do a install of linux?

I even put the cdrom in and clicked "Install Linux" and it says the pc will reboot and start install, but it wont reboot when I click "OK".

[APMTech]

ok to start with 95% of mandrake installs are quite bloated, so putting it on an older laptop really isn't the best place for it. I recently installed mandrake 9.0 in a toshiba sattelite laptop from i think 1997 or 1998 and it's a pain. PCMCIA won't start during start up, i have to go to interactive startup and agree with everything except starting that. if i were in your shoes. I'd get an older version. Slackware 7.0 would load onto my laptop with no problems (except you need a boot disk, it won't boot from cd even after changing it in BIOS) so with slack7 I upgraded the kernel and patched everything, and it works great.
When you go to install and it says "machine will reboot then continue the install" you press ok and it won't reboot. That happened to me.. then it's time for CTR-ALT-DLT and reboot it that way. If the machine is totally frozen a cold boot might do the trick. I had to cold boot it to get it to install. I'm not sure but maybe someone has word of Toshiba not liking Linux for some reason?

Mike

edit:: btw did you set your computer to boot from cd-rom in your BIOS? cause that needs to be done.