please help a noob with a latop problem

[Campagfan]

Greetings all,
I am a computer noob who has recently become attracted to the idea of a linux OS. I am running windows on the desktop and i am sick of it. I have gotten my hands on an old school laptop specifically a NEC Versa 2530 with the following stats
Processor - Intel Pentium 133 MHz
RAM - 16 MB High Speed RAM, 1MB Video RAM and 256KB Cache RAM
ROM - 256KB x 8 bit, Flash ROM
Card Slots - Two 32 bit card slots for Type II or one Type III PC card, 5V or 3.3V interface
LCD Display - 12.1 inch with 800 x 600 pixels
Disk Drive - Standard 1.44 MB drive - 3.5 inch
Hard Disk Drive - Internal 1GB, 2.5 inch IDE
CD Rom Drive - 8X Speed CD ROM Reader

I have downloaded Unbuntu and Puppy and i have tried to run both through the laptop. The laptop currently has windows 95 on it. When setup to boot form the CD first the laptop returns the following message on start up.
bad or missing file A:\DRDOS\display.sys
Ive tried a work around I found on the web with no joy . The instructions i followed were as follows.

You are going to edit the config.sys file. It is located in the C drive. It is not in a folder.

The config.sys file is a system file. Configure Windows Explorer to view such files.

Select Tools then Folder options from the menus
Click the View tab
Under Hidden files select Show all files
Under Files and Folders remove the tick from:
Hide file extensions for known file types
Click the OK button in the Folder Options window.
To edit config.sys carry out the following steps.

With Windows Explorer select config.sys in the C drive. It is not in a folder.
Right click config.sys and select Open with
Scroll down the list of programs displayed and select Notepad
Make sure there is no tick in the option Always use this program to open this type of file
Click the OK button in the Open with window.
Add the following lines before all the lines displayed in the notepad window.

[menu]
menuitem=WINDOWS, Start Windows
menuitem=LINUX, Start Linux
menudefault=WINDOWS,10
menucolor=7,0

[LINUX]
shell=c:\boot\grub\grub.exe

[WINDOWS]

Well ive done all of this with absolutely no success. I cant get either Unbuntu or puppy to run from the disk or as a boot up in the laptop. I realise the RAM is low and needs bumping up drastically but i thought the linux OS would at least load. Can anyone give me any help or pointers as to what i am doing wrong. Thanks in advance.
Mick

[devils casper]

Hi Campagfan,

Welcome to the LinuxForums.

you have burned .iso images incorrectly.
.iso images are bootable by default so dont select 'make bootable disk' option. select 'Burn Image to Disc' option in your CD Burner.




Casper

[Campagfan]

Wow thanks for the quick response. Looks like ive found a good forum. I think youve nailed one of my problems. Next issue is with an Unbuntu CD i downloaded last night. I couldnt get it to run at all on the laptop but now it starts to load but then an error message comes up that says
A required DLL file, MSVCRT.DLL was not found. Now ive googled this and it appears to be a MS file so I cant understand why it would be popping up in a linux CD. ANy advice? The machine is going off for a RAM and hard disk memory upgrade tomorrow so if im just being to optimistic with it in its current form let me know.
cheers
Mick

[devils casper]

A required DLL file, MSVCRT.DLL was not found. Now ive googled this and it appears to be a MS file so I cant understand why it would be popping up in a linux CD. ANy advice?

thats strange. Ubuntu has nothing to do with MSVCRT.DLL file. its a part of Microsoft C Runtime Library. are you sure that your lappy is booting up from CD? post exact error message here.

Ubuntu wont work on that machine coz of less RAM but Puppy should work fine. did you try booting up from Puppy?

[Campagfan]

Once the machine had loaded up windows 95 i put in a CD that i had downloaded Ubntu onto and it started to run. Got the Ubuntu logo up lots of whirring noises from the CD drive then that message pops up in a box. Everything then comes to a grinding halt. I am burning a new copy of puppy now as per your previous post. Hopefully this puppy wants to play ball
cheers
Mick