Zorin Core CD or install Gnome on Lite?

Hello all,

Firstly let me say how amazing Zorin OS is. I've been trying many linux distros over the past five years or so and have found every single one totally inferior and bug ridden compared to Windows. However, I recently installed Zorin OS Core on my netbook and I have been blown away- fast, stable, fully-featured, and good looking. It is now my main operating system on that computer.

I was so impressed with it that I want to install it on my older XP laptop in the hope it will breath some new life into it. Here's the problem though:

I really want to install Zorin Core on the machine and think it should be able to handle it ok. However, the laptop only has a plain CD-ROM drive. Additionally, the integrated USB ports have blown and no longer work and so I have installed a PCMCIA card of 3 USB ports. This means that I can use the usb ports (almost) as normal once the laptop is booted into the OS, but I can't boot from anything connected to these USB ports- can't boot from external DVD drive or USB pen drive. There is also no built in SD card reader.

So my question is: Is there any way to create a compact CDROM size version of Zorin Core? Or can anyone tell me if it's possible to install Zorin Lite and then install the extra elements to turn it into Zorin Core (eg. Gnome etc.)?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Worth to try the following.

Step 1.
Go here http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/download.html and download Plop Boot Manager. It is the plpbt-5.0.14.zip. Extract it. You will find an .iso inside. Create a bootable USB with it.

Step 2.
Create a bootable USB of Zorin OS 6.1 core.

Step 3.
Insert into the laptop the Plop Boot Manager CD and select to boot from it. Also, insert the bootable Zorin 6.1 USB into the PCMCIA slot.
As soon as it boots you will be presented with a list o bootable options.
Check to see if there is any option for PCMCIA card. If there is, select it and see if it will actually boot from the Zorin USB.
If not, try the USB boot option (from the plop boot manager menu).


Also check in your BIOS settings to see if there is any otpion to enable PCMCIA card at boot, etc.


The one thing that is guaranteed to work 100% is the following.
You buy from ebay (or any computer store) a USB-to-Sata converter.
For example something like this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-Inch-Sata ... 4d07feec14
or this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-3-5-SATA- ... 4153c28bd0
(ofcourse check the size of your laptop before ordering. I assumed it is a 2.5")

You take out your hard drive, you connect it to another PC/Laptop using the usb-to-sata converter, you install Zorin Os on the hard drive and then you place it back on your old laptop. Easy as that.
Just make sure the other laptop is able to read/boot from DVD or USB...

Thanks for the quick response!

I'll give that plop boot manager a go, fingers crossed that'll work! Not sure if I'm bothered enough to buy the adapter and remove the hard drive etc. If Plop boot manager doesn't work I'll just try Zorin Lite.

Thanks for you help

You can even swap the hard disks between your laptops (if both of them are sata 2.5"). You install Zorin6 at the "old" hard disk, and then put your "new" hard disk back.

That way you will not have to buy an adapter.