HP Omnibook XE2 DC - Zorin Won't Boot

Hi,

I've been looking for a new OS for my HP Omnibook XE2 DC. It runs Windows 98SE right now. That means I can't access the internet, because there are no modern virus programs being kept up to date that work with Windows 98SE. New software also generally won't install on that OS.

I've tried to boot Haiku from a CD-ROM, and it refused to boot, complaining that it couldn't find a bootable partition (although when booting from a CD-ROM, that seemed odd).

I downloaded and tried to use Zorin Lite, but Zorin Lite is also refusing to boot on either the notebook or a desktop that is now running XP. I burned Zorin to a CD (NOT A DVD), because my laptop only has a CD player.

Is there "sure fire" alternate OS that will boot and let me update my old laptop (with 256 M of RAM as the limit) for use in the modern world? (I downloaded the ISO file and burned it to the CD ROM directly.)

Thank you.

Please recognize that I know nothing about Linux, and nearly as little about computers. Your help is most welcome and appreciated.

I was leaning toward the same conclusion regarding the restore partition being the problem after "Haiku" also failed to load, stating:

"Panic! Can not find bootable partition!"


I have a few questions:

1. I found "Puppy Linux" at the HTML address below. Will it cause the same problems in terms of running from a CD-ROM? I've downloaded the "slackware" version from:

http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%20L ... elease.htm .

The ISO size is around 162 MB. Is that too large for a system with 256 MB of RAM?

2. I'm not averse to booting from my CD-ROM drive, and storing data or files on a USB stick. (I would like to confirm that the Linux I load will work on my computer and not be ridiculously slow before I commit to a hard drive partition and "permanent" installation on a mutli-boot system.) My only concern with the CD-ROM boot approach is that I have to use a PCMCIA card USB 2.0 adder card to have USB 2.0 service on this Omnibook XE2. I simply leave the USB 2.0 card in the PCMCIA slot. I can then easily insert a little WIFI antenna in the USB 2.0 port and use WIFI hotspots on the road. This is very useful for me. (Also the reason I bought the cheap Android tablet, when my old laptop would no longer run anti-virus programs kept up to date due to the age of its Windows OS, and the new browsers would no longer work, making it painfully slow to load web pages.) If I boot from a CD-ROM with a fixed image, will the Puppy Linux still let me use the WIFI stick in the USB 2.0 port? (How would a fixed system on a CD-ROM produced from an image file know to load the WIFI stick drivers? - Like I said. Computers are not my field, so I may have this all wrong.) Note: I've already got the downloaded, Puppy Dog Linux ISO's for the Slackware variant with Mozilla as the browser on my Android tablet. I was thinking of burning it was InfraRecorder tomorrow to a CD and testing what it would do. I understand that the CD ROM load will be slower than a load from a hard drive, so the issue of responsiveness and related stability may arise in terms of whether I continue with the CD ROM load or seek a Windows 98SE compatible partition manager for free somewhere on the internet, that will also let me back up my old hard drive.

3. Is there a very user friendly partition program that would run under Windows 98 that would not cause me to lose Windows 98 if I start re-partitioning the hard drive? (This system came with Windows 98 pre-installed from HP as a refurbished computer.) I wouldn't necessarily mind partitioning a few hundred Meg of my 5 GB hard drive for a Linux boot and simply storing data on a USB stick if this is what is required to get around the "restore partition" originally installed with Windows 98 (which I would like to keep). Note that the same link above shows an installation for Puppy Linux that creates a dual boot system (much as was done by Windows XP when I upgraded my desktop from Windows 98SE).

4. I have another, old computer coming in the mail. It was pre-loaded with Windows ME. I purchased it inexpensively recently. My intent is to try out Linux and Haiku by partitioning the hard drive and running the system as a dual-boot.

Can you please advise me in this regard?

5. Any other insights, comments, or helpful suggestions would certainly be appreciated.

Thank you.