No Way In!

Pretty tough :D
Anyway, you could try to install WinGRUB (http://grub4dos.sourceforge.net/) and configure it to load a CD image following the instruction listed at http://snipurl.com/fxgz. If you need further help, i'm going to help you as much as I can in order to get rid of this.

Very interesting, I am guessing that an external floppy was an option on this model of laptop. What make and model is it?

It's all here in the wiki : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromUSBStick

Hope it helps you ;)

It works if you can boot from USB.

But the problem with that Nicolas is that he does not have a USB port.

Thank you all for your help so far. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, on UK time so just got in to work.

Unfortunately Nicolas, I have no USB socket. Thanks anyway though.

williamsts, it is a Toshiba Portege 660CDT. very old. An external floppy was an option and I can even see where it should plug in. Unfortunately, I can't see a floppy drive. It was inherited from my friend and came with nothing but a laptop and a power supply.

Luca, will give that a go and let you know how I get on.

If you can't think of anything, really, don't worry. Just thought that those eager minds out there would like a little passtime like this but it's not critical to get this working. But thank you all for your support so far and I will play around and kep you all posted.

Thanks

Pat

Oh sorry... Can't you get a copy of the cd from the network on your computer's hard disk and try to boot on it ?

You could take the hard disk out of the machine and attach it to another computer that does have a cdrom drive for the duration of the install. Once installed, put the drive back in the laptop. You may need a drive converter - these can usually be bought at a local computer store - to let you plug a laptop drive into a desktop.

I have done this before for a Sony Vaio laptop that had no other way in.

Alan,

sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones. Alan, thanks for that.

Why didn't I think of that one! I've got one of those converters as well.

Thank you thank you thank you.

Thaks to everyone else as well who has contributed but I think this one has got it. Will close it tomorrow if it works.

Also this method might be able to be used to flash the firmware if need be, which might add the ability to boot from the CD drive.

Also that model is quite old and might not run very well, but you might want to look into setting it up as a Thin Client. What does it have as far as RAM? 32meg?

Hi, I don't know which solution would work best for you, but there are plenty of alternatives that are listed on the Ubuntu Wiki:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromWindows
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/Netboot
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SmartBootManagerHowto
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/WithFloppies
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromHardDriveWithFloppies

I hope that helps!

Wow, sorry, I did not see the part where you don't have a floppy drive either. All those solutions require floppy discs. I don't know if this will work or not, but maybe you could try taking out the hard drive and installing it from another laptop and putting it back into your laptop when it installs. You might be able to purchase an extension that will allow for USB/CD-ROM/Floppy off Ebay or somewhere else for really cheap since it is old. I am sorry that there aren't many other solutions if you don't have USB or a bootable CD-ROM drive or floppy. You can't really even update the BIOS to allow to be booted from a CD without a floppy.

If these comments have solved your problem, please consider marking this request as answered. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SupportRequests contains useful information about managing your support request.

If you are still having problems, let us know and we'll keep working on them.

Best Regards,
neuromancer