[NBLUG/talk] Attempting an "ancient hardware" install...

[Lincoln Peters]

I want to (try to) breathe some new life into an Apple Macintosh SE by
installing Linux on it.  Not surprisingly, I have run into a few
complications.


First, as far as I can tell, I can install Debian Linux (m68k build) on
it, but it has no CD-ROM drive and its built-in 3.5" floppy drive only
supports 720K diskettes.

I seem to remember that I can format a 1.44MB diskette as a 720K
diskette and then use it on a machine that only recognizes 720K
diskettes, but I'm not sure exactly how to do so (I've formatted and
used high-density 5.25" 1.2MB disks as low-density 360K disks before). 
However, all of my attempts to do so have failed; I cannot use my Athlon
system (running Debian/testing) to format a high-density disk as a
low-density disk (and then be able to read it back), and I cannot even
make the Macintosh (which still has MacOS 7 installed) read or even
format a high-density disk.  Am I doing something wrong, or do I need to
find a 720K floppy drive (with a few 720K floppy disks) to install into
my Athlon box?


There is a small chance that I will bring this computer to the
InstallFest tomorrow, depending on whether I can make usable boot
floppies by then.

-- 
Lincoln Peters <sampln at sbcglobal.net>