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

[Bob Blick]

> 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

Those are 800K disks, not 720K disks. You cannot format them in any PC
floppy drive. They are only compatible with early macs and some of the
later ones that could do both 800k and 1.44m formats.

Your best bet is to either:
A) get an SE that has 800/1.44 drives
B) make disks in a later (but not too new) mac with a 800/1.44 drive

Cheers,

Bob