Linux on Dell laptop?

[Adam Myrow]

Slackware comes with a root disk called the smart boot manager or 
something like that.  It is something to allow a computer which can't 
normally boot a CDROM to boot it, as well as any other partition on any 
hard drive.  It is called sbootmgr.dsk.  I've managed to boot it before 
and by hitting the down arrow about 3 or 4 times followed by enter, I was 
able to luck into the selection for booting a CDROM.  So, that may be 
another way to get around the problem of the floppy not being recognized 
by the kernel.