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| Author |
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Alan Adams
*nix forums addict
Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 64
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 Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 8:40 pm Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
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In message <PLmdnUp6150XtBrZnZ2dnUVZ_vmdnZ2d@comcast.com>
"Nico Kadel-Garcia" <nkadel@comcast.net> wrote:
| Quote: |
"Darin Johnson" <darin@usa.net> wrote in message
news:1149704430.878329.222620@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com...
Matt Giwer wrote:
One has to suggest you visit some computer stores in your area and find
one
that is much better than what you have for a $100 or so.
This is pretty silly. One of the strong points of Linux is that it
can run on just about anything, even old computers. It's much better
to revive a computer by putting Linux on it and have it do useful work
than to toss it into a landfill. This is especially good in a
corporate environment where you can't just get a new computer because
you feel like it, so recycling the 5 year old ones that the Windows
desktop people don't want works great. I've needed to do network
boots off of floppies as recently as a couple years ago.
How much of your time is it worth to support it? Seriously?
|
In this case, if the print server works, it will save me considerable
time over the alternatives. I've already spent two days trying to stop
Win98 hanging while shutting down, so I can get it to reboot as a
scheduled task...
| Quote: | And I'm quite startled that any 5 year old machines you see in industry do
not have CD boot capability, unless someone left the CD out.
|
I think this is over 5 years old. For one thing the CD is a 6X one,
which won't read re-writables, but it does handle writables.
It's now booted via Smart Boot Manager, and is about to install Ubuntu
6.02 - full version because that is on CD-R, whereas the server
version is on CD-RW. I might need to strip a lot out. Still it's got a
20G disk and 96M ram so it won't be disastrous, even with a PII-300.
--
Alan Adams, from Northamptonshire
alan.adams@orchard-way.freeserve.co.uk
http://www.nckc.org.uk/ |
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Alan Adams
*nix forums addict
Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 64
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| Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 8:43 pm Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
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In message <e67bqv$mhm$2@nntp.itservices.ubc.ca>
Unruh <unruh-spam@physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
| Quote: | "Darin Johnson" <darin@usa.net> writes:
Matt Giwer wrote:
One has to suggest you visit some computer stores in your area and find one
that is much better than what you have for a $100 or so.
This is pretty silly. One of the strong points of Linux is that it
can run on just about anything, even old computers. It's much better
to revive a computer by putting Linux on it and have it do useful work
than to toss it into a landfill. This is especially good in a
corporate environment where you can't just get a new computer because
you feel like it, so recycling the 5 year old ones that the Windows
desktop people don't want works great. I've needed to do network
boots off of floppies as recently as a couple years ago.
Sure. But if the floppy has died and the computer does not boot off the cdrom,
then you had better fix one of those problems or linux ( and any other
operating system) is impossible to install.
So, does it have a floppy drive? Is it a 3.5 inch floppy or a 5 inch floppy
drive? (or an 8 inch floppy drive-- evenolder, although Probably never on a
Pentium III)
|
The floppy works, the CD works. It just doesn't have an option to boot
from CD.
The last 8inch floppy I saw was on a Vax785, the boot disk. Before
that were AES wordprocessors, with hard-sectored 8 inch floppies.
--
Alan Adams, from Northamptonshire
alan.adams@orchard-way.freeserve.co.uk
http://www.nckc.org.uk/ |
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Matt Giwer
*nix forums addict
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 52
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| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:00 am Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
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Alan Adams wrote:
| Quote: | In message <%sxhg.5605$7G2.104@tornado.tampabay.rr.com
Matt Giwer <jull43@tampabay.REMover.rr.com> wrote:
Alan Adams wrote:
I am trying to install Ubuntu 6.02 on an old PC which cannot be set to
boot from a CD. I expect to use the server version, for which the
hardware is adequate (just).
How can I install if the CD isn't bootable?
I do have another Ubuntu 6.02 system running, if that helps.
My oldest machine is I don't know how old but it is 333MHz and was at least 6
months behind the curve at the time. It can boot from CD.
When linux was starting it made an effort to let anyone install it in any way
possible. Those have fallen away now that it is established. If you
cannot find
a network install for Ubantu forget it but given how old that computer must be
can it even get on the net? Can even even address more than 6GB of
disk or more
than 64M of RAM?
It's an IBM Pentium II, which according to the sticker inside can take
up to 3 x 128M ram.
It's currently running NT4. I only want it as a print server, and I
don't expect it to be too stressed at that. (A couple of times a day
15 PCs will all try to print at once. NT4 will only allow 10
concurrent connections, which is why I want to change it. Win98
doesn't have a limit, but after running for a few days or weeks it
needs rebooting.)
One has to suggest you visit some computer stores in your area and find one
that is much better than what you have for a $100 or so.
But I'd rather recycle old hardware than put it in landfill, provided
it can still do something useful.
|
As a compromise how about the $100 used machine upgraded with the parts from
this machine? Keep what you can't use for spare parts.
| Quote: | Anyway, a couple of other posts suggest how to do this, so I'll give
it a try later. It's all part of the great learning experience.
|
Good luck.
--
When I was a child my family was so poor we could not afford a computer.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3648
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
http://www.giwersworld.org |
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Matt Giwer
*nix forums addict
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 52
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| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:23 am Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
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Darin Johnson wrote:
| Quote: | Matt Giwer wrote:
One has to suggest you visit some computer stores in your area and find one
that is much better than what you have for a $100 or so.
This is pretty silly. One of the strong points of Linux is that it
can run on just about anything, even old computers. It's much better
to revive a computer by putting Linux on it and have it do useful work
than to toss it into a landfill. This is especially good in a
corporate environment where you can't just get a new computer because
you feel like it, so recycling the 5 year old ones that the Windows
desktop people don't want works great. I've needed to do network
boots off of floppies as recently as a couple years ago.
|
The whole point of his post is the BIOS does not permit booting from CD. If
someone knows a way to get a network install these days that is the best answer
for him. Second best would be a distro that boots from floopy to CD-ROM disk.
Looking at the responses so far I have seen none mentioned.
I agree with the desirability to be able to use all legacy modes of install but
then someone has to maintain them. The maintainers have to have such machines.
And at some point hardware failure from age is going to make them disappear anyway.
I was just being realistic. Back when I started with RH5.? I remember a quick
look around for a network install and found none. Yet people were talking it up
as a great way to install linux. There comes a point when it is simply
impractical to keep every legacy method alive and there will come to be very few
legacy machines that need them.
--
No matter what you think of Izziehuggers being behind the conquest of Iraq
it is the least incredible of all the possible reasons.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3657
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
environmentalism http://www.giwersworld.org/environment/aehb.phtml a9 |
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Grant
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Posts: 739
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| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:36 am Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
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On Thu, 08 Jun 2006 03:23:15 GMT, Matt Giwer <jull43@tampabay.REMover.rr.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Darin Johnson wrote:
Matt Giwer wrote:
One has to suggest you visit some computer stores in your area and find one
that is much better than what you have for a $100 or so.
This is pretty silly. One of the strong points of Linux is that it
can run on just about anything, even old computers. It's much better
to revive a computer by putting Linux on it and have it do useful work
than to toss it into a landfill. This is especially good in a
corporate environment where you can't just get a new computer because
you feel like it, so recycling the 5 year old ones that the Windows
desktop people don't want works great. I've needed to do network
boots off of floppies as recently as a couple years ago.
The whole point of his post is the BIOS does not permit booting from CD.
|
Slackware does network install from floppy boot, I still run boxen
without CDROM.
| Quote: | If
someone knows a way to get a network install these days that is the best answer
for him.
|
Floppy boot, transfer HDD to another machine, plus more variations.
| Quote: | Second best would be a distro that boots from floopy to CD-ROM disk.
Looking at the responses so far I have seen none mentioned.
|
Slackware does that. And for machines sans floppy, one might setup
a small isolinux recovery / install partition -- makes it far easier
for next time  Again, slackware makes this easy as their installer
fits comfortably in a 15MB partition.
Grant.
--
But Linux grew from humble and stupid roots.
Linus -- lkml 24 Apr 2006 |
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Matt Giwer
*nix forums addict
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 52
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| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:43 am Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
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Grant wrote:
| Quote: | On Thu, 08 Jun 2006 03:23:15 GMT, Matt Giwer <jull43@tampabay.REMover.rr.com> wrote:
Darin Johnson wrote:
Matt Giwer wrote:
One has to suggest you visit some computer stores in your area and find one
that is much better than what you have for a $100 or so.
This is pretty silly. One of the strong points of Linux is that it
can run on just about anything, even old computers. It's much better
to revive a computer by putting Linux on it and have it do useful work
than to toss it into a landfill. This is especially good in a
corporate environment where you can't just get a new computer because
you feel like it, so recycling the 5 year old ones that the Windows
desktop people don't want works great. I've needed to do network
boots off of floppies as recently as a couple years ago.
The whole point of his post is the BIOS does not permit booting from CD.
Slackware does network install from floppy boot, I still run boxen
without CDROM.
If
someone knows a way to get a network install these days that is the best answer
for him.
Floppy boot, transfer HDD to another machine, plus more variations.
Second best would be a distro that boots from floopy to CD-ROM disk.
Looking at the responses so far I have seen none mentioned.
Slackware does that. And for machines sans floppy, one might setup
a small isolinux recovery / install partition -- makes it far easier
for next time Again, slackware makes this easy as their installer
fits comfortably in a 15MB partition.
|
I would hope you address this to the questioner and provide URLs to the network
installers.
I had an aborted use of Slack before I went into linux full time. You don't
have to sell it to me.
--
No democracy has the right to keep secret facts which could materially
affect any election.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3646
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
environmentalism http://www.giwersworld.org/environment/aehb.phtml a9 |
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Unruh
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 22 Mar 2005
Posts: 1166
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| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:27 am Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
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Matt Giwer <jull43@tampabay.REMover.rr.com> writes:
| Quote: | Darin Johnson wrote:
Matt Giwer wrote:
One has to suggest you visit some computer stores in your area and find one
that is much better than what you have for a $100 or so.
This is pretty silly. One of the strong points of Linux is that it
can run on just about anything, even old computers. It's much better
to revive a computer by putting Linux on it and have it do useful work
than to toss it into a landfill. This is especially good in a
corporate environment where you can't just get a new computer because
you feel like it, so recycling the 5 year old ones that the Windows
desktop people don't want works great. I've needed to do network
boots off of floppies as recently as a couple years ago.
The whole point of his post is the BIOS does not permit booting from CD. If
someone knows a way to get a network install these days that is the best answer
for him. Second best would be a distro that boots from floopy to CD-ROM disk.
Looking at the responses so far I have seen none mentioned.
|
Probably because you have not been reading the thread. A number of people
including me have suggested using a floppy install-- ie a floppy to start
theprocess for example using cdrom to finish the installation. Or the
network. Or the distro installed on hard drive.
Mandriva certainly allows this but I suspect many others do as well.
| Quote: | I agree with the desirability to be able to use all legacy modes of install but
then someone has to maintain them. The maintainers have to have such machines.
And at some point hardware failure from age is going to make them disappear anyway.
|
Eventually, but not yet.
| Quote: | I was just being realistic. Back when I started with RH5.? I remember a quick
|
No you were not. One can be generous and say your were being pessimistic.
| Quote: | look around for a network install and found none. Yet people were talking it up
|
??? I just did it for 10 machines for Mandriva 2006.
| Quote: | as a great way to install linux. There comes a point when it is simply
impractical to keep every legacy method alive and there will come to be very few
legacy machines that need them.
|
????? Maybe someday. Not yet. |
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Unruh
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 22 Mar 2005
Posts: 1166
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| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:32 am Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
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Matt Giwer <jull43@tampabay.REMover.rr.com> writes:
| Quote: | Grant wrote:
On Thu, 08 Jun 2006 03:23:15 GMT, Matt Giwer <jull43@tampabay.REMover.rr.com> wrote:
Darin Johnson wrote:
Matt Giwer wrote:
One has to suggest you visit some computer stores in your area and find one
that is much better than what you have for a $100 or so.
This is pretty silly. One of the strong points of Linux is that it
can run on just about anything, even old computers. It's much better
to revive a computer by putting Linux on it and have it do useful work
than to toss it into a landfill. This is especially good in a
corporate environment where you can't just get a new computer because
you feel like it, so recycling the 5 year old ones that the Windows
desktop people don't want works great. I've needed to do network
boots off of floppies as recently as a couple years ago.
The whole point of his post is the BIOS does not permit booting from CD.
Slackware does network install from floppy boot, I still run boxen
without CDROM.
If
someone knows a way to get a network install these days that is the best answer
for him.
Floppy boot, transfer HDD to another machine, plus more variations.
Second best would be a distro that boots from floopy to CD-ROM disk.
Looking at the responses so far I have seen none mentioned.
Slackware does that. And for machines sans floppy, one might setup
a small isolinux recovery / install partition -- makes it far easier
for next time Again, slackware makes this easy as their installer
fits comfortably in a 15MB partition.
I would hope you address this to the questioner and provide URLs to the network
installers.
|
URL? They come with all cdrom installations. They are at all mirrors of
Mandriva. IF you have Mandriva, you have floppy images
l /mandrake/2006/i586/install/images/
total 31224
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Oct 14 2005 .
dr-xr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Oct 14 2005 ..
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 8192000 Sep 23 2005 all.img
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 14 2005 alternatives
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 13135872 Sep 23 2005 boot.iso
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 1474560 Sep 23 2005 cdrom-changedisk.img
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 1474560 Sep 23 2005 cdrom.img
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 166580 Sep 23 2005 hd_grub.img
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 3020800 Sep 23 2005 ka.img
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 416 Sep 23 2005 MD5SUM
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 1474560 Sep 23 2005 network_drivers.img
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 1474560 Sep 23 2005 network.img
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 1474560 Sep 23 2005 pcmcia.img
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 3487 Sep 13 2004 README
All those 1474560 sized files are floppy images.
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Nico Kadel-Garcia
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Posts: 1068
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| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:55 pm Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
|
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|
"Unruh" <unruh-spam@physics.ubc.ca> wrote in message
news:e68g06$4oe$3@nntp.itservices.ubc.ca...
| Quote: | Matt Giwer <jull43@tampabay.REMover.rr.com> writes:
Darin Johnson wrote:
Matt Giwer wrote:
One has to suggest you visit some computer stores in your area and find
one
that is much better than what you have for a $100 or so.
This is pretty silly. One of the strong points of Linux is that it
can run on just about anything, even old computers. It's much better
to revive a computer by putting Linux on it and have it do useful work
than to toss it into a landfill. This is especially good in a
corporate environment where you can't just get a new computer because
you feel like it, so recycling the 5 year old ones that the Windows
desktop people don't want works great. I've needed to do network
boots off of floppies as recently as a couple years ago.
The whole point of his post is the BIOS does not permit booting from CD.
If
someone knows a way to get a network install these days that is the best
answer
for him. Second best would be a distro that boots from floopy to CD-ROM
disk.
Looking at the responses so far I have seen none mentioned.
Probably because you have not been reading the thread. A number of people
including me have suggested using a floppy install-- ie a floppy to start
theprocess for example using cdrom to finish the installation. Or the
network. Or the distro installed on hard drive.
Mandriva certainly allows this but I suspect many others do as well.
|
RedHat/Fedora have apparently moved away from it: the newer 2.6 kernels are
frankly too big to fit on floppy without trying to seriously outguess what
drivers you may need, so they've pretty much given up on it, especially
since so little contemporary hardware can neither CD nor network boot. |
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Unruh
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 22 Mar 2005
Posts: 1166
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:01 pm Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
|
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|
"Nico Kadel-Garcia" <nkadel@comcast.net> writes:
| Quote: | "Unruh" <unruh-spam@physics.ubc.ca> wrote in message
news:e68g06$4oe$3@nntp.itservices.ubc.ca...
Matt Giwer <jull43@tampabay.REMover.rr.com> writes:
Darin Johnson wrote:
Matt Giwer wrote:
One has to suggest you visit some computer stores in your area and find
one
that is much better than what you have for a $100 or so.
This is pretty silly. One of the strong points of Linux is that it
can run on just about anything, even old computers. It's much better
to revive a computer by putting Linux on it and have it do useful work
than to toss it into a landfill. This is especially good in a
corporate environment where you can't just get a new computer because
you feel like it, so recycling the 5 year old ones that the Windows
desktop people don't want works great. I've needed to do network
boots off of floppies as recently as a couple years ago.
The whole point of his post is the BIOS does not permit booting from CD.
If
someone knows a way to get a network install these days that is the best
answer
for him. Second best would be a distro that boots from floopy to CD-ROM
disk.
Looking at the responses so far I have seen none mentioned.
Probably because you have not been reading the thread. A number of people
including me have suggested using a floppy install-- ie a floppy to start
theprocess for example using cdrom to finish the installation. Or the
network. Or the distro installed on hard drive.
Mandriva certainly allows this but I suspect many others do as well.
RedHat/Fedora have apparently moved away from it: the newer 2.6 kernels are
frankly too big to fit on floppy without trying to seriously outguess what
drivers you may need, so they've pretty much given up on it, especially
since so little contemporary hardware can neither CD nor network boot.
|
Weird. They still do i386 compiles, since someone might want to run Redhat
on a 386 computer, but do not support floppy installs? How do they think
that those 386 machines boot up?
You do not install the whole kernel. You install a much abreviated version
which can see the boot method you want to use. ( there is no point in
including support for cdroms in something that is going to boot off the
net). Then, using that small kernel you load in a full kernel from the
medium you will install from. |
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Nico Kadel-Garcia
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Posts: 1068
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:45 pm Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
|
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|
"Unruh" <unruh-spam@physics.ubc.ca> wrote in message
news:e69l55$gkm$2@nntp.itservices.ubc.ca...
| Quote: | Weird. They still do i386 compiles, since someone might want to run Redhat
on a 386 computer, but do not support floppy installs? How do they think
that those 386 machines boot up?
|
Most of the "i386" software bundles are for maximum compatibility, with the
absolute minimum of CPU requirements.
| Quote: | You do not install the whole kernel. You install a much abreviated version
which can see the boot method you want to use. ( there is no point in
including support for cdroms in something that is going to boot off the
net). Then, using that small kernel you load in a full kernel from the
medium you will install from.
|
Survey says *BZZT*. For example, I've worked with network boots to debug
local problems, to access local hardware including CD and IDE drives, USB,
SCSI, audio, additional network devices, video, doing chroot onto locally
mounted drives to do system repair work, etc., etc., etc.
You can strip a kernel quite small, but eventually it's not worth bothering
to strip it further: Take a look at your Fedora Core 5 "images" directory
from the CD, or the PXEboot directory at mirrors like
http://rpmfind.net/linux/fedora/core/5/i386/os/images/pxeboot/. The vmlinuz
alone is 1.4 Megabytes: The initrd.img for netbooting is almost 5 Meg.
For booting from the CD, the "diskboot.img", which is what the CD is really
booting from by classic "pretend this file is a floppy image" which is what
most if not all bootable CD's actually use, is 8 Meg. Trimming such things
back down to fit as a general purpose boot floppy has gotten pretty
difficult as kernel size has grown. |
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Unruh
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 22 Mar 2005
Posts: 1166
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:52 pm Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
|
|
|
"Nico Kadel-Garcia" <nkadel@comcast.net> writes:
| Quote: | "Unruh" <unruh-spam@physics.ubc.ca> wrote in message
news:e69l55$gkm$2@nntp.itservices.ubc.ca...
Weird. They still do i386 compiles, since someone might want to run Redhat
on a 386 computer, but do not support floppy installs? How do they think
that those 386 machines boot up?
Most of the "i386" software bundles are for maximum compatibility, with the
absolute minimum of CPU requirements.
You do not install the whole kernel. You install a much abreviated version
which can see the boot method you want to use. ( there is no point in
including support for cdroms in something that is going to boot off the
net). Then, using that small kernel you load in a full kernel from the
medium you will install from.
Survey says *BZZT*. For example, I've worked with network boots to debug
local problems, to access local hardware including CD and IDE drives, USB,
SCSI, audio, additional network devices, video, doing chroot onto locally
mounted drives to do system repair work, etc., etc., etc.
You can strip a kernel quite small, but eventually it's not worth bothering
to strip it further: Take a look at your Fedora Core 5 "images" directory
from the CD, or the PXEboot directory at mirrors like
http://rpmfind.net/linux/fedora/core/5/i386/os/images/pxeboot/. The vmlinuz
alone is 1.4 Megabytes: The initrd.img for netbooting is almost 5 Meg.
For booting from the CD, the "diskboot.img", which is what the CD is really
booting from by classic "pretend this file is a floppy image" which is what
most if not all bootable CD's actually use, is 8 Meg. Trimming such things
back down to fit as a general purpose boot floppy has gotten pretty
difficult as kernel size has grown.
|
Nuts. I posted all the disk images from Mandriva, which is at least as
"powerful" as in Redhat. They fit everything onto one ( or for network 2)
floppies. and in my system, the fully configured kernel, which contains
everything is only 1.6MB. and initrd is 100KB. |
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Nico Kadel-Garcia
*nix forums Guru
Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Posts: 1068
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:46 pm Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
|
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|
Unruh wrote:
| Quote: | For booting from the CD, the "diskboot.img", which is what the CD is
really booting from by classic "pretend this file is a floppy image"
which is what most if not all bootable CD's actually use, is 8 Meg.
Trimming such things back down to fit as a general purpose boot
floppy has gotten pretty difficult as kernel size has grown.
Nuts. I posted all the disk images from Mandriva, which is at least as
"powerful" as in Redhat. They fit everything onto one ( or for
network 2) floppies. and in my system, the fully configured kernel,
which contains everything is only 1.6MB. and initrd is 100KB.
|
Is your particular Mandriva using a 2.6 kernel? That apparently makes a big
difference.
But that stripping process to get it on a floppy or two takes serious work
these days: it's gotten much easier to simply include the kitchen sink kand
not worry about floppy boots, especially as cheap new desktops don't even
bother to include a floppy these days. |
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magnate
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 21 Mar 2005
Posts: 38
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| Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:41 pm Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
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Alan Adams wrote:
| Quote: | I am trying to install Ubuntu 6.02 on an old PC which cannot be set to
boot from a CD. I expect to use the server version, for which the
hardware is adequate (just).
How can I install if the CD isn't bootable?
I do have another Ubuntu 6.02 system running, if that helps.
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There were a lot of replies to this but I think the summary should be
something like:
Many linux distributions still support booting from floppy (either a
single boot/root floppy or a pair). The floppy(ies) will include
drivers for ATAPI CD drives, enabling you to continue the installation
from the unbootable CD (providing your IDE controller is supported). In
some cases an additional floppy is available with drivers for more
obscure CD interfaces (mitsumi, sbpro et al.), if your CD is pre-ATAPI.
In one post you state that it's a 6X, which I'd estimate puts it around
1995, on the very border, so it might or might not be ATAPI.
I know for a fact that Debian supports this install method, so Ubuntu,
being a "Debian-based" distro, probably does. Slackware also supports
it. It's a long long time since I've used RedHat, and I've never
installed SuSE or Mandrake, so I don't know about those.
The only other alternative for a PC too old to boot from CD or USB is a
network install. I don't know much about this so can't really comment.
(I'll ignore the elegant but not terribly useful alternative of booting
linux from real-mode DOS ...)
As for the debate about whether re-using old hardware is worth the time
it takes to support it- I'm firmly in the "better than landfill" camp.
I have four old PCs and I'm about to retire a 5th (a P233 currently
serving as my router and print server). Until a couple of years ago my
entire house was routed through a 486. Using old hardware is cheap, fun
and doesn't take noticeably more time to support than using new
hardware. It's just a different set of problems.
Not sure that this is relevant to anyone two weeks after the OP, but
had some time on my hands.
CC |
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Darin Johnson
*nix forums beginner
Joined: 21 Apr 2006
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 5:50 pm Post subject:
Re: How to install if you can't boot CD?
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magnate wrote:
| Quote: | The only other alternative for a PC too old to boot from CD or USB is a
network install. I don't know much about this so can't really comme
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Just an interesting aside. A few years ago I found it was much
faster to install Linux on a set of machines from the network
than it was to use a CDROM. The server was local of course, but
I was still a bit surprised.
--
Darin Johnsont. |
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