Laptops :: Unable to boot Compaq presario 900

Quote (khurdp @ Jan. 03 2006,20:15)

I get the following booting ONLY 'failsafe' (not as a parameter). 'failsafe' as a parameter to expert gives the same result as expert.

8<----------------------------------->8
Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry.
Dropping you to a (very limited) shell.
Press reset button to quit.

Additional builtin commands available:
cat mount umount
insmod rmmod lsmod
8<----------------------------------->8

Although not a DSL. laptop newbie, I am just trying to boot it up on a new (old) laptop: Toshiba Portege 3440CT. I get the same above message with DSL V 2.1 isolinux iso booted from my external CDrom drive. I will try the syslinux one too tonight but can any one please recommend a boot parameter that will work? I have done a search on this forum and can't find a clear fix yet.

Try booting in your old OS and then copy the \KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX file over to your C:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX (note the uppercase letters).

Someone here recently posted an intereasting boot command that worked for some external CDROM drives but the surefire way is to copy the KNOPPIX stuff over to your MSDOS/Win95/Win98/WinME C: drive

Thanks cbagger01, but this didnt work either.
Will try new download.

2.1b_syslinux.iso didn't work either. It seems to be something to do with the SCSI compatability of my rom drive via the pcmcia slot it is connected too. MSN lite (Mandriva based) puts up a report screen of processes, following a failed boot, and this says the cdrom is loaded and OK. Tried an old DSL 1.5 version also to no avail. I will go into BIOS and check boot settings. The F2 button I have to press with this Portege at boot to get a list of drives for selection just does not seem to keep it's eye on the ball.
Oh yes - I've tried 'failsafe', 'expert' 'noscsi' and a few other boot parameters at the prompt.
I can see a 'poor man's install' coming on......

(Toshiba Portege 3440CT)

Another possibility is to copy the cdrom files over to your C:\ drive and then use "loadlin" to launch DSL from MSDOS or MSDOS mode from Win95/98

Search the forums for keyword

loadlin

or

loadlin AND *minirt*

for more information.

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