iB::Topic::Can't get LiveCD to boot on anything

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Topic: Can't get LiveCD to boot on anything, omg help!

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smag

Group: Members
Posts: 15
Joined: Dec. 2006

Posted: Dec. 08 2006,09:53

Hi, I'm super new at this, and I'm sure I've done something wrong. This is my first time trying to play with any sort of Linux, I heard that DSL would be good for my old boxes, because it's small and so on..etc...

Here's is what I did:
1. Downloaded dsl- 3.1.ISO from one of the mirrors. Saved it on my main PC's HDD

2. Burned the image thrice, onto three CD-R (not RW) Once using Nero's image burn utility, another time with Burn CDCC (which ONLY burns images), and a third time with Burn CDCC again, but with a different burn drive. I thought I had just created three bootable Live CD's.

3. Took these disks to the old boxes. Tried all of them on all 3 of my old PC's (2 Win95-era compaq desktops, and a Win98-era Toshiba Laptop) Before doing this I entered the BIOS in each one, and made sure Boot order was CD-ROM first.

Every time, this happens: The CD drive runs first, like I set it, lights blink, the Manufacturer Logo boot screen remains on the display (Compaq, Toshiba, etc..) It hangs for 30-40 seconds, then gives up and goes on to the floppy then the HDD and boots Windows from there. It hangs longer than if there's no disk in the drive, but always fails. Every Live Disk I made, on every computer I tried.

I stick this disk into my main PC (under XP), and it shows the following on the disk:
Disk name "KNOPPIX"
Dir: BOOT, with subdir "isolinux", which contains about 10 items
Dir: KNOPPIX, with file "knoppix"
Dir: Lost+Found, empty
File: index.html, with a message saying to make sure the CD boots first.

Is that what is suppposed to be on the Live CD? It won't boot in anything, and I have gone into the BIOS and set every one to check the CD drive first.

Why is it bailing on everything try? Anyone help the noob?

^thehatsrule^ Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 3275
Joined: July 2006

Posted: Dec. 08 2006,13:41

Sometimes older computers (i.e. 586's and older) need to use syslinux to boot.

rja

Group: Members
Posts: 46
Joined: Jan. 2005

Posted: Dec. 08 2006,13:47

First, you did an excellent job of reporting the steps that you took to try to boot DSL. You definitely put a lot of effort into getting it to work!

Those are the correct files on the Live CD that should show up under WinXP.

There isn't anything obviously wrong with the steps that you took. A couple of details could be checked.

1. The dsl-3.1.iso may have been corrupted during the file transfer. Especially if you used a web browser to download with http. This can be checked against the small md5 checksum file that you will also need to download. The file that you will need is dsl-3.1.iso.md5.txt. You will also need a tool, like MD5summer to compare the dsl-3.1.iso that you have on your PC's HDD with the md5 checksum. That is described in the WIKI here:

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/wiki....Mirrors

Another method not mentioned in the wiki is to use bittorrent to perform the download of the dsl-3.1.iso. That file transfer method compares the md5sum during the download process, so the iso will not be corrupted. Point a bittorrent program to:

http://www.tlm-project.org/public....torrent

2. If the dsl-3.1.iso that you have on your PC's HDD passes the md5 checksum test, then you could try burning another image at 4X (or whatever is the slowest speed your cd burned can use). Older CD-ROM drives are more picky about booting CD's that are written at higher speeds. The iso is small so it won't really take much longer at 4X write speed.

I know that it is frustrating to make a bunch of cd coasters, but don't give up yet.

roberts

Group: Members
Posts: 4983
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: Dec. 08 2006,14:50

If you have checked the md5sum and tried a slower speed and it still fails to boot then as thehatsrule said you may need the syslinux version

From the 1-readme_first.txt:

There are currently four types of DSL....

dsl-<version>.iso: the standard isolinux version, which is used for liveCD,
frugal, or traditional harddrive install.

dsl-<version>-syslinux.iso: boots using syslinux instead of isolinux,
used for some very old hardware that is no longer supported by isolinux.
Use syslinux version if booting fails with the standard iso.

dsl-<version>-embedded.zip: comes with qemu, for running inside of a host
Windows or Linux system.

dsl-<version>-vmx.zip: a virtual machine that will run in VMware or
VMware player.

frugal_lite.sh is our network install script and requires tomsrtbt linux:
http://www.toms.net/rb/

Docs are located in the pdfdocs/ directory and in the DSL Wiki