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Topic: Boot from old NEC CD-Rom Failed, Only a DOS floppy can find the CD-Rom

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omark

Group: Members
Posts: 5
Joined: Oct. 2005

Posted: Nov. 12 2005,13:42

Update: Problem solved with the help of Smart Boot Manager.

Hello.

I want to use DSL on my old Pentium I. I am fairly new to Linux, and I've only tried DSL embedded on my high-end Windows PC (and loved it).

The DSL Boot floppy can't find the CD-Rom, but the HD.
- A Knoppix or a Debian Boot floppy can't find the CD-Rom either.
- My old DOS Boot floppy finds the CD-Rom, but not the HD.
- If I use the DOS floppy to run a Windows installation CD, it finds both.

I've tried installing Windows, and then run it embedded:
- Embedding doesn't work with Win95, Win98, nor with Win2K.
- No error message, just drops the window.

I don't get an error message when I try to boot the DSL Boot floppy:
- If I just do a normal boot, it hangs.
- If I to a fail safe boot, it stops a few lines after saying it can't find DSL.
- In the text above I can see it didn't identify the CD-Rom drive.

The system I am trying to get up and running is an old Pentium I, with a NEC CDR-273 (IDE) CD-Rom Drive.
- I've double-checked all jumpers.
- The BIOS doesn't find the CD-Rom drive.
- I have no idea what to tell the BIOS, as NEC no longer supports the CD-Rom drive.

Update: I've fiddled around a bit more, mostly with hardware. Now it hangs in failsafe with this on the screen:

Code Sample

SIS5513: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:00.1
SIS5513: chipset revision 8
SIS5513: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: DM-DMA at 0xd400-0xd407, BIOS settings: hda:pio, hdb:pio
SIS5513: simplex device: DMA disabled
ide1: SIS5513 Bus-Master DMA disabled (BIOS)
_ <-- Blinking cursor and nothing more...

There is no place to change any DMA settings in BIOS, which I found weird...
What am I missing?
TIA

cbagger01

Group: Members
Posts: 4264
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: Nov. 13 2005,03:57

No clue, but you may want to disable the probing of the ide1 interface and see if the computer will boot up.

Try this boot command:

dsl ide1=noprobe

or maybe:

lowram ide1=noprobe

omark

Group: Members
Posts: 5
Joined: Oct. 2005

Posted: Nov. 13 2005,05:56

Thanks, cbagger, a good idea, but I tried that. It still hangs at the same line.

I know could hook up the hard disk to my high-end system and install DSL there, then move the HD back, but I wanted to go to the bottom of this, so I can contribute with an article to the Wiki.

Anyone else? Or anything else from cbagger?

chickenman Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 113
Joined: Aug. 2004

Posted: Nov. 13 2005,14:18

Give Smart Boot Manager a go, I have to use it on a few of my older systems when the bios wont boot CD. It supports ISO linux which is what the dsl livecd uses.

Go here:
http://btmgr.webframe.org/index.php3?body=download.html

and get the file appropriate for you operating system, you can install it from linux and windows (I have both). DONT install it to your drives MBR (thats what it was originally made for)

Insted install it to the MBR of a FLOPPY DISK -this way if it dosent work, it wont affect anything. Otherwise you could find that your drive is pretty screwed when you cant replace the MBR (and its a useless risk even if you can). You should only require it to boot the livecd (it brings up a good menu) if you do a HDD install you probably wont need it.

Hope that works, use you common sense and check every little thing you change, dont want to screw anything up...

omark

Group: Members
Posts: 5
Joined: Oct. 2005

Posted: Nov. 22 2005,13:20

Thank you, ChickenMan!

Smart Boot Manager did the trick! It identified both the hard disk and the CD-Rom. SBM was a new program for me, but I'm keeping it!

As a side note, I managed to get my DOS disk to also identify both, but still no luck with DSL bootfloppies.

Although DSL is no better off with this solution, I guess it'll have to do for me. I'll look around the Wiki and see if I can find a good place to put in a note about it.

Thanks!

4 replies since Nov. 12 2005,13:42

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