Boot Disk Problems


Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Boot Disk Problems
started by: dsnetbox

Posted by dsnetbox on May 09 2005,16:47
Hi,

I would love to use DSL on my old notebook which has no hard
disk, but I have the following problem:

1) - booting directly from CD does not work because no hard drive is detected (BIOS bug)
2) - booting from Floppy does work with smart-boot-manager  (a cool tool btw, see < http://btmgr.webframe.org/ > ) but then my PCMCIA Network Card is not recognized
3) -  if I boot from a floppy created from the old boot-0.8.0.img  rom the download area then the Network Card works

In both cases 2 and 3, the same CD is used (DSL 1.1 current, isolinux) and the kernel command line (verified with cat /proc/cmdline ) is identical. I don't understand why it works
when the system is started with the old 0.8 floppy. What is the difference between that and booting from CD ?

Is there a way to create a current boot  floppy from a running
DSL? I guess that should work, but I want a single boot floppy not two like Knoppix so that the floppy can always stay in
the drive. Strange that the newest floppy image in the download section is 0.8.0. Are newer versions too big for that?

Regards,
Albert

Posted by mikshaw on May 09 2005,19:02
I believe the boot floppy is syslinux, which is not used on the isolinux CD...that may answer why the floppy works and not the CD. Syslinux supports older hardware which may not be supported by the newer isolinux.
Another possibility is that your bios does not support boot from CD at all.

Powered by Ikonboard 3.1.2a
Ikonboard © 2001 Jarvis Entertainment Group, Inc.