Cannot get 0.8.3 Live CD to boot

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Cannot get 0.8.3 Live CD to boot
started by: srosa

Posted by srosa on Nov. 05 2004,14:28

all, i am having trouble getting 0.8.3 live cd to boot. as background, i'm daily windows user, with some minimal unix experience a few years ago. i'm trying to revive an old windows machine with Pentium 200MHz processor and 64MB of RAM. here is what i have done so far.

1. downloaded dsl-0.8.3.iso to my daily work machine (not the same machine that i'm planning to use for DSL)
2. verified the checksum on the file
3. burned the cd using Roxio CD Creator (right-clicked on the file and chose 'Record to CD'
4. validated the boot sequence on the target machine to me CD, floppy, HD
5. dropped the DSL cd into the target machine and restarted

i can see the machine reading the CD, but then it appears to skip to the floppy and hang. i waited several minutes (10-15), but DSL never seemed to want to start. am i not being patient enough? how long should the boot process take with such old equipment? is there somewhere else i can look for help? thanks.

Posted by skaos on Nov. 06 2004,15:02

The boot process should take a couple of minutes. If you list the contents of the CD in Windows, what files do you see? It should be something like:
boot folder
KNOPPIX folder
lost+found folder
index.html file

If it is a dsl-0.8.3.iso file, then step 3 is incorrect. I haven't used Roxio, so I guess you have to read the manual.

Posted by Rapidweather on Nov. 06 2004,16:10

It should boot right up, even on old machines. To solve the problem, order a copy
directly from John Andrews, Damn Small Linux, and try that.
< Get your CD here. >
Also, if you are fairly sure your download/burning procedure is OK, then get a copy
of the older version 0.6.2, and try that. If it boots, and the newer version won't, then you and I have something in common:
The version 0.8.2 will not boot on 3 out of 4 of my machines, since it uses the
isolinux setup to boot. I have not tried 0.6.2 on a box with only 64 MB, but do have a 200 mmx with 128 mb. It works on that, but 0.8.2 will not.
The only machine that I have that 0.8.2 works on is a dual 200 Pentium Pro machine with 256 MB ram.
I have a new Dell, with P4 HT, and 1 GB ram, and 0.8.2 won't work on that,
but 0.6.2 will. The older than that version 0.5.3 will also.
---
Also, try your CD in other machines, as many as you can get your hands on.
---
I find that when trying to solve problems like this, you need a lot of different
things to try.
---
:;):

Posted by roberts on Nov. 06 2004,16:39

There are other options than to recommend someone to use 0.6.2 or even 0.5.3.
Using those they would not be able to experience the myDSL system.

One thing to try is a boot floppy, get it here.

< http://ibiblio.org/pub....8.0.img >

To make the boot floppy look here:

< http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/faq.html#floppy >

This boot floppy will work with the latest DSL-0.8.x versions.

If you must use an older version on CD then 0.7.3 does have mydsl support and seems to be more boot friendly on some older hardware.

Posted by srosa on Nov. 08 2004,22:10

all, thank you for your quick responses. based on your suggestions, i did the following:

1. confirmed the directory structure on the dsl-0.8.3 cd that i burned. it matched what skaos listed:
boot folder
KNOPPIX folder
lost+found folder
index.html file

2. created a boot floppy for dsl-0.8.3 and was able to boot 0.8.3 successfully

3. burned a cd with dsl-0.6.2 and it boot successfully, no fuss, no muss

4. tried a couple of other distros with the following results:
a. feather-0.6.1 - could not boot from cd, but could boot successfully from floppy
b. morphix-0.4.1 - booted successfully straight from cd
c. puppy-0.9.6 - could not boot from cd
d. slax-4.2.0 - could not boot from cd
e. beatrix-0.1b - could not boot from cd

NOTE: as best as i can tell, it appears that all these distros, except morphix, use isolinux.

5. created a boot floppy containing Smart Boot Manager 3.7, which allowed me to boot all the aforementioned distos from the burned cds

6. tried all the distro cds on a newer machine and they all booted successfully.

based on my extremely limited knowledge, the only explanation for my older machine not liking isolinux is an outdated BIOS? if anybody has any other logical explanations, please let me know.

Posted by twoflatfish on Dec. 06 2004,17:07

I think that you are correct. The difference in the distros is the boot section of the cdrom .iso image. An old bios will recognize syslinux but not isolinux which appears to be the newer standard for distros.

Posted by edengberg on Dec. 07 2004,01:49

DSL won't run automatically from the CD. I accessed the drive and saw a lot of stuff I don't understand. Something about BIOS and rat-a-tat. I can read Greek classics more easily. The app sounds very promising, but how will I ever know?
Ed Engberg