Can not boot DSL to IBM Thinkpad 380XD

Forum: Laptops
Topic: Can not boot DSL to IBM Thinkpad 380XD
started by: maca2004

Posted by maca2004 on Feb. 12 2006,14:45

I have recently aquired an IBM Thinkpad 380XD. All I want to really use it for is surfing the net. I have entered the BIOS and set it to boot from the cd-rom for both the iso and the sys linux images. But the IBM error code appears stating there is no bootable device in the cd-rom drive. Both versions work with my newer desktop and laptop.

So, I figured I would download the bootfloppy image and from a good old floppy disk boot to linux. I changed the BIOS to boot from floppy inserted the isolinux version in the cd-rom drive. It begins to boot but then gives me a message saying "Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry. Dropping you to a (very limited) shell. Press restart to quit"

There is no OS system on there at the moment and the HDD has been formatted so I can not do the poorman's install.

So, do I need to copy KNOPPIX to the HDD is so how? Should I insert syslinux in the cd-rom drive when booting from a floppy?

Any help to use DSL would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Posted by torp on Feb. 12 2006,17:32

are you sure you have a good boot image on the cd? will it boot on another system?

torp

Posted by maca2004 on Feb. 13 2006,22:22

hi torp

Yeah i've burned the image to a couple of CDs but to not avail. I've checked the CDs by booting DSL to my desktop and and a newer Acer laptop. But it will boot to the IBM Thinkpad 380XD. I've used the syslinux as recommended but no joy. I've inserted the bootfloppy to the floppy drive and the syslinux to the cd-rom drive but again starts to boot but I guess where it needs to load the KNOPPIX file from the cd-rom it fails.

Could the cd-rom be at faulty? Or am I missing something?

Posted by maca2004 on Feb. 13 2006,22:30

Sorry I meant to say it will NOT boot DSL to my IBM Thinkpad. The CD boots fine to my other pcs.

Posted by skaos on Feb. 14 2006,11:22

Quote

Could the cd-rom be at faulty?

Could be. Download < http://www.toms.net/rb/, > boot the diskette with the DSL cd in the drive and check if the cd recognised.

Posted by mikeBarraba on Mar. 14 2006,02:00

I've had a 308XD for many years and have found that the CD doesn't like CD-RW's. It wont recognise them! or the one's I've tried so I don't even try anymore. CD-R are normally OK. Have just started running dsl v2 and it works incredibly well. Even picked up the PCMCIA Xircom modem and ran it flawlessly. The sound needed a modprobe "sudo modprobe cs4232 io=0x530 irq=5 dma=1 dma2=0 mpuio=0x330 mpuirq=5" (I found this on another page).

Posted by stanley on July 16 2006,19:06

That's because it is an old laptop. I know the problem because I have a 380D. The problem is that the disk is too 'dark'. If you look at the data side of a CD-R and a CD-RW, you can see the CD-RW is darker. Older drives can't read them. I chose to just stick my DSL 1.5 CD-R in, and frugal install with a file I downloaded off the net. The problem was I have 32MB of RAM and 50MB ISO. Doesn't fit in RAM. I set up an extra partition on the hard disk to hold the ISO, then frugal installed it to hda1, then resized the home, opt and backup/restore partition to swallow up my temporary ISO partition.

Posted by gimlet58 on July 18 2006,21:00

I had a desktop that would not boot from cd and I had set it correctly in the bios and I knew it was good as it would boot in other computers and after much hunting I discovered there was a security setting in the bios that stopped the boot process. Even though I had set it boot from cd first there was a seperate setting buried in the security tab of the bios that would stop it. I reset to enable in security and good to go. Take a look and see.