Hi, My name is John and am new to Linux.
I have a laptop running Linux Puppy 2.4, and have an updated version on CD. The problem is I can get to the Boot menu which has " BOOT: " but I do not know what command to print to get it to boot from CD. If I just press enter it boots links from hard drive. It states [TAB] for list but TAB just moves down a line. Has any one a list of commands for the boot menu, or know what I do to boot from CD.
Can any kind person help me please, as I have tried so many commands like BOOT: dev/hdb/ but nothing works.
Thanks John.

It would probably help if you told us what kind of laptop it is. There's usually a key you press to choose what to boot from. Also, please use better thread titles in future, i.e. ones that describe the problem you're having. You are told about this when you post a thread.

Thanks, The Laptop is an old Compaq Armada 4220T, Pentium MMX Processor and BIOS version 1.2 if that is of any help. the CD Rom is "device HDB" but when I type /dev/hdb after the boot command it just tells me to press TAB for list. I am sure I am just doing some thing stupid.
John.

Booting from a CD would normally be a BIOS function---thus I don't understand where you are getting a "boot command". During bootup, the BIOS runs some checks, then add-on devices are started, and then control is passed to code in the MBR of the first drive. With Linux, the boot code in the MBR (GRUB or LILO) will normally give you a menu of options. GRUB--at least--also allows to get to a command prompt at this point.

First, does your BIOS setup offer the option to boot from CD? If not, then I think it is possible to get GRUB to do it, but I'm not clear on the details. While we're waiting for someone more knowledgeable, try some searches--here and on Google--using something like "boot CD with GRUB"

Thank you for the advice, I wanted to get to the BIOS setup screen, to make sure the CD was the first boot device, the CD does spin at startup but Linux loads from hard drive, and I found pressing "FN + DELETE " at startup got me to this situation, where the normal BIOS box appears in Red, but with nothing in it except the word LINUX at the top of the box. Under this box is the line " BOOT: " and it waits for some input from me. That is why I thought I could input a command to force a CD boot. I have tried a lot of commands but without knowing the Syntax I am just stuck. If I do not input anything and just press ENTER it boots from the hard drive.
John.

Compaq uses a diagnostic partition for changing the BIOS for this laptop and normally F10 is the key stroke to access the setup. However, I suspect it could of been deleted when linux was installed which means F10 will not work anymore. Download the following to create a floppy setup disk to access the BIOS.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...kId=135&mode=3

Thanks you are right F10 does not work, and I have just realised that pressing "FN + DELETE" actually gets the LILO version 22.5.7.2 boot loader, but there must be a problem because TAB to LIST does not list. The other problem is this computer has no floppy just a CD Rom drive.
Thanks once again I will work on your advice.
John.