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How can I load linux on a laptop that has a swappable drive bay, so that only the CDROM or Floppy can be in, not both simultaenously? How can I tell it to read my CDROM which it won't detect on startup (because it's not on the machine)?
Will your BIOS allow you to boot directly from the CD-Rom drive? If so, you won't need the floppy dring the install (but don't forget to make a an emergency boot diskette after the install!!).
So I guess the BIOS doesn't allow for hot-swapping, either? Is there an optional, external floppy port on this machine? If that's out, too, then you will need to see what your distro says about installing from the hard drive. It's possible to do that, but I've never done it, so you will need to follow the instructions.
I love my old laptop, and fortunately mine came with an external floppy drive. Sorry that I can't be of more assistance .
Thanks. It does support hot swapping, but when it comes to the point where it's loading CD-ROM drivers, and detecting drives, it's working with the floppy, so it can't boot from the floppy and read the CD-ROM. BUT, if i copy an image of the floppy to a small partition at the front of my hard drive, I can boot from that. The problem is that some of the scripts still refer back to the floppy drive. I was wondering if anyone knew of a simpler way to do this, or an easy way to edit the scripts (i'm using tomsrtbt)
That's a fine product, but you should be able to use a cdrom.img image file (well now that I think about it that may be specific to RedHat and Mandrake-type installs) from the first CD. Normally, you would use dd, if in Linux, or rawrite.exe/rawritewin.exe, from DOS/Windows, to write that image to a floppy. It's an image, not a file and so must be written not copied.
In my experience (with RedHat and Mandrake), the cdrom.img written to a floppy loads up entirely, first, in a ramdisk and isn't referenced anymore. If your distro has these, copy rawrite.exe (or rawritewin.exe) and cdrom.img to your hard drive, write the image to a floppy, then try that in your approach to hot-swapping.
Well, I have the imaged floppies, and have tried them before. My question is when do i pull out the floppy and put in the CDROM? Any ideas? If it gets all the way into the installer, it complains because of the lack of CD-ROM, but i'm not sure when i should copy it over before that?
Mandrake (and I'm pretty sure RedHat, too) presents a splash screen and it has a progress meter that shows that it is "loading the program". I believe that is the installer being loaded from the boot floppy to the ramdisk. Once the load is done, it presents the installer menu.
I'm thinking that as soon as the installer menu comes up you will want to swap the floppy drive and the CD drive. I don't recall the floppy drive being accessed after that point -- again, in the Mandrake scenario.
If you've been there, done that, then I really don't know what to say other than you will have to somehow make the hard disk install process work. I've never been down that road .
I think both Mandrake and Redhat have the options to install directly from the iso images on harddrive. All you have to do is copy the iso files to the harddisk. Then when booting from floppy it mounts the iso files through a loopback device and reads them like it would be reading the cdrom. They should have more information on their site about that.
I am very new to linux. Actually if have never installed it before. I read that Mandrake is the easiest Linux to migrate too; but I'm having a serious problem right from the start. It won't install.
Here is the Problem: No matter what I do I can't get linux to install.
1. I can't boot from the CD-Rom drive even if I set it in the bios. It just pops up boot from CD reads the CD and then boots to windows.
2. When I use rawwrite to create a boot disk it loads and then it says that the CD I have in my drive is not a Linux boot disc. Then it wants me to enter some odd Kernel peramiters and choose as SCSI device (I don't have any SCSI equiptment) I know the dics is good being I can read the disc fine in windows.
3. I can't use rawwrite to boot off my HD because Linux refuses to reconize my NTFS partitions.
To try and counter this problem I have done the following:
1. I have re-burnt multiple copies of the install discs at 1x speed.
(I'm using memorex discs I also tried fuji)
2. I have re-downloaded the ALL ISO's 3 times and re-burnt them.
3. I have tried 2 different programs to extract the ISO's in hopes that the extraction was the problem.
At this point I am all out of Ideas. I need help. If anyone has experienced this before or knows what's going any advice would be great!
Originally posted by Optimus I am very new to linux. Actually if have never installed it before. I read that Mandrake is the easiest Linux to migrate too; but I'm having a serious problem right from the start. It won't install.
Here is the Problem: No matter what I do I can't get linux to install.
1. I can't boot from the CD-Rom drive even if I set it in the bios. It just pops up boot from CD reads the CD and then boots to windows.
2. When I use rawwrite to create a boot disk it loads and then it says that the CD I have in my drive is not a Linux boot disc. Then it wants me to enter some odd Kernel peramiters and choose as SCSI device (I don't have any SCSI equiptment) I know the dics is good being I can read the disc fine in windows.
3. I can't use rawwrite to boot off my HD because Linux refuses to reconize my NTFS partitions.
To try and counter this problem I have done the following:
1. I have re-burnt multiple copies of the install discs at 1x speed.
(I'm using memorex discs I also tried fuji)
2. I have re-downloaded the ALL ISO's 3 times and re-burnt them.
3. I have tried 2 different programs to extract the ISO's in hopes that the extraction was the problem.
At this point I am all out of Ideas. I need help. If anyone has experienced this before or knows what's going any advice would be great!
Please do not double post the same question, especially posting your question once in someone elses thread and then again in your own thread. Thanks.
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