IBM Netvista 6794 will not boot from CD-Rom
 

I have this IBM Netvista 6794 (tower/floppy/CD-Rom/40GB HD) P4 1.8 w/ 1024Mb ram. This machine has been running SuSe 9.0 professional continuosly without issue for 6 months. Last week I had too much time on my hands so I decided to install SuSe 10.0 (Eval). That's when life got complicated.

I downloaded the 5 ISO images (Ram checkSum) and created the CD's using Nero, everything was good. I dropped disk #1 in the CD-Rom drive and started the computer. The computer booted to the disk and began to load the files. The install process got to the very first screen of the installation process when it appeared to hang-up, the CD-Rom drive was blinking in a very regular pulse but the process was not moving forward. I allowed the computer to chew on the installation for over and hour and it never went any further and the CD-Rom drive just blinked. So, I restarted the machine. Things got worse!

After that...this machine has NEVER again been able to boot from the CD. It will attempt to boot from the CD, look like it is reading the CD, then just by-pass it and load SuSe 9.1.

I assumed it has something to do with the CD I burned, so I burned another CD...same results. I messed with every possible boot order in the BIOS...No Dice! Thinking the CD-ROM had failed I pulled a CD drive out of a Windows 2003 server, same exact results. Pulling my hair out, I took the SuSe 10.0 disk to an old PII computer and attempted the install...no problem, runs like a champ!

When I allow the computer to boot to SuSe 9.0 and try to access the CD-Rom I get a "Device Not Mounted" error. When I try to "Mount" the CD from YAST I get a device error. This error happens with either CD-Rom drive I try.

I disconnected the CD-Rom drive and rebooted, shut it down, reconnected the drive, rebooted...CD still not mounted. Grrrr!

Completely frustrated...I ran FDisk and removed all the partitions on the hard drive. Why? I have no idea.

I took a Windows 98 start-up disk and booted to that. I can reach the "A:", "C:", and "D:" from the command prompt, except when I try to pull a directory (DIR) from the D: prompt it tells me the device is unavailable (Abort, Retry).

I then reset the CMOS. Same results.

That's it, I'm done!

At this point I don't care what's wrong...I need some help (any ideas) on how to get this D*%n thing to boot from the CD Rom so I can get an OS back on this little black box.

I place myself at the feet of all those with greater knowledge!

Welcome to LQ!

I use to reset CMOS when things get weird - and weird your problem is.
If nothing helps and you need the server up and running - Debian has nice netinstall. 2-4 floppies depending on your h/w configuration and you'll find yourself installing. IMHO Debian is better for a server than SuSe anyhow.

Debian netinstall

I had this exact issue and it was so frustrating that when I found the solution, I had to post it.

Most people will probably just have to change their boot sequence to be able to boot properly. In my case, and the OP's case, that didn't help.

In order to make this work I had to remove my CD-ROM and move the jumper from slave to master. Then the BIOS recognized it and I was able to boot from CD's without incident.

Hope that helps.