I’m a Linux newbie....be gentle!

I’m trying to turn one of my old computers into a server..I picked Open Media Vault. BUT my computers won’t boot from the disk. In fact they will not boot from many live linux versions. A blinking cursor is all I get. I am wondering why some do, and some don’t. Many Puppies will boot. Peach OS and an older Fedora and OpenSuse boots, I think Slacko did. Is there something I can do to help get Open Media Vault working? Emergency Boot Disk booted but Hiren’s didn’t. LXLE won’t.

These are my older computers, they all run fine with XP (or 98 on the older one. The linux disks all boot on my newer Windows computer so I know the disks are OK.

Dell Dimension 2300 1.8 gHz Pentium 4 with 1 Gb ram
“ “ 2400 2.2 gHz Intel Celeron with 248 Mb ram

and a real oldie with no USB’s, a Compaq Presario 520cdtv, 486 sx2/66 with 4mb ram
Also have a iMac with 10.4 os which I am assuming linux has a more difficult time with.

Thanks for any help.

welcome to the wonderful world of linux!

what's open media vault?

why don't you just install debian stable (netinst) for your server?

i think you have to concentrate on 1 machine for now, otherwise getting or giving help will become extremely confusing.

your post is still missing some basic information; please read the first link in my signature.

Old (especially that old 2300) Dells had a habit of having the absolute minimum of memory allocated for the video - under windows a driver upped the allocation immediately after boot.
I would bet that what video it's using isn't kms compatible - nomodeset might work, but the resolution would only be VESA.

Welcome aboard.

An interesting selection of museum pieces there.
We have a member who loves a challenge, (hi Roky ), but I think a 66MHz 486 with 4MB of ram will cause a great deal of head scratching. :lol:

Just a clue I gathered from Gnu/Linux user experience.

1. Old computers. Get the year it was released to the market.
2. Knowing that year, try the version of Slackware about that year or so.
3. Old computer? Use "ABSOLUTE LINUX" (based on Slackware). This distro never failed my expectations handling old computers.

BTW, be ready to install from the Shell (no windows) in old Slackware. This is where Slackware excels over others.

Choose from among these old iso images of old version Absolute Linux. There is a tutorial/guide installing this absolute linux visit their place here.

Good luck and enjoy.

m.m.

YEP. I get bored easy in life.

For the real old stuff. I covered a thread like this last night.

On used gear. Look at http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...mpster-divers/ to see my
freebies I get going. My advise. Sounds like all IDE gear. If you know one cdrom drive is good and boots everything OK. Move it around to install on other computers where you think the cd drive is flaky.

I use 90 rubbing alcohol to clean laser lens on old cd drives also in case they are old and have been stored in a dusty corner somewhere.

There is a guys site on the net that covers pages and pages of running linux on antique gear.
I can't remember the site name but my half functioning not awake yet brain says his nickname
begins with a "K" and he covers window managers and cli apps and has posted tutorials galore
covering situations like yours. I posted about him in this thread.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...rs-4175449680/

It is pages long so I do not have time today to find my post for you.
Good luck.
Edit:
Found Him. I can never remember this fellow travelers name.
https://kmandla.wordpress.com/

Specs look comparable to my old Shuttle SB52. The Intel 845GL graphics is my bet as to where the problem lies. My Shuttle does not like seem to like modern kernels/Xorg, but worked fine for a few years with many different distros. Any modern Linux I try on that PC either completely craps out on the graphics or the X display blinks every few seconds. Some day, when I feel like a challenge, I'm going to try installing an old, working version of Fedora and then upgrade everything except the kernel and Xorg. Should be fun.

Sorry I can't actually be helpful

for a
CentOS 5.11 or CentOS 6.6 on the 2300 DEPENDING on if it has a gforce2 card or a antique ATI rage card
- or the intel chip on the mobo

the one with LESS than 256 meg ram

-- it is a doorstop

even if you install something like Puppy
using the web will be PAINFULLY DEAD SLOW
firefox normally uses 300 meg of ram NORMALLY



however BE AWARE
that the old Pentium 4 CPU's are POWER HUNGRY BEASTS
and will use up SO MUCH electricity that if you were to replace it with a NEW arm SERVER
it will pay for it's self in a few years

Welcome to linuxQuestions.

Many distributions no longer provide kernels compiled for your processors i.e i386. vs i686 or AMD64. Make sure you are downloading the open media vault i386 version. I would of expected the emergency boot disk to work on all except for maybe the 486sx. Like others have suggested it belongs in the recycling bin. Most current distributions require at least 512 for CLI or 768mb - 1GB for a GUI these days. You will need to make sure to pick a distribution that works for low memory and a low resource desktop if desired. I do not know its exact min requirements but I would expect the Dimension 2300 with 1GB to run Open Media Vault.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful help, and particularly the understanding. There are so many stories of "reviving old PC's" that I guess I thought linux was magic. Anyhow I guess I have 3 XP doorstops and I can stop trying to make magic happen. ........I did try the suggestion of Antix, and it worked, but very slow. Puppy is good but not worth giving up the advantages of a larger OS. Thanks again for all the suggestions and explanations........Fred

This http://sourceforge.net/projects/open...6.iso/download should have worked I'd have thought if you burned the cd correctly.

We may need to start all over with a proper cd.

You need the best quality cd to start with. I use the black ones. Download and test the md5 of the download and burn the disk at the very slowest possible.

Then try it.

http://openelec.tv/ for fun

I see where some of my posts go, to the wrong place.

Actually I was playing with an old dell and wanted to remember what I did to fix the video. What I think I did was remove the video driver for the system by an edit to a file like .50 or .60. Or maybe I just removed the driver from kernel. The solution wasn't on LQ but on a different site.

You should be able to access the computer with the blinking cursor by some Ctrl-Alt-2 or Ctrl-alt-F2 some such key command to see if it is hung or really working and just not entering video.