Need to format hd with Linux?
 

I suspect that the reason none of my linux-related cd's won't install is because I fdisked with what is likely a tool for windows, so I have no Linux partition. I want this computer to be rh7.3 only, so I don't need a windows partition. I tried lilo, but it won't come up. Does anyone know where I can download a boot floppy that will allow me to re-format my hd for linux? Presently, my computer only reads windows media. I appreciate any time spent on my query.

"The lessons learned by the last generation are doomed to be forgotten by the next." -Winston Churchill

-Jeffy.

What kind of install errors do you have? What kind of hardware do you have? Does your hard drive have NTFS partitions?

What distro are you rinning both RH and Mandrake's installer will repartition the drive to whatever you desire. The standard CD format is readable by both windows and linux. linux is capable of reading and writing to most filesystems.
(writing to NTFS is still experimental).

I was able to get the dosutils on floppies using my windows desktop machine. Tried to boot with these, but got error message: "NTLDR missing; press any key to reboot." In case you didn't know , ntldr is win NT loader. This tells me that my format and /or partition is for windows. I can't boot from cd, so I need a boot disk for linux which will allow me to format and partition to linux. I need to boot from linux floppies to start install of RH 7.3. Please tell me where to get this download. -Thanx! -Jeffy.

Not necessarily, This means that the floppy is not bootable.

Is it because your machine is incapable of booting from CD or is it because the cd image (.iso file) is corrupted? Can you boot up with a Windoze disk (CD)? If you can boot from a Windoze install CD, and not from the RH7.3 disk then it could be that your RH7.3 disk is corrupted.

If it is not possible to boot from the CD-ROM (and the CD is not corrupted) then you will need to create the boot floppy. The instructions are on the 1st CD under the dosutils directory. Basically you will need to use the rawrite utility and specify the image to write to a floppy (located under the images directory on the CD). Read the rawrite.doc file under the dosutils directory. There is also a rawritewin program on RH8.0 disk 1, don't know if they have that on 7.3 or not, but it appears to be a GUI implementation of rawrite.

HTH
Jeremiah

I am able to boot windoze cd's and I have 2 copies of rh7.3 that won't boot, so corruption is not likely. I will try creating the boot floppy as you have instructed, but it will be done on this windoze machine- hopefully not a problem. The rh machine is a Tosh Sat Pro 440cdx laptop. It appears that I will have more time to rope this goat than normal, because the rain has me blocked in. -Jeffy.

This tells me that your machine is capable of booting _any_ bootable CD (including Linux), not just windoze CD's.
Are these 2 copies from the same .iso image or did you try to re-download the .iso file and burn the second copy? If they are from the same .iso, then it is probably a corrupt iso image.

Not a problem

Just out of curiosity, what is the CD drive? A DVD, CDRW, Combo, or just a plain old CD-ROM?

I have had a heck of a time trying to get a Combo (DVD/CDRW) drive on my laptop to install Solaris 8 IA.

The first copy of 7.3 was downloaded from Vallhalla, and the second came with my Redhat 7.3 bible. The cd reader is the oem cdrom that came with the machine. Of interest is that I wiped the hd in an old Compaq desktop, and it wouldn't boot Linux cd's, either. I can't get my windows machine to download my linux boot image to floppies, requiring media with more space. I don't care if it took 50 floppies to load instructions to boot the cd, but it won't even let me send to one! I'm going to try installing the empty hd from the laptop to this oem (generic, built by me of any collection of brand parts), and then try to boot the cd to it. My RH book assumes that the cd will boot, with the only option being to boot from floppy, which I can't do(can't get a boot floppy made, and can't find a download for one). -Jeffy.

Lingo correction, RH7.3 is code-named Valhalla, it is not a location to download from. I assume you meant that you downloaded Vallhalla from ftp.redhat.com

I am not familiar with the CD that comes with the book "Redhat 7.3 Bible". Is this a bootable install CD? Or is it an extra applications CD? I will assume that it is bootable. In this case do you actually get any messages during POST that suggest that the machine is actually reading the CD?

The HD has nothing to do with whether a machine can boot a particular CD-ROM. What is contained on the HD is irrevelant. The only things that affect the ability to boot from CD is the BIOS and the CD drive itself.


You are perhaps trying to load the wrong image, The boot.img should only be about 1,440kb in size, which would fit on an empty floppy disk providing you have a 1.4MB floppy disk.
1. Check the floppy to ensure that it is empty
2. Check that the floppy is a 1.4 MB

I wouldn't bother, as I stated before, the fact that your machine has windows on it won't affect the ability to boot onto a CD.

Just a sidenote, did you go into your BIOS and ensure that it is set to boot to CD before anything else?

HTH
Jeremiah

I did set my boot order to cdrom first-no change. I downloaded grub-0.91.tar from the net and changed boot order back to floppy first, and tried to boot with the resulting floppy-"remove disks and other media and press any key to restart". Now I realise that I should be trying "boot.img", instead. I will try to download to floppy from my cd, since I was trying to boot with "dos utils", which is now obvious to me, a mistake. Tonight I will try this, when I get back. You may have given me the tip I needed! Thanx for your patience and tolerance. -Jeffy.

My latest quirk is that I can't download the RH 7.3 boot image to a floppy, even though the image is 1.44mb and so is the floppy capacity- the message is: "file is too large for this disk- please use larger capacity media or delete a file." How can I get my computer to send boot.img to a floppy? - jeffy.

It sounds to me like you have burned the cd's wrong. did you say that the 1st cd you downloaded? how did you burn it? You download it as a cd image, so you don't need to do anything else to it (which your burning program might have done).

if you open up the cd from windows, does it show you a redhat-valhalla-disk-1.iso (or something similar), or does it have a bunch of directories?

The downloaded cd does show .iso, but my other cd's are from the Redhat 7.3 bible, so they are readable(except on my computer). I am trying to boot with boot.img on floppies, with my boot order changed back to fdd-cdrom-hdd. I thought I could fit the whole boot image on one floppy, but I needed to download a file splitter to get it on floppies. This latest attempt failed. My error reads: "nonsystem disk or disk error-replace and strike any key when ready." I was told that since my cdrom is slow, it may not read the Linux cd. It reads win xp, so that's not it. It seems this computer will not run Linux reguardless. Damn- I'm getting bored with windows doing everything without my input. I would enjoy the challenge Linux offers.

-Jeffy.

there's your problem my friend.

The cd image got burned wrong. whatever you used to burn the disk made an image of the image and burnt it onto the cd.

when you open the cd up from windows, it shouldn't show you a .iso file, it should show you a bunch of directories and what not.

so, burn the cd again (maybe you should use a cd-rw, so that you don't end up ruining a bunch of cdr's) but this time, look throughout your cd writing application on how to burn an already made iso image

good luck

-Adam

I don't want to offend here, but how do you copy the boot.img to you floppy?

Did you use xcopy (or another windoze copy tool) or did you use the program rawrite (as supplied by the Linux Install CDs)?

I just saved the file: "boot.img" to the hd on my windows machine and "sent to" A drive- floppy. When I get "A" prompt on the laptop, I type dir:, and only get: boot file size 730kb. No executable files. If I must use rawrite, tell me where I can download it from. Remember- this is a picky 1996 vintage Tosh laptop, and also, the cd I'm trying to install from was burned by Redhat themselves. Don't worry about offending me- I know I'm a newby! Hit me with both barrels. I just want to get this installed so I can start having fun. You can even call me Stupid- just don't call me late for dinner! -Jeffy.