Unable to Install Linux on Old PC
 

I have an old pentium 3 PC with a CD/DVD drive and I wanted to install Linux from a DVD but it does not seem to recognise the linux dvd. Can anyone tell me how I can create a bootable CD from this DVD so that I can use it to install on my old PC.

Thanks

Jay

Download the iso from the distribution you want to install.
Burn the iso to cd or dvd
http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm
Boot from the cd/dvd

I think that the issue you are experiencing is down to the fact that some older DVD drives will not correctly read DVDs burnt at home (as opposed to factory pressed DVDs). To create a bootable CD you need to download and burn the CD image for the distribution you are attempting to install. An alternative might be to look for LINUX magazines which include an installable DVD as a freebie with the magazine.

I have heard of older CD or DVD drives being unable to read discs burnt at home (as opposed to those pressed in a factory). You might find that getting a CD off of a LINUX magazine might work better.

I was wondering if it was possible to create an iso from the debian dvd that I already have, rather than download the entire distribution?

The debian dvd is from a Linux magazine so I think the factory pressed dvd's do not run on my old PC.

Do you still have the original iso you downloaded?
Try to burn it to cd/dvd at a low speed.
The first dvd will install almost everything you need.

I did not download it, I have a dvd from a Linux magazine.

Take a look at
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/sujet-231-make-an-iso-image

you can create an iso file from your dvd by using the
command dd in linux:

dd if=/dev/dvd of=whatevernameyouwant.iso

Check that you have a symbolic link
/dev/dvd that points to the actual name of your dvd device,
if you don't know the name of your device, do a

dmesg | grep -i cd-rom

and look at the last line:

.... Attached ... CD-ROM thenameofthedevice

so your device is in /dev/thenameofthedevice

I know that with slackware it's possible to install with
an iso or the contents of the iso placed in a partition.
Provided you have a usb plug and you can boot from usb
(actually, it's always possible to boot from usb even
if your bios doesn't support it)

I had a laptop with a cd drive that didn't work.
I created a usb boot from a usb boot image provided
by the slackware dvd. I booted from it, launched
the setup program and when prompted for the media
to install from I choose a partition where I actually
copied the contents of the iso by keeping the same structure
as in the dvd.

Check on the debian site, or look in your dvd if there's
anything similar

know this may sound to simple, but sometimes the easy is overlooked, did you try cleaning the DVD.
Spent have the day one time, before I decided to clean it, trying to get a brand new straight of the box installation Cd to work that had thin layer of something on it that I couldn't see.

Thanks for your replies, I followed vonbiber's post and ran the dd command and I think it has created an iso file but it also created a .ICE-unix directory and .X11-unix directory - not sure what these are for because I only specified of=debian.iso.

Do I just burn the .iso file to a cd/dvd and do I need to use any special software because I am doing it on Linux?

Yes, this was the first thing I tried but made no difference - I am able to run the dvd and view its contents on a newer PC.
Thanks

Thanks for your replies, I followed vonbiber's post and ran the dd command and I think it has created an iso file but it also created a .ICE-unix directory and .X11-unix directory - not sure what these are for because I only specified of=debian.iso.

Do I just burn the .iso file to a cd/dvd and do I need to use any special software because I am doing it on Linux?

Burn the ISO using software. It's always worked for me.

EDIT: You might find it easier to use Windows for burning the DVD. I use ImgBurn, a small and free tool for Windows. You can simply choose "Burn image to disc"

I use this command to burn my iso files. Whether the image is in CD or DVD.

growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=linux-distro.iso

The -dvd-compat gives maximum compatibility with many dvd-rom drives.

BTW, does the old P3 has support to boot from a cd/dvd drive? Check the bios if it supports this feature.

- Cheers

Yes it does. Thanks - Just a bit confused on how it will recognise this new dvd with the .iso when it would not recognise the factory pressed dvd that I got from the magazine.

Not sure why it doesn't support the factory pressed dvd...

If the dvd drive on the old P3 is working properly it should read both homemade and factory pressed CDs and DVDs.

Is this the original drive that came with the old P3. Perhaps the drive has some kind of malfunction or dirty lens.

The last option is to replace the old worn out drive. A new or refurbished read-only cd/dvd drive could be found for less than $20 if you shop around.

Sorry, I wasn't more helpful, but the last option is what you need to do if all else fails.


- Cheers

Sometimes it helps to burn the cd on a low speed

Yes its the original drive. The strange thing is that I have an old knoppix live CD and it boots with no problems but it just does not seem to be able to boot from a DVD which is why I am not sure if creating an iso and burning it to another DVD will make any difference.

Don't really want to replace the drive because technically I have already replaced the PC, I just wanted to use it to have a look at other distros.

Couple questions

No usb port on that PC?

Can't you install debian via internet/ or cant you boot dvd from hd and install from there??

Don't dvd drives automatically adjusts themselves to read media if it were burned faster?

As an example, If a person burns a disc at 16x and then tried to run it on a slower 4x drive, can this course performance issues?

Yes it has usb ports but bios does not give any option of booting from there or can it still be done?

There is currently no operating system on the hard drive so no option to install from the internet or the hard disk itself.

The drive is probably a CD reader and not a DVD reader. A similar mistake
I made two years ago, I purchased a refurbished 1U rack server for $149. I assumed the drive was a combo drive. It booted a cd disc fine, but it did not boot a dvd disc. I looked at the logo on the front side and to my surprised it was just a cd reader and not a dvd reader. A simple mistake, I overlooked. :o

Yes

Plop bootmanager works at booting all my usb's on 3 different computers that won't/can't boot from usb

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...highlight=plop

do you have a floppy drive for it??

Plop bootmanager can boot via pxe too
http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html

Try a CD distro?
 

[QUOTE=dv502;3627879]The drive is probably a CD reader and not a DVD reader.

Yep, that may well be your problem. You could try a distro that has install CDs as well as DVDs, Debian is one example.

It's no use burning the iso if your original dvd didn't boot.

If you have grub installed on your hard drive, you could try this:

1. create a partition large enough to hold the contents of the iso then
copy the contents of the dvd to that partition.
you might as well create the partition that will hold the new linux
system and a swap partition

2. There must be an isolinux.cfg somewhere with entries like

label something
kernel path to somekernelname
append initrd=initrd.img some options here

you can adapt these entries to grub entries.
Let's assume the partition you've copied the contents of the iso is
the second one (if it's not, just replace accordingly)
grub starts counting from 0 so it designates this partition by
hd0,1 (hd0 for first disk and 1 for 2nd partition)

The grub entry then is

title something
root (hd0,1)
kernel path to somekernelname all the options of the 'append' above
initrd initrd.img

reboot

select one of the installation entries
after the system has finished booting launch the setup program if it
doesn't start automatically
There should be a prompt somewhere in the installation program that
lets you select the source of the installation programs (cd-rom, partition, ...)
select the partition where you copied the dvd
...

If you don't have grub, it should be possible to do that with lilo
but I don't use lilo

The other alternative is to create a bootable usb stick (with syslinux
for instance), copy the initial files that the dvd uses to boot
and store the contents of the dvd in a dedicated partition of your hard drive

And yes you can boot usb with plop
(if you have an old pc you must have a floppy drive, you just
1. download and unpack plop
2. cd to the unpacked archive, locate plpbt.img, cd to its directory
3. insert a blank floppy in your drive then run
dd if=plpbt.img of=/dev/fd0
4. leave the floppy in the drive, insert the usb key and reboot
5. when the floppy boots you'll see in the menu an entry for usb
(you can use the shortcut u to boot directly on usb)
)

Yep
smokin vonbiber!

check it out
you can also go get netbootcd and extract the iso, and copy
the kernel/initrd to hd partition(any?)

and boot as vonbiber sadi, using grub

Coolest thing is, using netbootcd(which goes into ram-it's tinycore based)

you can actually Install to the same partition it's booting from!

Yes, it will wipe out netbootcd
but no need to make a new partition

You can also use other distro's to install a distro
Like zoros can install slack
and with slack you can install from dvd iso too
and from net

Unfortunately I found this out the hard way :(

I do not have grub/lilo installed and yes the PC does have a floppy drive so I have had a look at PLop but it seems like to boot it from a usb stick you have to re-format it to something called 'VFAT'?? I don't really want to reformat my usb stick because I use it in windows as well as linux.

I think netboot will be out of the question because the computer does no have an internet connection because there is not operating system on it, unless there is a way to point it to the dvd files to extract the files it needs to install?

But like I said previously, I can boot into an old Knoppix 3.7 live cd so would it be possible for me to copy the files from the dvd to a usb stick and then copy it to my hard drive from the live cd and then install? If possible - how?
Thanks

If you have a fast internet connection download a net install (if you want Debian) .iso image it will be less than 200mb. Don't try to download the DVD.iso. Burn the .iso to a disk AS A IMAGE at slow speed. Put it in the system and away you go.

A net install CD will set up the network connection for you, you don't need to have a operating system installed, that's what the net install CD is for.

VFAT (aka FAT32) is readable (quite well) by both Windows and Linux out of the box, go ahead and reformat it.

Hmmm so VFAT is the same as FAT32 - wish the page I found from google had told me this because my usb stick just happens to be formatted as FAT32 so that I can read and write on both linux and windows systems, oh well..

Anyway I downloaded the cd1 .iso image of debian and burnt it to disk at slow speed as recommended above, and I am pleased to say that it worked. I am assuming that the only difference between the cd and the dvd .iso is the additional software which I can install at any time from the package manager.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Some old 'oem' systems have a backward drive configuration with the CD/DVD drive being set as the primary master and the HDD being the primary slave. This is usually done because windows generally does not care what drive is where, but Linux (older) distros conform more strictly to the ATA specs and will have trouble finding the install DVD after creating the RAM disk and then re-mounting the DVD. Crack open your system and see if this is the case. If it is, try swapping the drive positions (remember to set the drive jumpers appropriately and verify your hardware and boot sequence in your BIOS setup).

Quite correct, you can get the extra packages at any time with the apt-get command, or a front end like synaptic (assuming you have a Internet connection on the PC).

Yes I do have a connection now because I am pleased to say that I was able to install Debian using the CD.iso that I burnt, and I have been using the apt tool to get the extra packages.

Thanks