Getting linux on prolinea 575
 

Hello, im trying to get linux up and running on a prolinea 575 system. the prolinea 575 is an old compaq im just trying to get some unix os on it doesnt matter if its linux or not, i have used linux before though, just a little bit. it is going to be used for a small irc server. and i cant figure out how to boot the old thing to the cd drive to install linux on my system. do you guys have any ideas? i dont know how to get into the bios on it.


i wasnt sure if this was the right forum or not seeing as it has to do with linux and the hardware.

thanks!

You are going to need to figure out how to get into bios. Usually it is a key pressed as soon as the system comes on, such as <Delete> or <F1>. You need to watch the system closely during power up in order to catch it. You may also want to check HP/Compaq's website, they may have some useful information there.

its an old old system. all it does is counts the memory then trys to load.

What about the HP/Compaq website, this is a HP or Compaq Prolinea right? If it is too old, there may not be a way to boot to the CD, you might have to get/make a floppy to boot from.

is it posible to boot from a floppy then go to the cd drive?

if it is what would i need to do?

Yes, if you buy a distro, then many times you get a boot floppy with it.

If you dl'd yours then you will have to create a boot floppy by hand from your CD using the rawrite.exe command.

i have mandrake on the hd right now, and i can boot into that. but i would like to reinstall it because i installed mandrake on a different system and its not finding the network card. what should i do then?

you kinda lost me now. I thought we were discussing how to boot to a CD? Your last post is pretty vague as to what you want. If you are going to change the question, then you may want to start a new thread.

ok well, i stick the the booting to the linux cd. i loaded the bios on the the harddrive which i was supposed to do and i didnt find anywhere for it to boot from cd drive. do you have any ideas about that/?

No, unfortunately I don't, however, can you boot to a floppy drive? If so, then create yourself an installation floppy from your CD on a computer than can access the CD.

then i could access the setup files from there? and have it install?

If you use the rawrite program that is included on the CD (from another windows? computer), then you will have an installation floppy similar to what you would get with a box-set. I am not sure, but I think the rawrite program is a Windows executable, someone correct me if I'm wrong.