How can I run a boot CD from a PC that doesnâ??t have a BIOS CD-ROM Boot option?
Linux - NewbieThis Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
How can I run a boot CD from a PC that doesn’t have a BIOS CD-ROM Boot option?
I have an old laptop with an external SCSI CD-ROM attached. Unfortunately the BIOS doesn’t support booting from the CD-ROM, so I can only boot from a floppy or the hard disk, and it doesn’t support network boot ether.
This machine currently has Windows 95 loaded on it but I want to try installing some other OP/SYS.
I was thinking of trying Android PC OS, Google (chromium) OS, SKY OS, GeeXboX, or some form of low-resource-friendly Linux... possibly Puppy!
Unfortunately I have all of these as boot CDs. So are there any Linux boot-Floppy images than can be used to find the CD-Drive and kick of a boot-CD install?
Alternatively, IIRC it used to be common for Linux distros to include a bootable floppy image somewhere on the install CD, I don't know if that's done so much these days but it's worth a look.
Check out Plop boot manager it offers many options, i believe it is possible to switch from your floppy to your cdroom with Plop.
Does your computer have usb? What is the configuration of your computer?
Regards
Last edited by ukiuki; 11-24-2011 at 08:58 AM.
Reason: misstype
If you can obtain DSL 4.10 Linux on usb and a DSL made bootfloppy ( made from within the DSL 4.10 OS, it's a menu entry you can select to install on floppy), you can boot and install on that machine.
The DSL distro is a little sparse in overall capability, but the above can practically boot a cinderblock. I used it on an emachine 5305 1.8ghz AMD, 512mhz ram with no HDD, no cd-rom and no bios support for booting from usb beyond floppy drive. Took abt. 10-15 minutes to boot that way as "probing" system for ehci.o file is the longest portion of the wait, once found the process flies.
These files can be downloaded freely online from damnsmalllinux website.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.