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Old 10-03-2008, 10:04 AM   #1
mcmorj
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Old SCSI CD will not boot SUSE


Hi All,

I have an old PC Server that is SCSI based and I have tried to install a SUSE 11 Live CD. Although the SCSI Adaptec controller sees the CD as bootable, it does not boot. An XP install CD does boot, so it is not the hardware.

Does anyone have any ideas what I could do, I have tried to figure out how to create a boot floppy to 'kick off' the process - but being a relative noob, have not really gotten anywhere.

Any help much appreciated.

Last edited by mcmorj; 10-03-2008 at 10:05 AM. Reason: correct typos
 
Old 10-03-2008, 02:15 PM   #2
TB0ne
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mcmorj View Post
Hi All,

I have an old PC Server that is SCSI based and I have tried to install a SUSE 11 Live CD. Although the SCSI Adaptec controller sees the CD as bootable, it does not boot. An XP install CD does boot, so it is not the hardware.

Does anyone have any ideas what I could do, I have tried to figure out how to create a boot floppy to 'kick off' the process - but being a relative noob, have not really gotten anywhere.

Any help much appreciated.
You say it doesn't boot...does it do ANYTHING? Does it start, but abort partway through?

If you get a little bit in, you can try (if you get to a menu), to manually load a driver for your SCSI card/CD drive. Depending on your hardware (if it supports USB boot), I'd just go spend $50 on a USB optical drive, and be done with it, or even less on a new internal unit.
 
Old 10-04-2008, 05:00 AM   #3
mcmorj
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Registered: Oct 2004
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Distribution: Suse 10 11 and kubuntu
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Hi Tbone,

The machine is very old, circa 1995 (amazingly it does have a single USB port). An IBM PC Server 315 with a Pentium PRO 200mhz CPU and an adaptec SCSI controller. No IDE controllers though. I very much doubt it would support a USB bootable device, but I will give it a try as you suggest as I have a USB DVD/CD Drive.

What happens, is the adaptec controller identifies that the CD in the SCSI CD drive is ISO bootable and announces that it will attempt to boot from the CD. However (unlike older versions of Linux) it just sits there. It does not boot. I will rig up the machine today and get a clear view of what (doesn't) happen. It sees the ISO image, but does nothing with it.

The same CD will boot in a newer IDE based machine no trouble. I have the 'latest' firmware and BIOS for both the PC and the adaptec SCSI card (AHA 2940 UW).

I was able to previously install linux on this PC by installing an older version (7.2 Suse) then upgrade within the OS, but it was laborious and messy. I also tried a boot image of Kubuntu and ubuntu server and got the same results. I am guessing the hardware is too old for the newer bootable versions in use today? So was looking to try boot the installs from floppy. I know distros used to have this facility to create bootable floppies in a directory on the first CD, but apparently no more.
 
Old 11-11-2008, 05:52 PM   #4
mcmorj
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Registered: Oct 2004
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Distribution: Suse 10 11 and kubuntu
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Ok amazingly my brother has a SCSI CDROM drive belonging to an SGI workstation he has from day gone by so I am going to see if trying another SCSI CDROM might do the trick.
I tried a USB CD but the BIOS did not recognise it.

I also looked into if the ISO image is OK, I tried several different linux installs, including live CDs and none of them would work, reporting different versions of ISOLINUX but all stopping at the same point -

loading...

The PC itself has not hung - for instance the CAPS LOCK works. It just sits there and goes no further and does not respond to any key entries.

It's irritating as I know I had SUSE linux on this machine before - Version 10 - but I cannot remember how I did it. Attempting other SUSE install CDs has not worked either, all hanging on the same thing, loading...

Even MORE irritating is the Operating System that shall not be named loads with no problem at all :O(

I have tried resetting the boot order to make the CD first in the SCSI boot list of the adaptec controller, again this made no difference.

I have searched on this problem and there have been reports of similar stalls in the process, all on the loading... stage (before you can get to anything) but nothing concrete on what the problem is. Nearest I got was that one issue turned out to be 'the drive' but it does not say CD or hard disk. My PC has not changed hardware wise.
 
  


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