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View Full Version : [ubuntu] can't get box to boot off live cd



psanf
March 31st, 2009, 10:26 PM
i have an old 500mhz box that i'm trying to install ubuntu from with a live cd. the problem is that the box can't boot from the cd-rom drive, and i need a floppy that i can use to get it to do so. does anyone know how i go about making this floppy with winXP? i've tried a couple of the rawwrite utilities around, but none of them seem to work. any help would be much appreciated.

kestrel1
March 31st, 2009, 10:31 PM
To be honest you would be lucky to get Ubuntu running on a 500mhz CPU. I would be looking at a linux version that would work better on that hardware. Puppy is good as is DSL.

Pumalite
March 31st, 2009, 10:32 PM
If you have 256 MB of RAM or less; try the Alternate CD. You also can try:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/LowMemorySystems
If not; try Puppy or DSL

kestrel1
March 31st, 2009, 10:35 PM
Also have a look at this for floppy help: http://www.linuxmigration.com/quickref/install/media.html

psanf
March 31st, 2009, 10:42 PM
that would be great, except that i need a floppy disk in to boot off of first.

Coreigh
March 31st, 2009, 10:45 PM
Kestrel1~ baloney! Ubuntu will run fine (NOT fast) on that computer if it has 256MB ram or more.

To get older computers to boot off the liveCD I have had to use safe or VGA mode with --noapic and ACPI=OFF in the boot arguments. This will get a lot of them going, but there will still be some that will not. The alternate CD is also a good idea. And finally there are CD-less install options available.
check this info:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation

It is true that the full Ubuntu Desktop will slow this older machine down. You may want to try Xubuntu or a bare install with only the base system and a simple xorg and window manager like Fluxbox

After a base install or use Ubuntu Server

sudo apt-get install fluxbox xdm numlockx xterm xserver-xorg-core xfonts-base


get familiar with the terminal and command line

lisati
March 31st, 2009, 10:50 PM
i have an old 500mhz box that i'm trying to install ubuntu from with a live cd. the problem is that the box can't boot from the cd-rom drive, and i need a floppy that i can use to get it to do so. does anyone know how i go about making this floppy with winXP? i've tried a couple of the rawwrite utilities around, but none of them seem to work. any help would be much appreciated.
Smart Boot Manager (http://sourceforge.net/projects/btmgr/) might be of some help. One of the downloads is a Windoes exe file that will write the necessary info to a floppy

psanf
March 31st, 2009, 10:54 PM
i've tried all of those various programs, but i'm not sure which img file i need to put onto the floppy with it. i tried the /install/smb.bin file on the cd, but it didn't work.

lisati
March 31st, 2009, 10:58 PM
i've tried all of those various programs, but i'm not sure which img file i need to put onto the floppy with it. i tried the /install/smb.bin file on the cd, but it didn't work.

If you want to create a boot floppy from Windows, download sbminst.exe from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=4185&package_id=4201&release_id=25481 and run it.

kestrel1
April 1st, 2009, 09:23 AM
Coreigh: Kestrel1~ baloney! Ubuntu will run fine (NOT fast) on that computer if it has 256MB ram or more.
I have Ubuntu running on a 1300mhz CPU with 512mb ram & it still runs a bit slow.
For older equipment, you are better off getting the most out of it or you would soon get fed up with Linux, so running an OS that would run a lot faster is a far better idea than trying to get something running that would be like a tortoise on ice.