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Re: [OCLUG-Tech] can't boot from older PC

On Sun, Mar 22, 2009 at 11:26:19AM -0400, Carl Heyendal wrote:

> I'm trying to boot a Fedora 10 Live CD from an 'older' PC that I want to 
> use as a Linux platform, but it just won't detect the CD after a restart.
>
> I verified that the PC can detect and boot from a Windows installation CD, 
> so I know it's not something broken in the PC. I also verified that the 
> Live CD is bootable on my 'newer' PC.
>
> I snooped around the bios, but nothing is obvious there either. I even 
> forced it to boot from the CD drive only, with no luck.
>
> Any ideas?

How old? I have Debian Lenny on a P200 with 64mb ram (kernel 
2.6.26-1-486, wireless USB dongle, no X). I've been messing 
around with some junker PC's lately and am not sure if I 
installed directly to this machine or moved the hard drive 
over from another one. 

I just checked and was able to boot into rescue mode using
the Lenny businesscard netinst iso (RW). I may not have been 
able to boot the regular netinst iso from testing, but I'd 
have to re-burn it to check.

If you have a floppy drive you could try SBM to boot the CD.
I don't know anything about Fedora, but if you can install
anything on the hard drive, even FreeDOS, you may be able
to install Fedora without booting the CD.

Regards,

Howard E.