Installing Ubuntu on a REALLY old computer
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From: Rod Speed on 11 Jul 2006 05:45 Dan N <dan(a)localhost.localdomain> wrote > Rod Speed wrote >> Lack of it may well be what stops quite a few trying it on their >> personal desktop system to see if it does what they need tho. >> Thats clearly what ubuntu particularly is attempting >> to do, provide a viable alternative to Win. > Ubuntu is moving so fast that I wouldn't > be surprised if it's in the next release. Yeah, and it looks rather more like a wart rather than a deliberate implementation choice. > One feature that ubuntu has that I really like is its ability to > easily connect to a variety of servers, including ssh (like windows > PuTTY), webdav (a feature found in IE), ftp and windows shares. > Go to Places->Connect-To-Server. It leaves you a permanent > icon for easy gui browsing. Makes it easy to access to other > computers, via a variety of connection modes. Yep, quite a bit better done than with knoppix for example. > Only problem is there are still some bugs in it, the biggest one > being that you can't change the connection settings afterwards. > It's also a pain that it insists on leaving the icon on your desktop. Yeah, dont use desktops anymore myself. The Win quicklaunch toolbar leaves them for dead.
From: Yousuf Khan on 11 Jul 2006 15:34 Rod Speed wrote: >> If you'll recall I've already said that CD-based booting is not working >> on this system. Not a Linux boot CD, not even a Windows boot CD. >> The only thing that boots is the Windows 95 on the hard disk. > > THAT BOOT MANAGER ALLOWS YOU TO BOOT ANY CD > ON THAT SYSTEM WHICH CANT BOOT THE CD BY ITSELF. > >> So how do you expect the boot manager is going >> to load itself into memory, devine intervention? > > It loads a special purpose bootstrap into the first physical > track on the hard drive and that is what boots the CD. Interesting, but the system is stated to have CD booting capabilities, but it still doesn't work. For whatever reason, it's not able to completely read the boot sector of a CD. In fact, whenever there's a bootable CD in that drive, it gets stuck, it won't even skip past the CD and start booting from hard disk. You have to completely remove the CD from the CD drawer and then reboot to get it to boot off of its own hard disk. The system is just old, it doesn't surprise me that it doesn't work as advertised anymore, it's like an arthritic old senior citizen. There were cobwebs growing inside this system -- literally. > As I thought > http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=60440&lang=en&docname=bph07110 > tells you how to setup the boot options in the bios. > > http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=60440&lang=en&docname=bph07146 > tells you how to get into the bios and check the setup for the CD etc. Well great, that was a good find, but it didn't help any. The boot options were set up properly, and we tried a few more combinations after that, and nothing worked. It's just a broken feature now. We've now been able to install its hard disk from another system and then continue its configuration locally. Definitely Ubuntu is not the right distro for this machine, so I've started trying figure out Elive now. Yousuf Khan
From: Rod Speed on 11 Jul 2006 16:37 Yousuf Khan <bbbl67(a)yahoo.com> wrote > Rod Speed wrote >>> If you'll recall I've already said that CD-based booting is not working on this >>> system. Not a Linux boot CD, not even a Windows boot CD. >>> The only thing that boots is the Windows 95 on the hard disk. >> THAT BOOT MANAGER ALLOWS YOU TO BOOT ANY CD >> ON THAT SYSTEM WHICH CANT BOOT THE CD BY ITSELF. >>> So how do you expect the boot manager is going >>> to load itself into memory, devine intervention? >> It loads a special purpose bootstrap into the first physical >> track on the hard drive and that is what boots the CD. > Interesting, but the system is stated to have CD booting capabilities, but it still > doesn't work. For whatever reason, it's not able to completely read the boot sector of a > CD. In fact, whenever there's a bootable CD in that drive, it gets stuck, it won't even > skip past the CD and start booting from hard disk. You have to completely remove the CD > from the CD drawer and then reboot to get it to boot off of its own hard disk. OK, you didnt include that vital info till now. I'd still try that boot manager because it may be able to boot the CD even if the bios cant for whatever reason. > The system is just old, it doesn't surprise me that it doesn't work as advertised > anymore, it's like an arthritic old senior citizen. Nope, nothing like. While the cdrom drive may have failed, you can check that possibility by seeing if it can read CDs properly after having booted the hard drive. > There were cobwebs growing inside this system -- literally. There's some one some of my discards and they work fine anyway. >> As I thought >> http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=60440&lang=en&docname=bph07110 >> tells you how to setup the boot options in the bios. >> http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=60440&lang=en&docname=bph07146 >> tells you how to get into the bios and check the setup for the CD etc. > Well great, that was a good find, but it didn't help any. It was the obvious thing to check before deciding it cant boot the CD. > The boot options were set up properly, and we tried a few more combinations after that, > and nothing worked. It's just a broken feature now. Doesnt mean that its not fixable or that that boot manager cant boot a CD either. > We've now been able to install its hard disk from another system and then continue its > configuration locally. Definitely Ubuntu is not the right distro for this machine, Yeah, even knoppix has problems with those minimal machines. So do some of the True Image rescue CDs which are another linux variant. > so I've started trying figure out Elive now.
From: Yousuf Khan on 11 Jul 2006 19:51 Rod Speed wrote: >> The boot options were set up properly, and we tried a few more combinations after that, >> and nothing worked. It's just a broken feature now. > > Doesnt mean that its not fixable or that that boot manager cant boot a CD either. > >> We've now been able to install its hard disk from another system and then continue its >> configuration locally. Definitely Ubuntu is not the right distro for this machine, > > Yeah, even knoppix has problems with those minimal machines. > > So do some of the True Image rescue CDs which are another linux variant. The CD-ROM works fine for non-boot purposes. Once the OS is running, it acts just fine. Found out something strange about it. The only boot CD it seems to recognize is its own original Windows 95 rescue CD, and nothing else. There's two possibilities here: (1) it doesn't like booting from burned CD's, just stamped ones, or (2) it is requiring a proprietary boot format. In the days of Windows 95, very few systems could boot from CD, you always needed at least a boot floppy which would then go to CD to install Windows. So the fact that this is probably one of the earliest systems with a bootable CD would indicate that maybe it's a proprietary boot format. Yousuf Khan
From: Rod Speed on 11 Jul 2006 23:25
Yousuf Khan <bbbl67(a)yahoo.com> wrote > Rod Speed wrote >>> The boot options were set up properly, and we tried a few more combinations after >>> that, and nothing worked. It's just a broken feature now. >> Doesnt mean that its not fixable or that that boot manager cant boot a CD either. >>> We've now been able to install its hard disk from another system and then continue its >>> configuration locally. Definitely Ubuntu is not the right distro for this machine, >> Yeah, even knoppix has problems with those minimal machines. >> So do some of the True Image rescue CDs which are another linux variant. > The CD-ROM works fine for non-boot purposes. Once the OS is running, it acts just fine. OK, then its very likely a bios problem. I'd try a later bios flash if one is available. > Found out something strange about it. The only boot CD it seems to > recognize is its own original Windows 95 rescue CD, and nothing else. Yeah, that's likely significant. > There's two possibilities here: (1) it doesn't like booting from burned CD's, just > stamped ones, Should be easy to test that possibility by trying to boot a Win distribution CD. > or (2) it is requiring a proprietary boot format. Dont recall any did that. It might be a side effect of the recovery system tho, it will ony boot recovery CDs. > In the days of Windows 95, very few systems could boot from CD, Thats overstating it, quite a few could. > you always needed at least a boot floppy which would then go to CD to install Windows. Nope, nothing like always. But that is why that boot manager was developed, for those earlier systems that didnt have any provision for booting CDs in the bios. That Pav isnt one of those tho. > So the fact that this is probably one of the earliest systems with a bootable CD would > indicate that maybe it's a proprietary boot format. Like I said, I dont recall that any of them did it like that. I bet its just that it can boot a recovery CD and isnt happy with anything else for some reason. The HP web site would have said if it wont boot normal CDs. |