Re: ran out of input data

[John Pearson <huiac@camtech.net.au>]

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 04:18:14PM -0500, Andrew Martin wrote
> 
[snip]
> >
> > If your CDROM isn't an IDE or SCSI CDROM, or it's connected to
> > an ISA/PNP card, then you'll definitely need rescue.bin and the
> > file drivers.tgz, so that you can load the driver required for
> > your CDROM and continue from there via CDROM.  You may also
> > want to consider putting base2_2.tgz there, so that you
> > don't have to rely on your CDROM drive to install the base
> > system.
> >
> > > That'll probably get you farther along.
> > >
> > > I think that when you run boot.bat from the desktop, Windows uses
> > > C:\WINDOWS as the working directory instead of
> > > "C:\WINDOWS\[Profiles\UserName\]DESKTOP", which is why the installation
> > > can't find the files that it needs. Putting everything in "C:\DEBIAN"
> > > should solve this problem.
> > >
> >
> > You also should try to identify your CDROM type before
> > proceeding, so that you don't end up sweating over it trying to
> > figure out which of the half-dozen or so likely drivers is
> > appropriate while your machine is no longer running Windows,
> > but not yet running Debian.  What make & model is it?
> >
[snip]
> > Ok....I tried to but all of the files in my new folder on c drive.  I also
> changed my drive letter for the cd in config.sys  I was able to boot from
> either one but still got the "ran out of input data" message.
> 
> My cd drive is a Sony CDU31A-02.  It isn't a regular IDE drive.  It has it's
> own card which is also the sound card.
> 
> I didn't try putting base2_2.tgz in the folder.  I was pretty tired when I
> did this.
> Is that the file that contains the kernal?  If it is then that should get me
> to where I can install drivers for the cd right?
> 
> Andrew
> 

You will need to load the "cdu31a" driver durinmg installation before
you can access files from the CDs.

Because of the order that the installer does things, you must
load both the kernel and drivers from somewhere other than your
CD; you should then be able to use the CD for installing the
base system and packages.

The kernel is normally loaded from a rescue floppy, from the CD
or from your hard disk; you can't use the CD, so you must use
either a rescue floppy or copy 'rescue.bin' to your hard disk,
as you have done.

The drivers get loaded either from a set of floppy disks (the
number of disks depends on the kernel flavour you use), or the
'drivers.tgz' file that you have copied to your hard disk.

'base2_2.tgz' is an archive containing the base system, and you
*should* be able to access that from you CDROM once you've
loaded the CDU31a driver module.

If your system is very low on memory (under 6MB installed) then
you may have trouble running the Debian installer, or booting
from a standard boot disk; however you have 16MB, so this
shouldn't be a problem.

It may be that whatever default settings your system uses for
MS-DOS programs interfere with loadlin's operation; one thing
you may like to try is exiting to MS-DOS and running the program
from there rather than running it as a full-screen program
under Windows:
  - From the Start menu, select Shutdown...
  - Choose Exit to MS-DOS
  - At the DOS prompt, assuming you copied all of the files to c:\debian:
    C> c:
    C> cd \debian
    C> boot.bat

Alternatively, try making boot & root floppies and seeing how
that works; it is possible that Loadlin has issues with your
BIOS.


HTH,

John P.
-- 
huiac@camtech.net.au
john@huiac.apana.org.au
http://www.mdt.net.au/~john Debian Linux admin & support:technical services