Re: Unable to make Linux bootable from HD or make boot floppy

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

Mark Fickett wrote:

> > > I am working on installing Debian 2.2r6 on a Packard Bell 
> > > Intel machine, which has a Pheonix BIOS, 23.0MB RAM,
> > >      
> > 23MB RAM?  That's odd.  Is 1MB "stolen" for the video adapter?
> >    
>
> It seems that the 23MB is just for Extended RAM; it's 24MB total for System, Extended, and Shadow RAM.
>
>  
>
> > > Hard Drive, a 3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive, and a Matsushita 
> > > CD-ROM drive
> > >      
> [...]
>  
>
> > > When configuring device driver support, I install sbpcd for my 
> > > matsushita CD-ROM drive, and have tried also installing
> > >      
> > Are you sure the matsushita it plugged into the Sound Blaster 
> > card?
> >    
>
> I haven't any idea if it's plugged into the Sound Blaster card. How would I find out?
>  
Open the case and see where the data (ribbon) cable is connected. What 
was really being asked is if the CD-ROM drive is an industry standard 
ATAPI drive, or an older proprietary one that connects to the sound 
card. The older proprietary ones tend to be more difficult to get working.

> > > The drive was giving me problems before (rawrite2.exe gave >>me "general failure reading drive D" several times, but would 
> > > go 
> rawrite2.exe was writing to A:, D: was the CD it was reading from.
>  
Older drives might have reading issues. Especially if the drive is 
proprietary. Especially if you're using a burned CD rather than a 
pressed one (if you or a friend created the CD, it's burned).

> > > The partitions are 
> > > /hda1, which is 10MB at the beginning of the disk, a Primary >>linux 
> > > ex2 partition marked bootable and mounted as boot, /hda2, a 
> > > 30MB Primary linux ext2 partition which is root, and a 388MB 
> > > Linux Swap partition, also Primary.)
Wow! 30 MB for the system, and 388 for swap? Or am I missing something here?

> > This must be changed.  On a very small disk like this, try this:
> > hda2: Primary ext2 48MB _at_the_end_of_the_disk_
> > hda1: Primary swap Everything else, and make it bootable...
> >    
This still makes no sense to me. 48 MB for the system, and 378 MB or so 
for swap?

> I've changed that as you recommended.
>  
What's the problem again? Does the system boot off the installation CD? 
Does the install work fine until you try to make the hard drive 
bootable? Do you get any error messages at that time? What is your 
partition scheme now?


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