Re: A laptop installation challenge
On Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:41:44 +0000, AG in gmane.linux.debian.user wrote:
> On a previous thread, I had polled some advice on the best way to
> install Debian on an old laptop that lacked a CD drive. A number of
> suggestions were made and I eventually went with the idea of changing
> the pre-existing /boot/lilo.conf and adding a newly downloaded vmlinuz
> and init.gz Then I copied a netinst *.iso image onto a USB stick and booted.
>
> All went well, and I was able to install a new Debian system. However,
> when I went to reboot into the system I received the "EBDA is big;
> kernel setup stack overlaps LILO second stage" message. Googling this
> message throws back a number of suggested solutions which break down
> into one of two choices - changing the lilo.conf file (difficult since I
> cannot get into the lilo.conf due to the system having been locked at
> boot up) and using a rescue CD (difficult because it has no CD drive to
> work with). I cannot ssh into the laptop because it hasn't booted and
> so I am left with a laptop that cannot boot, cannot use a CD disk to
> boot and which is fundamentally useless.
>
> Can anyone suggest a way that I can get this thing to boot given the
> significant constraints described or has this now been reduced to a hunk
> of plastic for use as a doorstop?
Does it have a floppy drive? If so, Etch should have some floppy
install/rescue images.
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