On Wednesday 19 December 2001 01:33, Derek Blazer enunciated: > Ok, I have received several replies and greatly appreciate the help and > suggestions. Now I don't know whether to feel silly or glad. While > re-doing all of the step that I have taken so that I could write down > the messages, I was able to start the install via boot floppy and > successfully installed mandrake. I can't figure out what has changed > since, or maybe what I did wrong last time :) However, I still got the > same error when trying to boot from the cdrom. While I would like to > figure out the cause of the cdrom error, I have erased the evidence. > Several people have asked about the CD player, it did work in windows > and I was able to see the contents of it. In fact, I created the boot > floppy with tools provided on the cd. Declan has inquired about the > physical connection of the cd-rom which I will check after work today. > Otherwise, here is the information requested and the steps taken when > trying to boot from the cdrom. > > Thanks again. > > Derek > > Pentium 150 > 80 meg ram > Western Digital 6 gig IDE hd (windows95 only, 4 partitions - 3 > partitioned into ~1.97 gig, 1 with the remainder) > Digital Research 36X IDE CDROM drive > Creative Banshee 3D Blaster with 16 meg SDRAM > I don't know the motherboard or ram manufacturers. > > The steps: > 1. After failing to boot directly from Mandrake cd, Caldera cd, or RH > cd, adjusted BIOS to boot starting with CD, then A:, then C: > 2. After making the switch, still ignores the cd and boots windows > 3. From the mandrake cd, I read in the help file that I can reboot into > DOS mode and use the autoboot.bat file from \dosutils on the cd. This > appears to successfully begin linux installation, but I get the error > "Kernel Panic : vfs : unable to mount > root fs on 08:04".
Ok then it is the combination of the CD drive & the disk that is causing the problem. Windows does not push the hardware like linux does, and windows uses the std bois but linux introduces its own and ignores the std bios after a certain point. So you are like many of us in the list where at some point we had to use the floppy to boot with some have to use commandline and so on. I have found that with the latest h/w and distro installs its a cinch with cdrom boot. Not long ago I was using floppy boot. One point mate, is that it is imperative that you DO know the chipsets on board the MB and the video card so as you can tell linux what empiricals to use. This is where most beginners fall down, not knowing whats under the hood. With linux as opposed to windows, you need to know as windows cludges things and operates as an i386 generic whist linux uses the full potentialities of the h/w. Well at least i can say congrats and welcome now....... -- Keith Antoine aka 'skippy' 18 Arkana St, The Gap, Queensland 4061 Australia PH:61733002161 Retired Geriatric, Sometime Electronics Engineer, Knowall, Brain in storage _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list Archives, Digests, etc at http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
