I have Puppy on an install CD... It always seems to work for me. Puppy is the last man standing Linux install...
On Mon, 22 May 2023 at 16:05, Evan Leibovitch <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm not sure that it's a portable-media issue. > My first instinct is to try a distro that specializes in older HW such as > Puppy. > That should be installable to and bootable from a USB stick. > > If that works it could easily be a wonky Secure Boot implementation. > If your preferred target is Debian, perhaps the "Shim" > <https://wiki.debian.org/SecureBoot#Shim>tool might help? > > - Evan > > > On Mon, May 22, 2023 at 9:13 AM Giles Orr via talk <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi Don. >> >> Probably a good suggestion, but I don't think it will work for me: the >> Toshiba in question does have an optical drive, but even if I can find >> a CD burner, I'm not sure I have media I can burn to anymore (I have a >> stack of blank CDs ... but they're 15+ years old). >> >> On Mon, 22 May 2023 at 08:38, Don Tai <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> > When I find an old computer that won't boot USB I go back to a 32 bit >> CD install, then upgrade. Some old PCs simply won't reliably boot with USB. >> > >> > On Mon, 22 May 2023 at 08:34, Giles Orr via talk <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> >> >> I've recently acquired (through a friend who stopped using it) a >> >> Toshiba Satellite L500 - Core i3 (3rd gen?), 4G RAM. I'm determined >> >> to get Linux onto it (preferably Debian). I thought I had succeeded: >> >> I booted from a Debian USB stick, installed to the HD. All appeared >> >> to go well, but the system won't boot. It returns to the Boot Menu >> >> and says "HDXXXX has failed." What the search engines are telling me >> >> is that with this generation of Toshibas, the problem is generally >> >> Secure Boot / CSM etc. Which makes sense, but ... there is absolutely >> >> zero mention in the BIOS/UEFI ("Phoenix SecureCore Tiano Setup") of >> >> "Secure Boot," "CSM," "Legacy," or "UEFI." Acccording to notes I >> >> found online, "SecureCore Tiano" has "full support" for legacy >> >> booting. >> >> >> >> Another issue with this machine is my mixed success booting from USB >> >> sticks: I have an old-ish USB stick I built myself that has GRUB and a >> >> large menu of ISOs: works great on most systems, won't boot on this >> >> thing - probably because it's an old-style BIOS-boot only(?). >> >> >> >> One of my ideas was to upgrade the BIOS: it appears there's a newer >> >> version available, but it's NOT available from Toshiba, which is the >> >> only place I'd want to download it from. The rest look like dubious >> >> secondary download sites (if you know one you consider reliable, let >> >> me know). >> >> >> >> What I read online said that Fedora's installer puts an EFI partition >> >> on the HD as part of the install, while Debian doesn't. And that >> >> may(?) be why I can't boot from my Debian install? So ... I >> >> downloaded the Fedora installer, put it on a USB stick ... and no joy: >> >> the Toshiba doesn't recognize the Fedora USB stick as a bootable item. >> >> Would this be because I burned it on a "Legacy" system? Is there a >> >> fix for that? Except ... I'm about 99% sure the Debian Installer USB >> >> stick was created on the same machine. >> >> >> >> Worst case, I can stick the HD from the Toshiba into another machine, >> >> install Fedora on it, repartition to make room for Debian, put the HD >> >> back into the Toshiba ... but that's getting damn complicated and >> >> annoying. >> >> >> >> As always - any suggestions welcomed. >> >> -- >> Giles >> https://www.gilesorr.com/ >> [email protected] >> --- >> Post to this mailing list [email protected] >> Unsubscribe from this mailing list >> https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk >> >
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