Newbie: Boot from floppy & USB CD-ROM drive

**dboffin** · 03-30-2003, 12:11 PM

Hi,

I have an older IBM ThinkPad with an external floppy drive and USB CD-ROM drive (which is not bootable). I wonder whether it's possible to start (or indeed install) Knoppix from the USB CD-ROM drive using the boot floppy provided with Knoppix? Have anyone tried that?

Thank you in advance!

Regards.

**Henk Poley** · 03-30-2003, 01:02 PM

Sorry to say, but why don't you try yourself? A bootfloppy is made in a minute or so under DOS/Windows. Reboot and try, so to say.

Any partitions are mounted read only, so the chance of damage is really small.

**dboffin** · 03-30-2003, 02:03 PM

Well, of course, I'll do that. I thought that there are others who have tried that and could share their experiences. That's what the forum is all about, isn't it?

Anyway, as soon as I check the possibility of booting from USB CD-ROM drive, I'll post the results.

Regards.

**Henk Poley** · 03-30-2003, 05:17 PM

Originally Posted by dboffin

I thought that there are others who have tried that and could share their experiences. That's what the forum is all about, isn't it?

Didn't mean it that way. I understand that you might need some special cheatcodes to get things working, someone could have a working config already.

Hope it works.

**audioaficionado** · 03-30-2003, 05:56 PM

Google over to Smart Boot Manager and use it to make a floppy boot manager that will allow you to boot from your CD inspite of your bios limitations.

It works great for me and my bios can't get me CD boots either.

OTOH that USB connection might be the show stopper. Can't you plug that CD drive in thorgh another port like the pcmcia slot?

**dboffin** · 04-02-2003, 11:37 PM

Hi,

Thank you for your advice. I'll download Smart Boot Manager and give it a try in a couple of days. I'm a complete newbie, so any additional advice on how to proceed with Smart Boot Manager will be greatly appreciated.

The speed of the USB drive is not an issue, since I plan to install Koppix on the HD.

I'll keep you posted.

Regard.

**garyng** · 04-03-2003, 04:51 AM

make the boot floppy and copy \KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX(the big file) to the hardisk(assuming it is a FAT partition). You don't even need the CD-ROM

**dboffin** · 04-03-2003, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by garyng

make the boot floppy and copy \KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX(the big file) to the hardisk(assuming it is a FAT partition). You don't even need the CD-ROM

Excuse my total ignorance

, but how do I copy the KNOPPIX file without using the CD-ROM?

Regards.

**garyng** · 04-03-2003, 09:51 AM

Oh, I mean copy it in DOS/Window when you can still access the CD-ROM. After that, you don't need it when you boot into linux.

just make sure after copy, the big file is under C:\KNOPPIX, so the full path of that 700M file would be :

c:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX

(no extension)