Can't boot from CD, Bios doesn't recognize the CD drive

**yukichigai** · 07-08-2005, 02:01 AM

I'm trying to run Knoppix on a, how shall we say, ancient system. The Bios is not equipped to handle a CD-Rom, so Smart BootManager doesn't detect it as a valid drive and won't let me boot from it. Are there any Linux-friendly programs that fit on a floppy, akin to MSCDex but without the MS part, which will enable the CD-Rom so I can boot from it?

**yukichigai** · 07-15-2005, 02:18 AM

still hoping for some help.

**rwcitek** · 07-15-2005, 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by yukichigai

I'm trying to run Knoppix on a, how shall we say, ancient system. The Bios is not equipped to handle a CD-Rom, so Smart BootManager doesn't detect it as a valid drive and won't let me boot from it. Are there any Linux-friendly programs that fit on a floppy, akin to MSCDex but without the MS part, which will enable the CD-Rom so I can boot from it?

If it's that ancient, you might want to ask yourself if it's even worth trying to run Knoppix on it? Other things to look into:

upgrade the BIOS
install a second hard drive
install a bootloader on the harddrive that can boot Knoppix from the harddrive

Good luck and let us know how things go.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/

**UnderScore** · 07-15-2005, 09:35 PM

I'm with robert on this. For rescueing important data, I've gotten Knoppix from CD to boot to a command line (after entering MANY cheat codes) on a Pentium 100MHz 64 MB RAM. In my opinion, any older system that can not boot from the CD is only worthy of being hacked into a router or X terminal or perhaps just thrown out (recycled into parts). I would look into floppies for Slackware or Debian instead of CDRs. See Toms root boot floppy http://www.toms.net/rb/ as great example of the power of 1 floppy.