Installation :: Install Other Distro Without Booting CD
Apr 15, 2010
I am walking thin ice here: I have this ancient PC, that has so old BIOS who doesn't know how to boot from CD (but it has a CD drive). It has also floppy drive, but I don't have any floppies what to feed there, so for time being let's assume the floppy drive doesn't exist. It's got network PCMCIA card.
I have managed to install on it linux (there was Win98 before), it was quite a journey - I first installed boot manager (Smart Boot Manager) that would let to boot from CD (what a wonderful thing it is). That, in turn, let me install Damn Small Linux on the box.
But the story gets a bit sad here. Since I had to delete and reformat partitions, the MBR where there was Smart Boot Manager, was replaced by GRUB. As far as I know, GRUB, once it's loaded, does not give option to boot from CD. And I experience some strange problems when trying to install the Smart Boot Manager again (this time from linux) - even superuser gets "Permission denied" error message.
So basically now I have no way to install other Linux distro (Damn Small Linux is smart but with ugly looks. I want to try Xcfe-d DSL, wich comes under name Luitlinux.
So, my question is - is there any way how to boot from CD drive, or ISO image, without rebooting PC? If not, then the only alternative is to find a floppy and burn the Smart Boot Manager on it, boot from that floppy, and then boot from whatever CD.
I've been playing around with an old laptop and a hand full of Linux distros. I found that each Linux has a kernel "vmlinuz" and a initrd "initrd.gz" no matter how you boot the distro it uses these to files. I have CrunchBang Installed on my laptop I put a copy of the ubuntu live disk in the location /home/user-pc/ubuntu/
I added a new boot option for grub It looks like this Title Ubuntu kernel /home/user-pc/ubuntu/casper/vmlinuz initrd /home/user-pc/ubuntu/casper/initrd.gz
This boots like a normal cd only problem is while its booting it tells me it cant find the file System. This happened for every single Linux distro I tried to boot. Is there something I am missing here is there a way to tell the boot peramiter where the file system is I think what it means by file system is the "filesystem.squashfs" file.
I have 2 questions 1. Is there anyway to tell the grub loader that this is the file system. To make the live CD boot properly. 2. How do CD's work is it not the same?
I had setup my system for triple boot with Windows, F10 & Suse. I had the Windows partition and then installed F10 setting up Grub to load the other two. All went fine and was able to choose to boot to Windows which worked. I then installed Suse, choosing the bootloader to be on the partition for Suse. This installed fine and can now choose to boot into Suse which works. F10 still works as expected, but when I choose to boot Windows, I just end up with a Grub command line. I can't see how the Windows partition could have been affected. I can still see all the files in there, but it just wont boot.
[Code]...
This is not really a Linux issue but does anyone know how I can 'repair' this Windows partition without affecting any other partitions. I don't have a Windows install CD. If I boot off FreeDOS, is there a command to repair the 'bootability' of the Windows partition only?
I've got a frustrating problem. I have a Dell SC440 machine that's worked perfectly for me for a couple years. Up until a few months ago I dual-booted Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.04 with Grub, with absolutely no problems. I upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10 and the new kernel, and the new kernel refused to boot - if I selected it in Grub it would lock up. I could, however, still boot into the old linux kernel.
I killed and recreated the partition, and I've tried to install Ubuntu 9.10 from scratch. It gets past the initial boot screen, but locks up immediately after. The exact same thing happens for Fedora 12, OpenSolaris 2009.06, and Vector Linux. I can't install in text-safe mode (or its various other names) either. LiveCD doesn't work.
The funny thing is that Ubuntu 9.04 still installs and loads just fine, and also runs the live CD. GParted boot-CD works fine. These two seem to be the only bootable CDs that work for me.
I have a computer with 2 HD. In one of them there are installed XP and F14. In the other there are several XP files and Mandriva (the last installed distro). At booting, the grub window I see is the Mandriva's one, where I can select F14 or XP. I should like to see at booting the Fedora's grub.conf window with selecting options for XP or Mandriva. How can I change this?
My distribution upgrade got interrupted in a hard way and when I start the computer I get some errors: Code: kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root on block 0, 0 or sth like this and a few more errors. Can't look the exact message as I am writing from the liveCD. On Gparted the boot looks normal and it is said that it's mounted but there is no mount point. There are things on the hard drive that I must save.
I ask to linux experts if it is possible to easily create a base debian distro that allows wireless networking and synaptic utility (and the basical tools) aimed at booting very fast, from hard-disk or stick. After installation, it would be possible to install other stuff, not much in fact. It should be able to recognize the hardware and then boot without checking everytime.
I'm using 3 monitors over a pci-e 9800GT and an agp 7600GS and have no problems under Windows 7, except i can't have Ubuntu (which i really miss). I tried installing Ubuntu and pretty much every other distribution multiple times.. with no luck so far. Wubi, CD, USB.. none of them worked for me. Right before the first step in the installation, all the screens go haywire, displaying all kinds of shapes and colors and everything seems frozen.
None of this ever happened back when i only had 2 screens and i really need the 3rd one (actually thinking of a 4th since i got a slot left.. maybe for movies or stuff while i'm working). I found topics of people with similar problems, only they were reffering to whatever happens while inside ubuntu or whatever.
Can I use Loadlin (or something else) to install a Linux distro (Linux Mint Helena KDE) from my desktop?Have a dual boot of Linux Mint Helena Main and Windows XP on my PC, but only a cd-rom (no DVD drive) and would like to replace Linux Mint Main with Linux Mint Helena KDE. The latter comes as a 1.1 Gig Distro so can't be downloaded onto a cd. I can put it on either my Linux Main Helena or my Windows XP desktop. Can I use Loadlin or some other program to install it? Have a 320 gig HD, so lots of space.
Basically I have been completely unable to install any distro bar those 2 (OpenSuSE 11.2 and Mandriva can't remember what version).
I tried Ubuntu lucid lynx and Maverick Meerkat, Mint 8 (helena) and 9 (isadora), fedora 12 and 13 and even....windows (I know that's not linux but meh).
When attempting to install Ubuntu and Mint I get the fabled errno 5 error. I have tried using 4 different optical drives, I burnt it at slowest possible speed I even used a usb to boot it and still somehow copped the errno 5 error (which is somewhat humorous when it tells me to make sure my cd/dvd drive is ok and i'm using a usb stick) I tried it on 2 different HDD's (both in this computer) 1 a 40gb the other a 1TB. I tried using sony DVD's, Verbatim DVD's and TDK DVD's I even tried using Verbatim Cd's.
When I attempt to install Fedora I get a (sorry as I can not remember the exact error message) cannot copy image from live cd error (or something along those lines) at around 54%.
With windows (again I know it's not linux but it might give some insight into what is actually going on) I get a blue screen of death before first boot EVERY SINGLE TIME and then it just continues to happen, this was on xp and 7.
My only idea I have as to what is happening is that my computer hates me and just likes driving me up the wall for kicks.
Lastly and ever so slightly off topic, if I manage to get another distro to install how do I stop it from killing my bootloader and how do I make that OS appear in my current bootloader.
Specs are as follows:
MOBO: Asus M4A87TD/USB3 CPU: AMD Athlon II x2 245 GPU: Radeon HD5770 RAM: Corsair VS2GB1333D3 2GB (1333MHz) DDR3 RAM, Non ECC Unbuffered, 9-9-9-24, 1.5V PSU: 600 watt shark HDD: West Gate 1TB 7200RPM SATA2 OS: OpenSuSE 11.2 32BIT
I want to install all the ubuntu distro packages on a computer without an internet connection. I read the website, but it didn't say if the DVD you buy has all the packages. Or are there ISO's of them?
Recently I did a wget for DreamLinux 4beta6.3, which I now cannot burn to a disk. Another issue with linux in general being just a hobby. Why could a dev not set it up where you could just wget the upgrades for the main distro files themselves ?? We already do this when upgrading the apps, so why not the distro? Why could you not start at alpha, and just slap do a rolling upgrade into rc and beyond?
I understand the potential stability issues, but why can't we ghost the drive and hence have a backup on hand and then do this as outlined, and hence do a single install from alpha the distro's grave? I am wasting four months on "Setting Up" each install, only to wind up reinstalling again. This happens in every variation I have come across. Even in stable versions, the rolling upgrade just craps the install, and the major do overs hijacks all my data.
I bought a new NVidia Asus EN210 for my HTPC, but I can't get Ubuntu to install.
First I made a live USB disk of 10.10 with Unetbootin and when I choose the option of "try Ubuntu" it starts loading and then just hangs, still showing the menu of boot options. After this I tried Xubuntu on a USB disk. This one also starts loading but then just fails. I also tried XBMC Live. This one does show the Ubuntu 10.04 screen but then just shows a black screen.
After this I found a CD with Ubuntu 10.04, I think or it is 10.10, laying around in my room. I booted it and once I select an option from the install menu it starts to load, but then just gives a black screen with a flashing "-" sign.
The strange thing is, once I pop in the old video card, which is an ATI HD4350, my Ubuntu 10.10 Live CD on USB disk does work and it does get past the menu of boot options (in my second paragraph I describe how this isn't the case with Ubuntu 10.10 combined with my NVidia card).
Yet another "dual XP+Ubuntu" boot problem for everyone.
My neighbor wanted to try out Linux as he did not want to pay for Windows 7, so I offered to install Ubuntu as a dual boot. Ubuntu 9.10 boots and works fine, but now Windows XP will not boot. It just sits in a blank screen with flashing cursor after selecting Windows in Grub.
So, it is a Dell, originally with two partitions, one large one with Windows XP and a small one with HP's recovery partition. Here are my steps. 1. Using a Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit CD, I booted into a Live Ubuntu session. 2. Using GParted, I resized the Windows partition. 3. Installed / on the free space, did updates. 4. Delivered to neighbors house, showed them Ubuntu, and when I tried to restart into XP from Grub, I get a blank screen with flashing cursor.
I looked at the SuperGrubDisk and it seems to only work with Grub1, so I did not want to try as at least one OS boots and I did not want to risk messing up Ubuntu as well.
I have installed 10.04 Netbook remix, installation went find and rebooted..Now all i get is a black screen after bios finished loading. I guess it is something with the bootloader
I just installed server 10.10 64 bit edition on my server and I'm not able to boot from the hard drive. It just sits with a blinking cursor. Does anyone know what's going on or heard of this before? If I screwed something up during the install I can redo it, but I did ask it to install the boot loader. I know I have the correct hard drive selected as the boot device in the bios as well.
My PC hardware configuration - 1. Intel I5 processor (64 bit) 2. Intel DH55P J motherboard 3. 2TB hard-disk
I wanted to install only Ubuntu 10.04 (no windows) , I installed 10.04 Ubuntu and installation went fine. While booting up, it says boot device not detected. Then I tried to boot from CD, and checked /boot/grub folder, only 1 file is there grubenv. I hope I should have bunch of files in /boot/grub path.
So it looks grub2 was not installed properly. Then I followed instructions from [url] , still not able to resolve the issue.
I attempted to do a proper install of Ubuntu 11.04 via booting of off CD. This failed because my CD/DVD drive is quirky and does not like burned CDs, though it likes factory pressed CDs just fine. I reattempted using a burned DVD, which almost worked, but my quirky drive just couldn't quite handle it. Replacing this drive is currently not an option, as I have no money for such things at this time.
I updated the CD/DVD drive firmware to 102D (apparently the most recent), but to no avail. I am comfortable with tearing apart electronics, so if anyone has knowledgeable suggestions about any kind of maintenance I could do to the drive I would be happy to hear it. Also, a (cheap!) factory pressed Ubuntu CD could work as well. Are such things available?
I further attempted booting via flash drive, but this failed as well, despite changing BIOS settings. If anyone has any useful suggestions on this, I would be happy to hear them. I attempted installation within Windows XP and was successful, though this is not an optimal solution. I have a second 60GB hard drive in this laptop that I would like to devote to a proper installation of Linux. It seems like I should be able to do this from within the current Ubuntu installation, but I am unsure of how to proceed.
I am having trouble booting the install CD for Fedora 15? As soon as I select a boot option I get a grey screen with a blinking cursor even if I pick the option to use basic video. I have tried using the intel_iommu=off parameter which makes no difference.
I also seem to have a similar issue when trying to install Ubuntu 11.04 on this machine too. I am using a Athlon x2 5200+, 5GB Ram, ATI 3850 if that's.
When I boot from the CD I don't get the normal choices to install. The only 2 choices I get are; "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer" and "Live-Install" I click on Live-install, and I get a boot loader box that has live-install in it and a OK click box i click ok and nothing happens.
I have a Toshiba Satellite A55-S106 with a bad CD-ROM. It can't boot to USB, so I've taken to doing PXE installs.I had done a PXE install for 9.10. After the install, GRUB told me that it couldn't find the UUID. I was able to edit the grub config file and remove references to the UUID and it booted okay.I tried to do an upgrade from 9.10 to 10.04. The whole upgrade finished, and upon rebooting I saw the purple Ubuntu screen with the red dots, then a blank screen and no hard drive activity. I'm able to read the drive in a LiveCD Environment, but I can't figure out how to make it boot yet.
Fearing for the drive, I put a second hard drive in the laptop and installed 10.04 fresh, again using PXE. Same deal -- install finishes, purple screen, then blank screen and no hard drive activity.Here's a video of the laptop in action:v=T0VgfOA05T0 -- the status lights from left to right are "plugged in", "power on", and "hard drive".I feel like this is probably the same issue as before -- where I should go into GRUB and fix the issue, but I can't figure out how to get into GRUB in 10.04!Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be going on? I have some data on the first hard drive that I'd like -- not irreplaceable, but it would save me some time if I could get the drive to boot. (I apparently said "yeah, encrypting my home directory sounds like a great idea
I completely deleted NTFS as having a boring windows doesn't make any sense today, installed it with ext4: /boot = 200MB /swap = 1GB / = space left After successful install, the BIOS screen with HP logo remains stuck, it won't boot anything in another words. I can't get the boot loader, nothing as if it awkwardly trying to boot from external data drive. Did my hard drive go poof? or did I miss something during install? How can I get my hd to read?
I recently did a fresh install of ubuntu 11.04 and seemed to have made a mistake with re-partitioning perhaps? I cant boot into windows anymore. I know all files are still there and intacct as I can access them from Ubuntu, but Something is wrong with the Booting of Windows now. I get to a screen which gives me system recovery options. When I perform the startup repair it scans for a few secnds and comes up with an error message "...System volume on disk is corrupt. Repair action: File system repair (chkdsk)...error code 0x1f" I even seems to have access to files on windows from this screen when I try a "Windows Complete system restore" It gives me the option to look on the hard drive or on a disk (I only have a Toshiba windows 7 upgrade disk and it doesnt seem to be helping)
I just installed 10.04 on a Dell Dimension T7500. I first set up linux partitions following first FAT16 (Dell Utilities) and second FAT32 (labeled OS) partitions. The installer suggested there was no OS when I was installing Ubuntu 10.04. After restart I see that the first option in boot order is "Onboard or USB CDROM drive". But Ubuntu never booted. I then changed boot order to first look in ID00 LUN0 ATA. Same thing..no boot of Ubuntu. On the other machines on which I've installed Ubuntu I have dual boot with Windows and have GRUB installed. So....how best to set this up and find out if I have a workable OS?
I've now tried several times to install a fresh copy Fedora 13 i386 on my old Dell laptop, but each time I reboot the laptop I get the first-time welcome screen which asks you to create a user. When I re-enter my user info, it tells me that there's already a folder created for that user. After rebooting, I'm back to that screen. Does anyone know what's going on here?
While installation of openSUSE on machine already having winXP and Ubuntu, I chose "Edit partition setup", I also chose GRUB: change locaiton to "MBR" enabled installation summary was something like this, shrinking sda1 to 13.02 and sda5 to 12.3 Gb, swap partition to sda3 (old linux), root partition to sda6(old linux), then began installation, and after sometime, while shrinking done with sda5, when started with sda1, it showed the following error- Failure occured during following action: Shrinking partition /dev/sda1 to 13.03 GB (progress bar might not move) System error code was: -3027. Now, currenly, i am not able to have my winXp back, during booting it shows: error: no such partition grub rescue>_
I have cleaned-intall 11.4 After the installation, the KDE environment is not booting as the default, but runtime level 5 boot instead. I have checked my installation and ensured to have KDE4 installed.
Please advise how to have KDE boot.
My graphics card is ATI Radeon Mobility X1400 on Acer Travelmate 4670.
I have two Lenovo laptops: One is a T410 now running on openSUSE 11.4 with KDE 4. I got my wireless, keyboard languages/layouts, upgraded firefox... The other, a V570, is currently running Ubuntu 11.4 and I'd like to install openSUSE 11.4 on it.
Here is what I did. Downloaded openSUSE-11.4-DVD-x86_64.iso from software.opensuse.org: Download openSUSE 11.4 (Direct link). md5 checksum is good (compared to checksum posted by caf4926). Burned to DVD using Brasero. Installed openSUSE on the T410 (did the media check first from the installation menu - it was ok). Install went well and system is running fine. I'm happy with it
This is the problem I'm having; tried it about 10 times now and every time it's the same. Using the same DVD, trying to install openSUSE 11.4 on the V570 machine; after turning on, it boots from the DVD and I get the following 3 lines and then the cursor just sits at the fourth and does not continue
The hardware is a psystar box with 2 drives for os x and ubuntu respectively. I attempted install of ubuntu over older version of xubunut without physically disconnecting the os x drive After install I could not boot into either system. THEN I remembered something about the install problem that 10.4 has and installed ubuntu again, this time following the instruction regarding booloader install. Now I can boot ubunut fine, but of course when I select drive holing os x it hangs on 'Verifying DMI pool data....' I've been looking at some thread on here about dual boot problems with Win7 and such, but are any of the recommended diagnostic and repair steps relevant to my case, specifically testdisk and bootinfo scripts?
