Ubuntu Installation :: Can't Install Grub To Floppy
Jan 5, 2010
Unfortunately I have to use Win NT 4.0 everyday and in fact I am trying to create a system where I have many versions of NT on one disk. My plan is to store them in Linux and create a shell script to over write the first primarly partition which is ntfs. I am trying to install Xubuntu Koala on a logical partition and NT at the start of the disk. Grub is not loading NT well. I want to just use the NT booter and launch Linux from a floppy.
During the install there is an option to write grub to /dev/fd0 but it won't work for me. I tried both fat and ext2 formatted disks and I made sure they were present during the initial boot for auto mounting. I have verified that the floppy drive actually works.
I'm trying to install Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 on a Compaq Evo N200. The problem is that it doesn't have a CD drive on board, and it only supports booting from USB floppy drives- not USB flash or CD drives. I have access to a flash drive, floppy drive and CD drive, all USB externals. I've tried a couple different floppy boot loaders with little success. I understand that it also supports network boot, so this might be an option. What is the easiest way to get UNR running on this laptop?
how to install Fedora 13 on my IBM X40 laptop which does not have a CD, a Floppy, a Network or a working USB. The only way I can write data on its hard disk is by removing it and connecting it via a USB rack to another laptop which runs Windows 7 64bit.
I'm running Karmic Server with GRUB2 on a Dell XPS 420. Everything was running fine until I changed 2 BIOS settings in an attempt to make my Virtual Box guests run faster. I turned on SpeedStep and Virtualization, rebooted, and I was slapped in the face with a grub error 15. I can't, in my wildest dreams, imagine how these two settings could cause a problem for GRUB, but they have. To make matters worse, I've set my server up to use Luks encrypted LVMs on soft-RAID. From what I can gather, it seems my only hope is to reinstall GRUB. So, I've tried to follow the Live CD instructions outlined in the following article (adding the necessary steps to mount my RAID volumes and LVMs). [URL]
If I try mounting the root lvm as 'dev/vg-root' on /mnt and the boot partition as 'dev/md0' on /mnt/boot, when I try to run the command $sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/md0, I get an errors: grub-setup: warn: Attempting to install GRUB to a partition instead of the MBR. This is a BAD idea. grub-setup: error: Embedding is not possible, but this is required when the root device is on a RAID array or LVM volume.
Somewhere in my troubleshooting, I also tried mounting the root lvm as 'dev/mapper/vg-root'. This results in the grub-install error: $sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/md0 Invalid device 'dev/md0'
Obviously, neither case fixes the problem. I've been searching and troubleshooting for several hours this evening, and I must have my system operational by Monday morning. That means if I don't have a solution by pretty early tomorrow morning...I'm screwed. A full rebuild will by my only option.
Is there something weird about the FLOPPY DRIVE on F12? Nothing associated with it works & I can't get an icon for it. Also the FLOPPY FORMATTER no longer works. (mine is an internal drive)- I had some really miner quirks with it in 10 but it worked. I had some workaround launchers that I used until an upgrade semi-fixed it. (It would give a false error that it couldn't run but did. I just ignored it.)
I tried to edit FSTAB to cure a problem of my BACKUP drive showing up twice*** so while I was in there I added the stuff for the floppy & it still doesn't work. If I try to mount it manually, I get the error that /dev/fd0 doesn't exist.I tried to find some info on it & it SEEMS that there MAY be a bug but I'm not sure as the info is a bit confusing as to just what version & such they are talking about. And there was also the problem that all the stuff seemed to be OLD or not related to my problem.I why I quite hacking at my system, is that all my workaround launchers & the formatter say that there are GNOME things missing & they can't run. So I figure that there is something missing or screwy already & that I'd better ask BEFORE I make things worse or actually break something.With the fact that floppies are about gone, it's getting to be not that big of a deal but I still find myself having to use them for repair purposes (albeit, not as much) & it gets to be a bit of a pain to fire up M$ just to do something like this.
*** It appears that the one in FSTAB was the one I needed, so where would the OTHER one be so I can get rid of it? Or at least make it auto mount.
2010.07.21 while trying to install Ubuntu 10.4 I've been trying to install Ubuntu 10.04 on my Dell workstation and am unable to get the Grub-2 bootloader to load properly. It seems to be failing for lack of a floppy drive on the system resulting in an error message that reads : error: fd0 cannot get C/H/S values.
I've gone through the Grub-2 page at [URL].. to no avail and other sources having similar problems have likewise turned up no solutions. here's the background: A while back I was trying to install a different version of Linux and had the same problems, then had to set the project aside for a bit. I don't think this has anything to do with Linux or Ubuntu per se, but rather Grub.
The system is an old (4-5 years) Dell workstation that has one drive (128 GB) set up for Windows XP and a second new drive (500GB) which I installed for Linux. There is a DVD/CD drive and the system contains no floppy drive at all. In one attempt to get this working I tried modifying the BIOS to indicate there was a floppy drive - this created a failure earlier in the chain with the BIOS failing to load properly, not unexpected, just a shot in the dark at that point.
At the moment I am considering just running out to buy and install a cheap floppy drive to see if that helps. I'll never use the thing though so I'd rather find a solution that doesn't require me to spend money on useless hardware. In any case, here's the /boot/grub/grub.cfg contents:
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE # # It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates # from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub # ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
I am having a Promise TX4650 RAID controller & trying to create a driver floppy for installing the drivers. Also am using RHEL 5, I can create the driver floppy, but when I type "mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy" I get error: "mount: mount point /media/floppy does not exist".Can I get the files in a format other than the ext2 floppy image, so that we do not need to use a floppy drive?There is a readme file inside the driver archive & you can use that as a reference.
error message:Unable to scan Floppy Drive for media changes Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
I wanted to avoid having to use my CDs, DVDs weren't an option, and I didn't have very large usb sticks. It seemed my only option for installing openSUSE onto my laptop was with some sort of network install/boot.
I ended up finding this really cool service, netboot.me. What you can do is download a very small image (<1MB) for a floppy, USB stick, or CD, and then boot off of it. Then you can either install pre-defined distros over the network (straight from the distro's servers), or you can make an account (by connecting your google account), and then make your own configuration. I managed to make a configuration for openSUSE 11.4, and I was able to completely install it, via only using one floppy disk and the internet!
My first step in the process was to download the floppy image. Since I was on a windows computer, I then downloaded rawwrite for windows, and I wrote the image straight to the floppy. After that, I restarted the computer and booted from the floppy. It loaded the image, then asked me to press a key or wait for 3 seconds. In order to boot from my configuration, this was the point where I had to press a key, and then choose the option of loading the custom configuration. The configuration I made has an ID of 434001 (which anyone is free to use). Unfortunately, according to their community, the gPXE "network stack" isn't very optimizied, so the initial two downloads took awhile (my speed was locked at 65 kB/s.)
It then began booting in the installation environment, which took about 15 minutes, although download speeds were now back at normal, faster speeds. I configured my installation, and let the package downloading begin!
This is what I am trying to get for my dinosaur, Compaq Presario 5050. But I have never booted linux through floppy disks before, so I haven't a clue what I am doing.
In the read me from the site I linked above, it said they need to be 1.44 M and DOS formatted. Both are 144, and I went to my computer (in XP) and right clicked on the floppy, format, and create bootable DOS disk. But this fills the disk up with files, and even when I deleted them all, it said there was not enough room for one of the two files I am supposed to copy on to it.
So, how do I make the file fit onto the floppy, and how do I write the image file to one of the floppies? In DOS? I can use linux too, if necessary. (if it's easier)
This is another one I am looking at, but basic linux looks easier to install.
My computer doesn't support booting from a cd or a usb stick. I managed to install ubuntu (10.04) by using the utility program that came with the live cd. With it I was able to boot from cd and use the live cd., there still seems to be some leftover files of windows in the hard drive where I installed ubuntu. So my question is, how can I reinstall ubuntu so that it will format the whole drive. Is there perhaps a similar utility program for ubuntu that lets me boot from a live cd or can I do the reinstallation just using the already installed ubuntu?
I want to move to this system after bad experiences with windows. I have also a particular problem. An old laptop is probably able to handle just linux at this point of its life.
The cdrom is gone, the bios doesn't have usb boot support, there is no floppy or pxe network boot ability, so I was wondering what other way I can have to install linux on a barebone hd (nothing on it).
The only Idea I had was to copy some files on the hd via a ide cable adapter, connecting the laptop hd to the mobo of a desktop. I did the same in the past to install xp: I used msdos 7 to boot the machine and then launch the xp setup from withing the hd (copied before the installation files).
So my question is, can I do the same with linux? in such case, of course I will have a hd formatted with fat32 to boot in msdos, and what files should I copy on this partition to launch the installation?
In installing XP on the first drive of dual boot system using two drives, it requires during setup (after hitting F6 and S) that I install the SATA drivers using a floppy drive (A). I haven't had the need nor have I used a floppy drive in 5 years. I am not sure the old floppy drive I have works or whether the diskette (the original that came with my Abit NF7-S motherboard) has gone bad. Is there a work around for this? Can one even buy floppy drives or diskettes anymore?
Every time I need to use the floppy drive, I again find it not working.I have reported this problem before, and it has been fixed before, several times.It is broken again.Clicking on the "Floppy Drive" item in Nautilus does not even access the drive.Right clicking and selecting "Detect Media" at least spins the disk, but gives the same non-results regardless of whether there is a disk in the drive.With no disk in the drive this happens:
Code: $ sudo mount /dev/fd0 mount: /dev/fd0 is not a valid block device
i am trying to create a floppy boot disk as my computer doesnt support booting from cd. I have downloaded ntrawrite and placed it in a file with the sbm file and followed these instructions [URL] which i found here.
when i type in the command i get the response "ntawrite is not recognised as an internal or external command"
Is the problem that im not opening the cmd in the right directory? I dont know how to change this.
Cannot mount floppy after upgrading from 10.10 to 11.04, with same entry in fstab. Have tried changing auto in fstab to ext2,3xt3,vfat,msdos but problem remains.
All the drives function and mount normally under Parted Magic.
Sometimes a cd will mount after 15 mins or so but if it is ejected it will not remount. after that event the dmesg output is 3 times as long. As it is 35K chrs long it is too long to post!
I have changed hardware and cables with no effect.
I have run the repair option on the install disk. I get a cannot find floppy error
It also reports cups, hal, ntp & postfix as errors but if I select repair it still returns the same next time I run the repair routine.
It also says the bootloader is faulty if I select repair I go into an infinite loop so I exit with skip. Anyway the system boots ok and runs just fine apart from the cd/fdd/usb problem
I scored a Dell poweredge 6300 from a local pawn shop. It has the capability to boot from cd-rom, but apparently not with isolinux, which is what the debian installer cd uses. I was able to boot to UBCD411 (Ultimate Boot CD, which uses syslinux), but didn't see any option to boot to a CD (maybe I'm missing something here?). I tried using the boot floppy from this site. I didn't expect it to work (it's from the Woody era), and it did not. I got a message that says SYSLINUX ver.XXXX CBIOS boot failed. I went to [URL].. and looked for a boot floppy image for Lenny, but apparently it doesn't exist. I did however find the boot floppy image for Etch.
To be honest, even if I did find the Lenny floppy boot image, I'm not sure how to use it to point the system to the installer CD. So, I have two questions:
1) Does anyone know of a boot floppy image for Lenny, or if I could use the Etch boot floppy image?
2) How would one boot from floppy, then point the system to the installer CD?
System info: (4) Xeon Pentium 2 processors 500 Mhz (6) UltraSCSI hard drives (1) SCSI cd-rom drive (1) SCSI dvd-rom drive (1) Floppy drive (1) 10/100 NIC
I'm open to any other suggestions as to how I could install Debian Lenny on this machine.
I recently bought a Toshiba Portege M200 tablet PC and it's caused me no end of grief to load linux on it. I would like to load CentOS 5.x (because my hosting company uses it and I will be able to learn as I run it).
Here are my resources:
I found internet resources to create a boot disk that enables me to see my 8GB Sony USB flash drive via DOS. It works nicely.
I have a laptop drive to USB converter and can access the hard drive directly from my Win XP desktop. I have PowerQuest's Partition Magic Pro (v8.0) and can make Ext2 and Ext3 partitions at will. I have also loaded a program that allows Windows XP to read and write from Ext2 and Ext3. It works well.
I have tried loading boot images from PXE. This option is mostly out because it seems to be a couple levels past my competency (I haven't been able to get it to work).
Given those resources, what's the best way to load either the CentOS live CD... or some other approach?
Since I wrote this, I figured out how to make a boot floppy that can start an external USB CD-ROM/DVD drive. Here are the files on the floppy:
Here's the contents of my config.sys:
Here's the contents of my autoexec.com:
I can boot to the CD and launch linld.com. The problem is that I keep getting a kernal panic message, saying that a memory block could not be addressed. And when I add the following part to the line above: "initrd=d:isolinuxinitrd.img" the install fails and reboots. I have tried to expand the initrd.img and it appears... blank?
My goal is to have a dual boot system with Windows and linux. When no floppy is loaded Windows should boot. When a linux boot floppy is loaded linux should boot.Windows (and its boot loader) are on hd0. I installed Fedora 10 to hd1 and had install put the boot loader on that drive. I followed the instructions in http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=150913 to make a boot floppy. But when I use the boot floppy the system brings up the grub prompt and stops.
to access my floppy from Fedora 11. It is mounted automatically,but when i try to open it by double-clicking, I just get "already mounted" message.I need to retrieve my old menu.lst which is on the floppy. It will then need to be edited to include Fedora.
I have and old IBM notebook which I use for work (due to the serial port), and I would like to install FC11 on it, the problem that it doesn't offer to boot from neither CDROM (since it doesn't have a built-in one) nor from USB. However, I have external DVD device witch connect through USB, and I have the notebook bootable floppy desk, how can I install FC11 using those?
A while ago I made the jump from Mandriva to Fedora. I am very pleased with Fedora, but some things do not seem to be as easy as with Mandriva. Maybe I just got to find my way around and am not aware there are packages that will do what I want, so I think it is a good idea to ask here..Well - I have a multi-boot system. There are a few partitions to test out different Linux versions (like specialised music distro's with low-latency kernels). As a result the MBR gets overwritten by other installs now and then.In Mandriva it was possible to create a simple boot disk without any images - just a "link" or "jump" to vmlinuz etc. on the root partition from the main Linux system. I think only the MBR part was written on the floppy. It was very easy done in the control centre by choosing fd0 in stead of hda as boot medium.
This disk whas a life saver if the MBR was overwritten by another OS intall. I just put in the floppy and boot from that floppy strait into the standard grub menu and so I was able to re-create grub (by doing the same process but pointing to hda in stead of fd0 as boot medium).
Is there a way to create the same simple boot disc under Fedora 14?
I know that several people have answered this type of question before, but I can't seem to find the information I need to get it working for me. According to my research what I want to do cannot be done. However, i'm sure there must be a way.This is my scenario - I will try to be as accurate as I can be to make it easier for poeple to help. I have a Sony Vaio PCG-141C laptop, the half sized old ones. It has a usb floppy drive that I can boot from. I have also got a usb cd-rom drive but the laptop simply will not boot from it! I have got the F12 cd images downloaded and on a usb hard drive.
I want to boot from a floppy disc, to load F12 from the cd images stored on the usb hard drive. Now with Redhat 9 you could use a floppy drive to do just this. However, F12, does not support it.
Is there a work-around that I could try. I have already tried Smart Boot Manager, but it won't detect the usb cd-rom drive. I have Redhat 9 installed on the laptop, and can mount the usb hard drive from terminal. Could I start the install process from here with the images stored on the external drive??Is there anything I can do, or am I doomed to never get past this.
After installing 11.4 my fstab entries for CD and DVD drives as well as floppy generate errors when I try to mount them automatically or via Nautilus when inserting CD or DVD. The icons and CD/DVD name show up ok but will not mount. Manually mounting via terminal command works. Here are the relevant lines from fstab
[Code]...
In /dev scd0 and scd1 are symlinks pointing to sr0 and sr1 respectively. The above error message was generated after attempting to load a CD in scd0 i.e. my laptop internal CD/DVD drive. Lines 10,11 and 12 are the fstab lines quoted above.
So I am stuck in the bootloader hell. With a vintage PC
Ok, so here's the setup:There is one HDD, with two primary partitions: 1st for the system, 2nd for the swap. I booted Luit Linux Live CD, and ran it's HDD install script. The Luit Linux is based on Damn Small Linux that uses kernel version 2.4.22. For some reason, it's bootloader LILO install did something wrong and the fresh install wouldn't boot
Error 15 By the way, I don't understand why the bootloader texts refer to GRUB, while the install script definitely was installing LILO.
I can now boot again with that same Live CD (or any other CD that would boot to Linux), and once loaded, mount the hard disk and check and update it's contents. I'd like to install there as up-to-date GRUB version what that ancient hardware (48MB RAM) can take, and then configure the GRUB to load that install that's sitting on the hdd.I will be very grateful for any advice. Unfortunately my knowledge of things like GRUB is very poor, so it's difficult to look up advice by searching the internet.
