[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux boot floppy -- making it without windows or dos

[Terry Henderson]

On Sun, 09 Jan 2005 11:11:11 -0600, Peter A. Koren
<p.koren at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 2005-01-08 at 22:09, Ralph Green, Jr. wrote:
> > Howdy,
> >   I may have some good news for you.  In recent versions of Mandrake(I
> > have not tried this on 10.1), Mandrake has a backup plan for those who
> > can't boot from CD 1.  Try booting from CD2.  It worked on a 10.0 system
> > where disk 1 would not boot for me.  It trundles on for a moment or two
> > and boots up far enough to ask you to put CD 1 back in and proceed
> > normally from there.
> >   My other suggestion is to go buy a new box of floppies.  Micro Center
> > frequently puts a 10 pack on sale for $1.49.
> > Good luck,
> > Ralph
> >
> > On Sat, 2005-01-08 at 13:39 -0600, Peter A. Koren wrote:
> > > I've got a problem. I just bought the Mandrake 10.1 powerpack set and
> > > want to upgrade. But my computer has a bug and will not boot off of the
> > > CDROM because of some error, probably a faulty BIOS, even thought I set
> 
> These were brand new floppies I bought last week. In the past, when I
> had a dual boot, I just used rawrite under a Windows 98 DOS shell to
> make the boot floppy, copying the image from either the CD or in earlier
> years from the hard disk after downloading the appropriate image file.
> The reason I can no longer do that is that I no longer have Windows on
> my hard disk drive and my Windows 98 and old DOS floppies have aged and
> no longer work. In those previous installs, I never got dd to work,
> which is why I was and still am dependent on Windows for making a Linux
> boot floppy for a new distribution.
> 
> If one reads the appropriate text files that come on the Mandrake 10.1
> Disk 1, they specifically list three ways to install linux. Here is the
> relevant part of the instructions:
> ============================================================================
> 
>    Below are listed the different ways to install Mandrakelinux:
> 
>     1. Boot directly from CD
>     2. Make a boot floppy with Windows
>     3. Other install methods
> 
> ============================================================================
> 
>   1. Boot directly from CD
> 
> snip
> ...
> snip
> ============================================================================
> 
>   2. Make a boot floppy with Windows
> ************ The only option that ever worked for me ************
> 
>    If your computer cannot boot from the CDROM, you must make a
>    boot floppy under Windows as follows:
> 
>     * insert the CDROM, then open the icon
>       "My Computer", right click on the CDROM drive
>       icon and select "Open"
>     * go into the "dosutils" directory and
>       double-click on the "rawwritewin" icon
>     * insert a blank floppy in the floppy drive
>     * select "D:\images\cdrom.img" in the "Image
>       File" field (assuming that your CDROM drive is
>       "D:", otherwise replace "D:" as needed)
>     * select "A:" in the "Floppy Drive" field then
>       click on "Write".
> 

I've just done it from command line myslef:
rawrite D:\images\cdrom.img a:

>From Linux commandline:
mount /mnt/cdrom
or
mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom
dd if=/mnt/cdrom/images/cdrom.img of=/dev/fd0

>    To begin the installation:
> 
>     * insert the CDROM in the drive, as well as the boot floppy, then
>     * restart the computer.
> 
> ============================================================================
> 
>   3. Other installation methods
> 
>    If for any reason the previous methods do not fit your needs (you
>    want to perform a network install, an install from pcmcia devices
>    or ...), you will also need to make a boot floppy:
> 
> ************* Below is what fails for me. ******************************
> ************* Files do transfer, but I get bad blocks. *****************
> *****The floppy drive sounds like a food processor with ****************
> *****gravel thrown in -- in spots -- when trying to write using dd. ****
>     * Under Linux (or other modern UNIX systems) type at prompt:
>       $ dd if=xxxxx.img of=/dev/fd0
> 
> snip
> ...
> snip
> 
> End of Mandrake 10.1 install snippet
> 
> Notice how using dd is listed only as a second class method of creating
> a boot disk for Linux. If it were reliable, the dd method of creating a
> boot floppy would not be in the "others" category. It would be listed
> with or above the Windows rawrite method. I suspect the real reason is
> that the developers know that the floppy drive device driver under Linux
> used by dd is flawed. Rawrite under Windows works reliably, but dd under
> Linux does not.

I think your suppositions are flawed.  I've had little or no trouble
with dd or rawrite either one as long as floppys were good.  I don't
think one is any better than the other.  Not much difference as far as
I can tell, they both work just fine as long as media and hardware is
ok.

> 
> If I do not locate a nearby friend with a PC today, I will bring my
> Mandrake CDs and some new floppies to the Linux install session next
> Saturday and make the boot disks. If anyone can bring along the floppy
> boot disk used to make a floppy install of Windows 98 (the latest
> version) I would appreciate it. I have the original CD.
> 
> -- Pete


I'm not sure why you can't make your  computer boot to CDROM.  You
should check your bios settings, try some different choices /
configurations.  Check your hardware, etc.  You may get it to boot to
CDROM if you tinker around with it.