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Booting linux from a CD

WalterWalter Registered User regular
edited June 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
I had a box that booted linux from a CD to run a wi-fi network for my father's hotel. The box died and now when I try to boot using the same CD with another computer I get "Invalid system disk". I have tried this with two different computers and I get the same error with both of them.

Both boxes I have tried have two disk drives and I'm not too sure which is the primary, although I have tried all the drives. Would disabling the secondary cd drive matter? How do I disable the drive?

AFAIK there is no way to boot this particular flavor of linux except from a CD.

Sorry for all the technical questions lately. I have suddenly become the tech person for my family's businesses and I often find myself over my head.

Walter on

Posts

  • deke55555deke55555 regular
    edited June 2008
    Is the cd or boot floppy ahead of the hard drive in the boot order?

    You can check that out by going into the setup screen as the computer boots, generally accessed with something like F2, F8 or DELETE.

    deke55555 on
  • shutzshutz Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Also, you really should check the jumpers on all the drives, and make sure the CD/DVD drive you're using to boot from is Master on its own channel (unless all the machine's drives are SATA, in which case there's no jumpers to set.)

    Some machines won't boot from a drive unless that drive is Master.

    shutz on
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  • WalterWalter Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Its definitely trying to boot from the CD drive. i'll check the jumpers but I'm pretty sure the drives are SATA.

    Walter on
  • WalterWalter Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    So I think the disc I was using didn't burn properly as an image. I downloaded a program that burns .iso files and re-tried. Now the damn computer is saying that there is "No boot device available" even though it tried to boot just a minute ago and I KNOW it recognizes the master drive. What the hell is going on?

    Walter on
  • theSquidtheSquid Sydney, AustraliaRegistered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Would you mind specifying which distro you're talking about? Knoppix, Damn Small Linux etc.? I get the feeling though that the simple problem is that in the BIOS settings, the hard drive is set to boot before the CD drive. I also definitely think that in the first place the CD was faulty.

    theSquid on
  • WalterWalter Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    Morphix CD ( a modified knoppix apparently). I am certain that I have the disc drive set to boot before the hard-drive. I actually have booting from the hard-drive disabled because if I enable it, it boots into windows when it doesn't recognize the disc.

    Walter on
  • deke55555deke55555 regular
    edited June 2008
    I hate to re-cover the same ground, but with the hard drive disabled your problem is almost certainly the cd being skipped in the boot process or being unbootable.

    Do you have a second computer somewhere you could test the disk in? Also, if you haven't visually verified your boot order, you may want to do it just to make sure it isn't skipping the cd.

    deke55555 on
  • WalterWalter Registered User regular
    edited June 2008
    I have visually verified the boot order and tried it on another computer. I am inclined to think its the disc's fault but like I said, I've had it work before and I've burned the disc several times, even using various computers to burn it.

    Walter on
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