Installing Slackware Linux 12.0
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From: Vwaju on 22 Jan 2008 12:21 I purchased the official CD sets for Slackware Linux 9.1 (a few years ago) and Slackware Linux 12.0 with The Official Guide to Slackware Linux (a month ago). I just reinstalled Slackware Linux 9.1 on my old Dell Dimension L500r. No problems with this: I insert Disk #1 ("Installation"), boot bare.i, and everything works without a hitch. Now I'm trying to install Slackware Linux 12.0 on my old Dell Dimension 4100. I load Disk #1 (also labeled "Installation") from this version, but the CD is bypassed -- the computer boots Windows XP from the HD. (As a test, I then inserted Disk #1 from the 9.1 version, and I get the prompt to boot bare.i, as expected). Should I conclude that my Disk #1 of the 12.0 version is defective, or am I doing something wrong? Thanks & Best Regards, Vwaju New York City
From: Michael Black on 22 Jan 2008 12:54 Vwaju (lou(a)manhattanhandyman.com) writes: > I purchased the official CD sets for Slackware Linux 9.1 (a few years > ago) and Slackware Linux 12.0 with The Official Guide to Slackware > Linux (a month ago). > > I just reinstalled Slackware Linux 9.1 on my old Dell Dimension > L500r. No problems with this: I insert Disk #1 ("Installation"), > boot bare.i, and everything works without a hitch. > > Now I'm trying to install Slackware Linux 12.0 on my old Dell > Dimension 4100. I load Disk #1 (also labeled "Installation") from > this version, but the CD is bypassed -- the computer boots Windows XP > from the HD. (As a test, I then inserted Disk #1 from the 9.1 > version, and I get the prompt to boot bare.i, as expected). > > Should I conclude that my Disk #1 of the 12.0 version is defective, or > am I doing something wrong? > > Thanks & Best Regards, You need to make a floppy with the Smartbootmanager. This has all been discussed before, and I don't remember and don't care about the specific reasons why there is a problem, but it is that the computer can't boot the thing on the CD or DVD. It's expecting a certain format, and SLack 12 has advanced a little bit. I have a Dell Dimension 4100 and I suffer the same problem. Making a floppy with the smart book manager, so you boot from the floppy which then loads from the CD or DVD, works fine. I forget where the image to copy to the floppy is on the Slack 12 CD or DVD, but it might be in with the kernels. Your computer boots to Windows because the BIOS goes through a sequence, looking for something that's bootable. Assuming you have the BIOS set to boot from the CD/DVD drive first, if it's unsuccessful there it will try the next thing on the list, which must be the hard drive in your case. Note that when using the smart boot manager on the floppy, you will have to set the BIOS to boot first from the floppy drive, if that's not already set, or else it may never get to a point where it loads and launches the smart boot manager. Michael
From: Douglas Mayne on 22 Jan 2008 12:59 On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:21:31 -0800, Vwaju wrote: > I purchased the official CD sets for Slackware Linux 9.1 (a few years > ago) and Slackware Linux 12.0 with The Official Guide to Slackware > Linux (a month ago). > > I just reinstalled Slackware Linux 9.1 on my old Dell Dimension > L500r. No problems with this: I insert Disk #1 ("Installation"), > boot bare.i, and everything works without a hitch. > > Now I'm trying to install Slackware Linux 12.0 on my old Dell > Dimension 4100. I load Disk #1 (also labeled "Installation") from > this version, but the CD is bypassed -- the computer boots Windows XP > from the HD. (As a test, I then inserted Disk #1 from the 9.1 > version, and I get the prompt to boot bare.i, as expected). > > Should I conclude that my Disk #1 of the 12.0 version is defective, or > am I doing something wrong? > > Thanks & Best Regards, > > Vwaju > New York City > Because the computer is refusing to boot from a _bootable CD_, it looks like that computer could have a broken BIOS, as has been discussed here before. This problem cropped up right away when Slackware 12.0 was released. This post on linuxquestions discusses the problem: http://tinyurl.com/36bkcv That post includes this explanation of the problem (quoted from Alien Bob's response): <quote> Now, if that CD won't boot on your computer, the computer suffers from the "incompatible because broken" BIOS syndrome. The Slackware 12.0 boot CD uses a bootloadsize of 32kB which causes problems for some computers with older BIOS. Previously, the bootloadsize was 4kB which worked better for older computers. The value of "32" is standards compliant, and may have been chosen because Slackware 12.0 is meant to be installed on modern computers...? You can instead try to copy the USB boot image "usbboot.img" inside the "/usb-and-pxe-installers/" directory to a USB stick if your computer support booting from USB, or create your own compatible ISO image for the boot-CD using the instructions in "/isolinux/README.TXT" <end quote> There are various solutions, including booting from smartbootmanager from a floppy. Another option is to remake the first CD manually (use mkisofs and specify -boot-load-size=4.) Unfortunately, this throws a significant roadblock in your way. At least you have a running Slack 9.1, should you opt to remake the boot cd. -- Douglas Mayne
From: Tom N on 22 Jan 2008 13:21 On 2008-01-22, Douglas Mayne <doug(a)sl12.localnet> wrote: > On Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:21:31 -0800, Vwaju wrote: > >> I purchased the official CD sets for Slackware Linux 9.1 (a few years >> ago) and Slackware Linux 12.0 with The Official Guide to Slackware >> Linux (a month ago). >> >> I just reinstalled Slackware Linux 9.1 on my old Dell Dimension >> L500r. No problems with this: I insert Disk #1 ("Installation"), >> boot bare.i, and everything works without a hitch. >> >> Now I'm trying to install Slackware Linux 12.0 on my old Dell >> Dimension 4100. I load Disk #1 (also labeled "Installation") from >> this version, but the CD is bypassed -- the computer boots Windows XP >> from the HD. (As a test, I then inserted Disk #1 from the 9.1 >> version, and I get the prompt to boot bare.i, as expected). >> >> Should I conclude that my Disk #1 of the 12.0 version is defective, or >> am I doing something wrong? >> >> Thanks & Best Regards, >> >> Vwaju >> New York City >> > Because the computer is refusing to boot from a _bootable CD_, it looks > like that computer could have a broken BIOS, If the 9.1 CD boots from that BIOS, and the 12.0 CD doesn't, then it would seem to me that it's the 12.0 CD that is broken, not the BIOS. A lot of computers don't even have floppy drives anymore, so the Smartboot floppy isn't going to people with those computers a lot of good. Tom -- calhobbit at gee mail dot com
From: Beej Jorgensen on 22 Jan 2008 14:52
Tom N <tom(a)somewhere.invalid> wrote: >If the 9.1 CD boots from that BIOS, and the 12.0 CD doesn't, then it >would seem to me that it's the 12.0 CD that is broken, not the BIOS. This problem happens with other boot loaders, too. It's not Slackware-specific at all. It's BIOS-specific. There was a change in how the CD was burned that caused this to manifest, but it was a matter of Patrick doing was was technically correct versus bending over backward to cater to old broken BIOSes. One thing I've always liked about Un*x was its tendency to do the right thing. Search for "boot-load-size" for details. >A lot of computers don't even have floppy drives anymore, so the >Smartboot floppy isn't going to people with those computers a lot of >good. True. But, as we've seen from the link posted elsewhere in this thread, a CD-ROM drive can also be used to around the issue. And fortunately this is something that affects older computers that are more likely to have floppy drives. -Beej |