On 14/06/12 04:04, Arnt Karlsen wrote: > On Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:27:22 +1000, Scott wrote in message > <4fd7de6a.6020...@gmail.com>: > >> On 13/06/12 04:45, Brian wrote: >>> On Tue 12 Jun 2012 at 16:52:43 +0200, Arnt Karlsen wrote: >>> >>>> On Tue, 12 Jun 2012 11:01:22 +0100, Brian wrote in message >>>> <20120612100122.GJ30016@desktop>: >>>> >>>>> The DVD is a USB device. She cannot boot from USB on the machine >>>>> she wishes to install Debian to. >>
<snipped> >> >> I've tried that a number of times with old machines whose BIOS didn't >> support USB booting, only on a couple of occasions did GRUB manage to >> use the root=/dev/sdb line. >> :-( > > ..the key is use the cdrom grub boot as a stepping stone to > find the usb dvd's boot record, and boot that. E.g. Knoppix > have a few 16?MB "boot only" isos to boot their 4GB dvd isos. Yes - I think (guess) it's the same as the one from DamnSmallLinux, (and uses the same mechanism as SBM), - a floppy chainloader for CD boot. It gets around the BIOS not being able to see the device attached to the USB. AFAIK GRUB can't get around that limitation (boot a device unseen by the BIOS) - though I don't doubt GRUB has the capacity to do so if SmartBootManager type hooks were written into a GRUB module (the spaceinvaders module for GRUB is a good example of how simple that might be). > > > ..in my (grub legacy) experience, I did this 3 ways, chainload > the next boot loader, or, use memdisk as kernel and the iso > image as initrd, Which should (I suspect) allow you to boot from devices not 'seen' by the BIOS (e.g. attached to cards, removable) > and finally "the grub way", "root ([tab][tab]". > I borrowed memdisk from syslinux. ;o) > > ..but yes, grub and the kernel will often disagree on "what's where." Your third way (I suspect) allows you to boot a device that is seen by the BIOS, but is seen by the BIOS as unbootable. Eg. BIOS sees USB, but doesn't allow for booting from a USB device (possibly the scenario in question). <snipped> > > ..the first time I pulled such a stunt, (5 1996 vintage IBM 760ED > thinkpads that came with 3 cdrom and 2 bootable floppy drives to > fit the auxillary disk|battery compartment,) I put Smart Boot Manager > (http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/about.html) on the harddisk mbrs, then > removed the floppy drives and put in the cd drives and booted the > distro installer cds from the harddisks. I suspect SBM uses the same mechanism as the Knoppix/DSL boot CD from floppy method. > First X boot was an early knoppix clone that took 2.5 hours > off that poor 4x cd drive. ;o) > ...but almost certainly it got you some sort of graphical display - a major Linux achievement at the time (kudos to kudzu and Klaus's config scripting). Not much earlier than that it was just floppy installs as CDs wouldn't boot off card controllers - so DOS and laplink was considered corner cutting (I'd forgotten how unreliable floppy disks were). Kind regards -- Iceweasel/Firefox/Chrome/Chromium/Iceape/IE extensions for finding answers to questions about Debian:- https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/Scott_Ferguson/debian/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4fd9a1b8.9050...@gmail.com