EMC Image Files

[BMG]

Greetings.

I am at the software part of my build of a Lionclaw 3 axis Router. I am attempting the Linux/EMC route due to the availablility of an old P233 tower system and the lack of funds to run anything else at this time.

I downloaded Ebuntu/EMC2 and made my first mistake by placing the iso on the CD. After realizing my mistake, I downloaded a CD burning tool and burned a bootup cd from the ISO. I dropped this on my machine and got a boot failure. I downloaded a second iso and reburned the image and tried again. Still no luck - boot failure again. I tried the LiveCD version and booted it onto my laptop and that too failed.


After reading, I realized that the Ebuntu version will be too advanced for my P233. I then downloaded the BDI iso and burned to a CD - Boot failure again.

I then tried the CoolCNC version and boot failure yet again.

Any suggestions or thoughts on what I might be doing wrong?

The tower works - I have windows 98se on it and I disabled boot from IDE to prevent that from loading up. I also only allowed the CD to be the bootable drive (during an attempted 1st boot).

I searched around the past three days for some trouble shooting forums but have found nothing on this end of the business.

This is a first attempt at linux for me so I am a newbie with it. I know my way around the bios so not afraid of that. I can also pull apart and reassemble the tower as needed.

Just these darn CD's do not seem to be working for me....


Any help or suggestions appreciated

Brian G.

[GaryCorlew]

has your pc ever been able to boot from a cd?, Also I would try one the cd's on another computer to see if the cd is ok. If the other computer will boot from it then I would try another cd rom

[dertsap]

this is something i dug up on the internet a while back
use rawwrite to make a boot floppy with the bcdl150z file
it works pretty slick , i beat my head on the wall for a while after messing up the bios on an old pc and couldn t boot off a cd ,
this saved me

http://bootcd.narod.ru/index_e.htm get the bcdl150z zip
http://www.chrysocome.net/rawwrite get the windows version if thats whats on the pc your going to make the disc with

[BMG]

Thanks guys,

I did try three different CD's with different versions of Linux which leads me to believe its the image writer. I am using Windows XP currently and the image writer I downloaded. It is probably the issue. I will try the one Dertsap suggested tonight when the kids are in bed.

Brian G.

[BMG]

OK -- I am confused......


I can burn images (using Iso recorder) from the iso files yet my CD's with each of the different linux types will not boot on any of 2 machines.

I looked at the links you directed me too and not sure where to go from here. What will the bootable floppies do for me? The other link appears to make bootable CD's but wasn't the BDI or Ebuntu immage supposed to generate a bootable CD??

it would seem that my machine is not making a functional CD. What should I do next. Is there something I should pay attention to on the links?

Should I boot up some simple OS such as freedos to load up my programs?.....

Aaarrrggghhhh

help if you can


Brian G.

[BMG]

spent more time looking at the Linux primer on linux.org and they talk of a bootable floppy. My bios sees the CD and makes it available to boot from it, but I still see the boot errors. So should I just go ahead and create a bootable flopy and start there.....


I tried to burn the image file you identified above to a floppy only to find that Rawwrite is looking for *.img files and the one in the zip set you mentioned is an .Ima file.... What to do??


wallowing in mire

Brian G.

[dertsap]

try burning emc bdi with this ,burn it as a disc image

http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-...g-Studio.shtml

if your bios allows you to boot from cd then your burner software is the problem

if not , the floppy allows you to boot from any cd , it's been a while since i 've used it and this pc doesn t have a floppy drive so i can't refresh my memory on the procedure for making the floppy , but i know it works.
if you can t get it to work do a google search there are a few other boot floppies you can try

with rawwrite when you browes the file to burn click on the browser for "all files "

[BMG]

Well, I tried using that software, and I even burned an image on a different computer using Roxio. Still no deal.

I suspect that either the CD burner I have is crapping out on me or the older tower I have is not able to boot of the CD even though the bios recognizes it.

Looks like I am done for the moment.

Any other thoughts or suggestions on how I might get this old computer into Linux?

Thanks for all your comments.

Brian

[aspenelm]

A couple of ideas:
try burning at a lower speed like 4x, and some of the older cdroms are pretty picky about the media as well.
I think you are burning the image correctly, ie. by using "burn cd image" or something similar and not just copying the .iso.
If you have the windows install cd, you could verify that the system can boot from cd.

edit: another idea, is your cd image good to begin with? google for "md5sum windows" and run the exe in windows to get the md5sum and compare it with the value from the coolcnc download site.

[samco]

have you tried booting it on the computers with the burners?


sam

[BMG]

Still foiled.

I initially did the Iso copy but had quickly realized my error.


I have tried burning several different types of Linux all to no avail, so I must be doin something really simple thats causing the problem.

Last night I used CDburnerXP as recommended on one of the linux boards and I noticed something I did not see before on the other burners. The package was initially creating -NONbootable- cds. That stopped me in my tracks. I went back through the process and found the settings in the software that allowed me to burn the image as a bootable CD. The software burned at 4X speed so that should have been ok. I proceeded to burn two versions of Linux (both the barebones versions allowing for online upgrading after the initial install) and those cd's both failed to boot the machine up too.

It was getting late so I did not try the cd's in my laptop that I work from.

I guess I am getting somewhat closer but still not booting so I am far away.

Has anyone ever burned 3.5 floppies for the minimal installs? I figure that might be the best way to go at this rate, I just did not see much discussion on this avenue anywhere.

THanks again

Brian

[dave3431]

I tried the cdburnerXP and it sucked, a linux guru burned my first iso for me on a suse box.
It seems windoze is not good at burning iso images.
When you get a linux box running you can burn iso images no problem.
You could subscribe to the emc2 users list, there you can ask for a copy of the live cd and they will be happy to mail one to you, the cost if any is minor.