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Howdy.
I'm trying to install Mandrake 8.2 over my Windows XP Home.
I've downloaded all created all three CDs, set my BIOS to boot from D,A,C and done the PNP no deal. Also ensured it allows boot from floppy.
But the thing keeps booting into Windows. So I make the boot floppy from cd.img. Still boots into Windows. It's almost like Windows knows treachery is afoot and doesn't want me to boot to the Mandrake install package.
I knew I'd have some problems at some point but this is pretty feeble of me not being able to get the installation to even run.
I've tried searching for help but looking for combinations of "XP" "boot" "Linux" "Mandrake" yield far too many results to be useful.
Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Allen614
09-20-2002, 10:07 PM
A correct Mandrake CD should boot same-same XP. Try it on another machine and see what happens. You might also have to use something like Partition Magic to partition off your HD.
Thanks for the reply.
Well I'll be damned it booted to the install fine on another PC. So what in a PC is preventing it from happening on the one I want to actually install it on?
Btw the floppy drive and CD drive are working fine. I can read the files on the boot media. It just won't boot.
askrieger
09-20-2002, 11:39 PM
Are you sure that, after you changed the boot settings in your CMOS, you saved them on exit? That once cost me half a day and most of my remaining hair!
Ha! It worked. And I haven't a clue why. Gotta love that.
Thanks for the posts, and I'll be seeing you guys in the other forums with solid questions like "how do I turn the PC off" and stuff.
mdwatts
09-21-2002, 11:00 AM
Originally posted by askrieger
Are you sure that, after you changed the boot settings in your CMOS, you saved them on exit? That once cost me half a day and most of my remaining hair!
Was going to ask the same question.
Ensure you actually have cdrom as the first boot device and then make sure you save the settings on exit.
Do you have more than one cdrom such as a cdrw and a dvd?
Yes, one CR-ROM and one CR-RW.
Once the installation got going it was really easy man, I'm impressed with that aspect of Mandrake right away.
wapcaplet
09-21-2002, 11:51 PM
Heh, just out of curiosity, is it a Compaq?
I have an old Compaq Presario that I got from my brother and I have never yet found a way to get into the BIOS to change boot settings... It'll boot from floppy but not CD.
Oh well, good to see you got it going!
(maybe this should have gone in /dev/random)
CrashTestDummy9
09-22-2002, 12:00 AM
Originally posted by wapcaplet
Heh, just out of curiosity, is it a Compaq?
I have an old Compaq Presario that I got from my brother and I have never yet found a way to get into the BIOS to change boot settings... It'll boot from floppy but not CD.
Oh well, good to see you got it going!
(maybe this should have gone in /dev/random) Whats the model number ?
wapcaplet
09-22-2002, 12:03 PM
Originally posted by CrashTestDummy9
Whats the model number ?
It's a Compaq Presario 5225. I'm actually not *that* interested in running Linux on it (I could always boot from floppy to get the install going). I had problems with it a while back, since I wanted several partitions for Win98. Did the partitioning, but then couldn't get the Win98 CD to boot (had to use the Compaq "rescue" CDs - which my brother had to specifically request from Compaq after a HD crash, since they did not provide them - to install).
Is there a way to get into BIOS on these things? All I get at boot is the pretty "Compaq" logo, and then the Win98 splash screen. Tried hotkeys (DEL and F8 and so on) but no luck.
Like I said, no biggie :) It's just a curiosity.
slapNUT
09-22-2002, 12:20 PM
Try hitting <Esc> at the Compaq splash screen.
vttimwhite
09-22-2002, 12:27 PM
Some of the older Compaqs had a diagnostic partition right on the hard drive. This is where the CMOS settings were kept. (Unless you flash the BIOS, you never actually change the BIOS, you only change the CMOS settings that the BIOS refers to as it boots the machine.)
The utility to install the diagnostic partition is available for download, should anyone ever care.
vttimwhite
09-22-2002, 12:28 PM
Oh yeah (I know, I'm double-posting), the F10 key is the typical Compaq setup key.
rustskull
09-22-2002, 05:27 PM
if you really want to control the system, make a bootable cd (if no software or idea of how to do it, go check bart's page http://www.nu2.nu/bootablecd/ ) that has the utilities you want to use on it, like cfdisk and other things. You can also make a cd based linux system, plenty of images out there for them already made. Then you never need to ever touch your regular install on the hdd. You can boot on any of your drives (including scsi, floppy, and cdrom, bootable or not) using smart boot manager (I found it on the debian 3.0 disk. Great little utility, and only 30k) you can get it at http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/
Some of these things are becoming as much a right hand of mine as the old dos 6.22 disks...
HTH
-rust