Help me! Before i kill myself!

Ok guys, i will try and give as much info as i can. I have an IBM thinkpad 240, with no OS, no CD drive and no FD drive. I have 2 * 6 GB HDD's, neither of which work. The first one has a clean install of PHLAK on it. It boots, then grub fails saying:

Hard disk hd(1,0) does not exist

So anyway i got through this by using grubs command line, manually loading the vmlinuz kernel and booting. All seemed to be going well, but the kernel panics when loading the X server, and stops everything, before shutting down without prompt.

The second hard disk gets to grub, but before it lets me choose, it just restarts. No error message.

Those who have helped me get this far will know that i have to connect my laptop HDD to a desktop to install, using an adapter. This brings me to my next problem

I install from a desktop that accesses the internet on a wireless connection. This means i have to tell it not to set most things up for now. Still i cant even get a basic shell going! It's driving me insane. Ive tried: PHLAK, XFLD, Debian, Ubuntu, everything. Just wont work.

The final thing, does anybody know how to reset the MBR of an ext3 Hard drive through windows?

Sorry for the long post, but i got a lot of troubles!

Thanks in advance,
Jon

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jjbutler88

Ok guys, i will try and give as much info as i can. I have an IBM thinkpad 240, with no OS, no CD drive and no FD drive. I have 2 * 6 GB HDD's, neither of which work. The first one has a clean install of PHLAK on it. It boots, then grub fails saying:

Hard disk hd(1,0) does not exist

So anyway i got through this by using grubs command line, manually loading the vmlinuz kernel and booting. All seemed to be going well, but the kernel panics when loading the X server, and stops everything, before shutting down without prompt.

The second hard disk gets to grub, but before it lets me choose, it just restarts. No error message.

Those who have helped me get this far will know that i have to connect my laptop HDD to a desktop to install, using an adapter. This brings me to my next problem

I install from a desktop that accesses the internet on a wireless connection. This means i have to tell it not to set most things up for now. Still i cant even get a basic shell going! It's driving me insane. Ive tried: PHLAK, XFLD, Debian, Ubuntu, everything. Just wont work.

The final thing, does anybody know how to reset the MBR of an ext3 Hard drive through windows?

Sorry for the long post, but i got a lot of troubles!

Thanks in advance,
Jon

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Install windows...it autodestructivemagically puts its MBR on there without asking.

thank you! Ive put the knife away now :D. unfortunately, the kernal still panics after boot. Saying:

PnPBIOS: Hardware 0x83 not found
Kernel panic: Ext2 fs not found

HELP!

Then it can't detect your hard drive. And therefore can't detect your file system.

ever had one of those moments where you think to yourself... damn ... maybe i should just give up on this damn thing?

sorry ... but i mean i have had some really frustrating experiences WITH a cd-rom drive i can't imagine the obnoxiousness of having to use failsafe boots and trickery to install the os on a system like that

ok ... i am REALLY new to linux ... but i thought the kernel is compiled on install and is based on detected hardware (cpu / mobo) if you are installing on a different machine ... i would the the kernel is looking for hardware that isnt there ... unlike windows ... which looks for that crap every time it boots...

seems like this is something that may just never work right since you are installing on a desktop without the mobile processor and motherboard it won't work quite right... especially if the thinkpad is running a mobile pentium 3 and the desktop is running a pentium 4 or athlon or something. also ... since the system is installed through an adapter... when you try to boot i would guess the os is looking for that adapter not the ide port the drive is plugged into on the laptop.

just guesses .... but this may be one of thos lost cause type things.... have you considered getting a cheap (OLD ebay 1 - 4x) external cd drive... of course it would require your bios be able to boot to usb and if that is the case just get a 128 mb flash drive and boot to the gentoo minimal install disk from that...

Ye, problem is i went ahead and got one, to find it doesnt boot from USB!!! actually gonna kill now. windows seems so nice ........ *slap* nope must press on :). will be worth it.

Cheers for all the replies,
Jon

the laptop doesnt boot from usb? ... ouch ... ok so let me ask this ... is there an option for a swappable ide cd-rom for that model laptop... maybe you could ebay one and return the one you got or ebay that? just a thought :)

I've got the same deal, thinking of buying a external Extension Drive from dell for $60 and then resell if for when Im done. Ofcourse I loose out on shipping and then when I need to upgrade my distro im screwed all over again. Im thinking of buying a PowerBook with my good ol friend MasterCard. Im so Sick of this **** Dell L400

Nah, theres no hotswap bay, its so small doesnt have room.
Looks like im gonna have to install windows, and use a program called Grub for NT to boot from the CD and install. Such a hastle! Even then it might not work. Just a word of warning, external HDD's are very dificult to get to boot! Been there :)

Thanks guys,
Jon