CD boot help

[tizwaz]

I have an old system that does not support cdrom boot in the bios, I want to install knoppix v5.1 and I have tried using a boot manager but when I boot up the manager menu just shows the HDs and the floppy.
Is there any way I can boot from the cdrom on this old system ????

[valan]

There are some tools designed to boot from a floppy which can then boot up a cd, I can't remember what any of them are called, but some googling should turn up something. I think you could also install grub onto a floppy, and when it boots tell it to boot a cd. I've never done either of these things though, I don't really know how they work.

[tizwaz]

Thanks valan,

I did try one boot master program but it still did not list the cd as an option, I will check out the grub boot loader and give that a try

[oz]

I have an old system that does not support cdrom boot in the bios

You've probably already done this, but I'll ask anyway... did you check for a motherboard BIOS upgrade that might allow for a boot from CD?

[vengeance]

well for knoppix 3.7 i had copied the entire live cd on the hdd and i think it had a boot option on the loading screen where you could boot from hd but i think it probed the cd drive 1st.Well as ozar suggested u'll have to find a BIOS upgrade but its really odd that it doesn't have cdrom oot support even my old p3 400mhz had it

[tizwaz]

ozar, thanks for the suggestion and I did think about it but I couldn't find an upgrade for the bios, the machine is only 500mhz cpu and about 10 years old so thats why there is no boot option in the bios I guess.

vengeance, in the bios it does list the devices as floppy, cdrom, hda1, hda2, but it does not give any boot first options, when I start the system it checks for floppy boot first the goes to hda1.

I also tried wubi and it seemed to work then it crashed saying it could not read from boot cd ???

All I want it a way to put linux on the system

[vengeance]

what all tabs u have in ur bios
since its picking up the crom and all there mite be a boot device priority setting in addvanced/boot tab of bios.just post the tabs that mite help also did u check for bios upgrade for your mobo

[carico]

I get my BIOS to try to boot off CD but I get "Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility" it acts like I did not create the CD properly. ???

[vengeance]

looks that way did u try ne bootable cd say of windows if it works then a cd issue else a BIOS issue