at install it boots grub

Posts: 3
ORbit
Joined: 09 Apr 2008
#1
Hello all,

first my english will not be great for i am dutch anyway i am currently trying to setup a little server (never done that before) on a very old pc and that's how i came to this distrobution of a linux system.

I have a p1 220 mhz with 128 mb memory, when i startup with de cdrom it boots up grub in the commandline style, like this :

Code: Select all

grub> _
What do i have to do ?

I tried to boot it on another pc which worked fine, i got there a nice grafical interface with boot options but unfortunately not on my old pc.

Any suggestions ?

Thanks in advance !
Posts: 316
DJiNN
Joined: 26 Oct 2007
#2
It's just a guess, but i think that you need the older version of antiX (v6.5 - Spartacus) for that processor, and even then i'm not 100% sure if it will work.
Posts: 200
moron
Joined: 12 Sep 2007
#3
ORbit,
I have had success with antiX on old celeron machines but have never gotten it to work with
a pentium1 processor. I read somewhere that p2 is the minimum requirement for antiX. As DJINN suggested, though, you might want to try antiX Spartacus (the first release). Anti may know a way to get done what you want....maybe he'll weigh in soon. Good luck to you.
Last edited by moron on 09 Apr 2008, 12:50, edited 1 time in total.
Posts: 1,520
eriefisher
Joined: 07 Oct 2007
#4
I had Spartacus installed on a P1-200-mmx. You may want to try to reburn you cd at the slowest possible 4X and try again.

eriefisher
Posts: 200
moron
Joined: 12 Sep 2007
#5
eriefisher wrote:I had Spartacus installed on a P1-200-mmx. You may want to try to reburn you cd at the slowest possible 4X and try again.
There you go, ORbit. There is hope!
Posts: 3
ORbit
Joined: 09 Apr 2008
#6
Well well what a enthousiastum.
Thanks you all, i am downloading sparticus right now so i am very curious.

keep you posted !
Posts: 3
ORbit
Joined: 09 Apr 2008
#7
that's disappointing, it didn't work. I have downloaded Sparticus and burnt it on a low speed but again the same thing occurred.

Do you guys have a idee on how i can start/load the cd from within grub, like for instace with the windows versions if you are in Dos you can change to the Cd directory en type setup.
Posts: 316
DJiNN
Joined: 26 Oct 2007
#8
Sorry to hear that it didn't work.... Yet! __{{emoticon}}__

But i'm sure there must be a way to get it to boot. I haven't worked on hardware that old for ages, but i do know that the further back you go, the more problems there were with booting from CD's etc.

Maybe there's something in the BiOS that could make a difference?

I could be wrong here, because again it's been ages since i've used this method, but perhaps using something like a boot floppy that will then allow you to install from the CD, would work? It's a long shot but may be worth trying. Boot floppies definitely work. __{{emoticon}}__

If i think of anything else in the meantime then i'll post it here. By the way, out of interest, have you tried any other Live CD's in this machine? If they all end up stopping at Grub, then it could definitely be something to do with the age of the machine, and the need for a different boot solution.
Posts: 200
moron
Joined: 12 Sep 2007
#9
ORbit,
Check this out from the Grub Manual:
4.2.2 GNU/Linux

It is relatively easy to boot GNU/Linux from GRUB, because it somewhat resembles to boot a Multiboot-compliant OS.

1. Set GRUB's root device to the same drive as GNU/Linux's. Probably the command find /vmlinuz or similar can help you (see find).
2. Load the kernel:

grub> kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1


If you need to specify some kernel parameters, just append them to the command. For example, to set vga to `ext', do this:

grub> kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 vga=ext


See the documentation in the Linux source tree for complete information on the available options.
3. If you use an initrd, execute the command initrd (see initrd) after kernel:

grub> initrd /initrd


4. Finally, run the command boot (see boot).

Caution: If you use an initrd and specify the `mem=' option to the kernel to let it use less than actual memory size, you will also have to specify the same memory size to GRUB. To let GRUB know the size, run the command uppermem before loading the kernel. See uppermem, for more information.
The grub manual is here:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html"
linktext was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html"
====================================

The boot section is here:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Booting"
linktext was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual ... ml#Booting"
====================================

Also, here's a list of commands:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Command_002dline-and-menu-entry-commands.html"
linktext was:"http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual ... mands.html"
====================================

There's help for you somewhere in all of this. Post back for help with it as you go.
I'm learning along with you but there is a grub-guru or two in the community somewhere. Hang in there.............