_wombat_ wrote:

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don't know, I went into the bios and it list 4 option and says only numbers 1 2 3 4 can be changed anything without a number cannot be changed and the dvd drive has no number, so how would I change that?  to make it start from dvd

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 What are the boot options related to, do they have names or just numbers.

Just going to make those pics bigger

here is the Compaq boot seq

here is the Dell boot seq

 

I would prefer this to be on the Compaq system

I did manage to get a number on the Dell and moved it to the top of the list, did a restart and still did not start with dvd in drive

-- Edited by _wombat_ on Wednesday 19th of March 2014 12:00:12 PM

-- Edited by _wombat_ on Wednesday 19th of March 2014 12:03:23 PM

native pepper wrote:

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To small can't read them.

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 just made bigger

my thinking is maybe I did not do the copy/paste to dvd of the original file, what do you think?

-- Edited by _wombat_ on Wednesday 19th of March 2014 12:05:21 PM

native pepper wrote:

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You've already got it highlighted on the cd,cdw drive and the other one would be multi bay, which is first in the boot sequence anyway. Can't see what your problem is, they are right in front of your eyes.

You don't copy past to a dvd, you burn it to the dvd, just like a movie, something like IMG burn used to be in windows, or don't they let you burn dvds any more. In Linux it's all automatic.

 

-- Edited by native pepper on Wednesday 19th of March 2014 12:34:14 PM

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 Thanks NP, loks like I stuffed up with the copy/paste, will try a burn with IMGburn, back soon

with laptops often the OS installation data is in a hidden partition, so you don't need to boot from the cd/dvd to recover.

Just spent quite a few hours trying to install mint on my old desktop computer. Wow, that was fun... :(~. Not sure if my resources aren't enough to run it succesfully, but when i try running it off a live CD i always get an error that says cinnamon crashed and is now running in fallback mode. I thought maybe the dvd drive was running so slow that it wasn't allowing data to be read quick enough. Which is probably why it takes between half an hour to 45 mins before the mint OS loads (in fallback).

I had the (at the time) brilliant idea that if I installed the OS alongside my XP installation that it would run quicker because it would be reading from the HDD. Well, first attempt after more than half an hour i got to the final stage where I had selected all the appropriate choices of location, keyboard etc then waited as the dvd and HDD whispered sweet nothings to each other for the next 15 mins. Then nothing.. both drives stopped reading and writing etc, so I waited another 15 mins and ctrl+alt+del to log off. got to the message where it tells you to remove cd and hit a key to reboot.

removed dvd and the computer booted straight into XP again. Thought maybe it got hungup in the final stages of Mint install, so tried again..... this time there were already 2 partitions, one with XP and one with Mint. Mint partition wasn't bootable. Changed flags and tried to reboot, still no option to choose which OS and booted straight into windows.

Next morning, tried to install from scratch, but because of the previous installation attempt I already had 2 partitions and it was trying to make a third. Tried to delete the linux partition using Gpart, but computer crashed about 10 seconds into it.

Tried to reboot without the dvd so windows would load... no good, gets part way into loading then reboots...

Back to Mint DVD and have a look at partitions to see still has linux partition, so delete it OK this time. Reboot dvd into Mint and try to install.... after the 30 odd minutes again, still no good. One thing though, my bios doesn't have a multiboot enable entry. So maybe it can't multiboot.

Anyway, I'll try a different Linux distribution (was thinking maybe xubuntu because it supposed to be able to be run on older machines). Meantime that box is now defunct till I load a new OS on it....

This is the reason why I stopped playing with computers a while back. One small thing leads to many hours of mucking around and usually frustrates the cr*p out of you.

I managed to get the dvd done with IMGburn, BUT it will not work on compaq, Dell xps M1730 and my desktop.

with compaq I get this and it just sits there, I can move the square with the mouse and that's it.

 

my one boots but not as it should, I get the Linux screen saying loading in 10 secs then it counts down and I get that pic I posted, if you want a copy of my dvd just PM me an address, I do not need payment for dvd or postage

03_troopy wrote:

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with laptops often the OS installation data is in a hidden partition, so you don't need to boot from the cd/dvd to recover.

Just spent quite a few hours trying to install mint on my old desktop computer. Wow, that was fun... :(~. Not sure if my resources aren't enough to run it succesfully, but when i try running it off a live CD i always get an error that says cinnamon crashed and is now running in fallback mode. I thought maybe the dvd drive was running so slow that it wasn't allowing data to be read quick enough. Which is probably why it takes between half an hour to 45 mins before the mint OS loads (in fallback).

I had the (at the time) brilliant idea that if I installed the OS alongside my XP installation that it would run quicker because it would be reading from the HDD. Well, first attempt after more than half an hour i got to the final stage where I had selected all the appropriate choices of location, keyboard etc then waited as the dvd and HDD whispered sweet nothings to each other for the next 15 mins. Then nothing.. both drives stopped reading and writing etc, so I waited another 15 mins and ctrl+alt+del to log off. got to the message where it tells you to remove cd and hit a key to reboot.

removed dvd and the computer booted straight into XP again. Thought maybe it got hungup in the final stages of Mint install, so tried again..... this time there were already 2 partitions, one with XP and one with Mint. Mint partition wasn't bootable. Changed flags and tried to reboot, still no option to choose which OS and booted straight into windows.

Next morning, tried to install from scratch, but because of the previous installation attempt I already had 2 partitions and it was trying to make a third. Tried to delete the linux partition using Gpart, but computer crashed about 10 seconds into it.

Tried to reboot without the dvd so windows would load... no good, gets part way into loading then reboots...

Back to Mint DVD and have a look at partitions to see still has linux partition, so delete it OK this time. Reboot dvd into Mint and try to install.... after the 30 odd minutes again, still no good. One thing though, my bios doesn't have a multiboot enable entry. So maybe it can't multiboot.

Anyway, I'll try a different Linux distribution (was thinking maybe xubuntu because it supposed to be able to be run on older machines). Meantime that box is now defunct till I load a new OS on it....

This is the reason why I stopped playing with computers a while back. One small thing leads to many hours of mucking around and usually frustrates the cr*p out of you.

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 Probably don't have enough video memory or ram for cinnamon, so it drops back to fallback mode. You could try mint XFCE, which is a lot leaner. The best one to work on really old machines is puppy linux, it's very small, but still does everything you want. I use it as a trouble shooter, as it loads into ram, doesn't effect you other OS and only just over 100meg in size. It has all the tools to work on your system, including boot and partitioning.

Xubuntu would probably be good on yours as well. My recommendation wasn't really directed to those with really old machines, most current release linux use quite a bit of video ram and other resources. Olf machines may need gentle persuasion with light distro's and not those with 3D and high end graphics capabilities. Sorry about that, but puppy is a wonderful way of using really old stuff, as long as you have 250meg of ram, there's are also a couple of others which work on old boxes. My advice would be to go to the Whirlpool forums and ask them for the best distro for your specific machine. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/39

 

_wombat_ wrote:

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I managed to get the dvd done with IMGburn, BUT it will not work on compaq, Dell xps M1730 and my desktop.

with compaq I get this and it just sits there, I can move the square with the mouse and that's it.

 

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 Like Troopy, you don't have enough video ram for mint, read the above post to him, it will explain it and what you can do. That's my fault, should have realised something as powerful as mint cinnamon graphically, will fail on any machine with not enough video ram. Mint certainly won't run on my compaq laptop, that's why linux puppy is on it. It runs on just about anything, even raspberry Pi.

So it's not the system, but the machine and you've probably been a bit misled with claims any linux will run on any machine. Try your dvd in a good machine to see if it works, it can't hurt it as it runs from the dvd and will tell you if it is the dvd, or machine. You may have got a bad download, which happens, only needs a couple of bits to go missing and you have a bug. That's why we use MSSdsum checks, they tell you if the downloaded iso is all there. 

The reason it says its going to load is because the dvd is working, but as soon as it begins, there is not enough graphic available, so it stops and sits at the point. At least it works the mouse and if you're Scottish or Irish, you can claim a new tartan design.

 

-- Edited by native pepper on Wednesday 19th of March 2014 07:23:54 PM

native pepper wrote:

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_wombat_ wrote:

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I managed to get the dvd done with IMGburn, BUT it will not work on compaq, Dell xps M1730 and my desktop.

with compaq I get this and it just sits there, I can move the square with the mouse and that's it.

 

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 Like Troopy, you don't have enough video ram for mint, read the above post to him, it will explain it and what you can do. That's my fault, should have realised something as powerful as mint cinnamon graphically, will fail on any machine with not enough video ram. Mint certainly won't run on my compaq laptop, that's why linux puppy is on it. It runs on just about anything, even raspberry Pi.

So it's not the system, but the machine and you've probably been a bit misled with claims any linux will run on any machine. Try your dvd in a good machine to see if it works, it can't hurt it as it runs from the dvd and will tell you if it is the dvd, or machine. You may have got a bad download, which happens, only needs a couple of bits to go missing and you have a bug. That's why we use MSSdsum checks, they tell you if the downloaded iso is all there. 

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 on my Dell I get 5 flashing colours and that is all, Linux start screen comes up and then flashes of colour, on my dsektop with has very fast grapihcs card it just loads Win 7 and does not see the dvd.

oh well I try the puppy, going to try and find it now  

oldbobsbus wrote:

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_wombat_ wrote:

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just seen you post NP, where would I get puppy from, may try that one

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 Does Linux really work or is a figment of the imagination of some.

It seems there is always an excuse why it doesn't work..

 

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  I'll keep trying for now

OK, I got it installed, albeit at the expense of my windows partition. I decided to try an install over the top of existing OS's, seeing as my XP install was scragged now anyway. It installed OK and booted up, but still goes into fallback mode. I think that is a video card driver issue from some googling, but not 100% sure. So far haven't had much of a play with it, but it doesn't seem to bad. I'm logged on using firefox running under mint at the moment. If from what N.P. is saying it's my ram that's the problem, then it must be hungrier than win XP, cos that ran very well on here. Have 1GB RAM, AMD Athlon XP 1800+ processor, ATI RV280 Radeon 9200 video card.

that's because people will always go with the easy method instead of the best method. Why didn't they have their own operating system running off a ROM, instead of relying on windows, or any other publicly available OS, to run a machine like an ATM? It's not a very technical device after all, a glorified poker machine.

you don't download to a dvd or a cd, you download to your computer then burn the IMAGE file to the media. An image file is like an encoded version of the complete disc. You can't just copy it to the disc.