Trying to boot for installation

Felix Miata mrmazda at earthlink.net
Mon Apr 8 18:49:57 UTC 2013


On 2013-04-08 18:38 (GMT+0100) Liam Proven composed:

> On 2013-04-08 13:21 (GMT-0400) George Reinhart wrote:

>> No, the GX1 is not the "target" machine.  That's a Dell DHP, 1024 MB RAM,
>> 266Mhz processor, and plenty of empty hard disk, with no OS on it at all.

> 1GB of RAM is not much in 2013. A 266MHz processor is /very/ slow -
> that was low-end around 15yr ago in the late 1990s!

266MHz is obviously a typo. I doubt anything but a server class machine with 
a CPU that slow could be populated with more than 512MB of RAM. A very 
nominal Google for Dell DHP indicates it's probably 2.67GHz. That may well be 
a machine with an i845G chipset, just below the bottom of the barrel for 
decent performance with current releases.

>> My wife's old XP machine has a CD burner on it, but we don't have anything
>> with a DVD burner, and the DHP doesn't even have a DVD reader.

Does the DHP have a CD reader?

> This is what I would consider to be a very, *very* low-end machine today:
> http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/product_detail/13077/Optiplex-GX620-SFF-Intel-P4-2-8Ghz-1GB-80GB-XP-Pro/

> A Pentium 4 2.8GHz with 1GB of RAM and 80GB of hard disk. It has a DVD
> drive. It is £45. I don't know where in the world you are, but that is
> under US$70.

I have 4 of those, 2 @3.0GHz. They are very respectable performers as long as 
you don't need to use them for playing or editing HD video with the onboard 
Intel video.

> http://lubuntu.net/

>>  We're trying
>> to get to the point where the various things necessary to our lives will all
>> run on some single machine, which is what I'm hoping to get to with Linix.
>> What I need optimally is some relatively small program that can run from a
>> CD, access the .ISO file on a USB stick, and go from there.

If your particular DHP has a CD reader, one can boot any live Linux media and 
configure its HD to boot any distro's installation kernel and initrd pair, 
bootstrapping installation as it were. This seems to qualify for your "small 
program that can run". I habitually do this with new HDs whether the system 
is old or new, using a Knoppix Linux CD to install Grub Legacy, which I find 
easier to perform this manual boot loader installation procedure with.

First at least one partition needs to be created and formatted to provide a 
home for bootloader files, then install bootloader, then download appropriate 
installation kernel and initrd, then configure the bootloader to load them 
from a HD boot, which then does a an installation via HTTP that differs from 
a typical CD or DVD installation only in speed. A little more advance prep on 
the live boot will enable you to put the .iso file on it for use by the very 
same installation kernel and initrd used for HTTP installation. If you want 
to try either route let me know if you can't find the required details Googling.

Of course, since you already have the .iso, the least complicated next step 
for you should be getting the GX1 to burn it properly to a blank CD or a CDRW.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/




More information about the ubuntu-users mailing list