Trying to boot for installation

[George Reinhart]

At 02:49 PM  4/8/2013 Felix Miata wrote:

> 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.

You are correct.  The 266MHz is "System memory speed".  I'm guessing 
you're referring to what the setup menu calls "bus speed", which is 533 MHz.


>>> 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?

Yes, only a reader, not a burner.  And no DVD reader.

> 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.

Will see what I can come up with.  Thank you.

> 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.