Cannot boot from CD or external USB

[Colin Law]

On 28 August 2014 02:55, Thomas Blasejewicz <thomas at s7.dion.ne.jp> wrote:
> (2014/08/27 4:34), Colin Law wrote:
>>
>> On 26 August 2014 12:03, Thomas Blasejewicz <thomas at s7.dion.ne.jp> wrote:
>>>
>>> Old Windows CDs do not work either.
>>
>>
>> You have not responded (unless I missed it) to my suggestion to try
>> the option from the BIOS startup screen that will let you choose where
>> to boot from for this boot only.  That should let you specifically
>> request to boot from CD.  On mine it says "Press F11 for boot menu"
>> (YMMV),  Then it gives me a list of devices to choose from.
>>
>> Colin
>>
> Sorry, I did not notice your last post. Maybe it disappeared as spam
> somewhere.
> Short update.
> As far as I tired .. F9 - 12 do basically all the same= call up that GNU
> Grub menu,

It is not a matter of trying random keys, it is a matter of reading
what it says on the BIOIS startup screen and hitting the right key.

> which does what I described earlier.
>
> BUT, I was almost completely happy yesterday.
> I found something called BCDL
> (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1804),
> made a floppy (thank God this was on WIndows, since reading a floppy under
> Linux is an ordeal! After years of trying I still do not succeed)
> *    Put that FD into the FDD, the Lubuntu CD into the CDD + started the
> computer.
> *    The FD started, I hit once enter and next thing the live CD booted.
> *    I DID install Lubuntu from that CD,
> *    After finishing installation the computer asks about updating software.
> Did that.
> *    Computer asks to reboot.
> *    Tried that, but it stuck somewhere and did NOT reboot. After trying
> everything else I can think of, I switched off the power and on again.
> *    At a black opening screen a number of lines with error messages flashed
> (too fast to make notes) then the computer booted with Lubuntu "normally".
> *    Everything looks just fine ... except ->
> *    Every time I try to reboot or shutdown, this process stops in the
> middle and the computer just hangs there. no response at all.

When it booted off the CD did you try running the option to check the
contents of the CD?  That would have given you some confidence that
the CD was correctly burnt and that your computer can reliably read
it.

Also, I think the ram test is one of the options when you boot from
the CD, if so then it would have been a good idea to run that for a
few hours to see if the computer keeps working.

> *    I tried to REPEAT the installation

Why?  If it did not work the first time, why should it be any
different the second?

> *    But now the screen says "cannot boot from CD".

Do you mean that you have a floppy that, when you boot off the floppy,
used to allow you to boot off the CD, but running the same operation
again now longer boots off the CD?  If so then you have a hardware
problem.

>
> **    Since the liveCD did boot once, I would like to think that the
> hardware (CDD) is not broken

Just because you were able to read it once does not mean that you can
read it reliably.

> **    I made another, slightly different FD and will try this tomorrow

Why?  You already have one that worked.  Even if you postulate that
the floppy has become corrupted why make a slightly different one, the
one you originally had worked fine (in that it allowed you to boot off
CD).

> **    If that does not work, then I am about to give up.

You have broken hardware, almost certainly.

Colin