loading OpenExchange need boot from CD help

blink_00 · 10-16-2004, 09:42 PM

I have recently purchased Suse OpenExchange 4.1 and a Dell server 3Ghz 500Mb ram on which to load this. I fdisk'd the xp home that was preinstalled and formatted (w/ dos fdisk program) so I am back to a empty HD. I set the Dell to boot off the cd and inserted the 1st Installer disk of the Suse OS ( I believe it comes with a bundled suse linux OS that it installs prior to the OpenExchange server install)

So here is the challenge. I am getting a caldera dr.dos 7.03 program booting up...it did not seem to want to load from the cd...the CD access lite was blinking like it was reading the cd but then it would go to the dr.dos window and an A:
Now after checking that indeed the iso image is good ( checked the md5 checksum) and booting from the cd no problem on another system...i am wondering where I should go from here? I cannot figure out why it appears to be looking at the cd....but then will not boot from it, on this sytem anyway. Is there a way to boot from floppies that will get me to a place where I can resume loading from the cd?

CloudBuilder · 10-17-2004, 07:16 AM

Do you have the bios set to start up first from CD ?

Does the system read other boot-able cd's ?
For instance try a download from knoppix, if this does not work I would suspect the Bios settings or the DVD.

I recently had a DVD that started but gave all kinds of errors after half a minute. I changed the DVD and my troubles where over.

If You can load another CD you know at least that it isn't the DVD...

CloudBuilder

blink_00 · 10-17-2004, 04:49 PM

Why didnt i think of that!!!? I have KNoppix right here. Ok it did boot that fine. I also booted the Suse OpeExchange CD fine in my VMware so i know the ISO works..hmmmm. Ive never had this problem before.

Its odd that it is reading the cd enough to load the caldrea dr.dos that is on the disk but for some reason the linux loading part doenst start. I am Linux newbie so I any help is appreciated.

maybe I need to load from a boot floppy some setup files that alllow the CD-Rom to be found by the computer? I noticed some text whizzing by during dr.dos loading...something about NTFS not found...

Can I have the HD formatted , partitioned by DOS fdisk or does it need to be a linux DOS that does that? Would that make a difference?

thanks for your help CloudBuilder

CloudBuilder · 10-17-2004, 05:27 PM

Ok no Bios problem, no cd problem.

You said
I am getting a caldera dr.dos 7.03 program booting up...it

I have no knowledge about caldera DR dos, but what I know about (ms and the old DR dos) it is that to load a program, you have first to load the system dos and then you can load a program.

Normally this works by starting dos.

If I would try to start a windows or dos program without having windows or dos loaded first, i would expect the same response.
The system is trying to read the program but it cannot do anything with it by lack off the system files.

So for the good understanding, are you trying to load a dos program ????

This can be done if you start up the system with a dos start up disk, or you can make a dos boot cd put the program on it , boot dos and execute the program. The other try is to use a dos emulator under linux. If the program behaves clean that could work too.

So give me some explanation of what you are doing exactly.....

CloudBuilder

jschiwal · 10-17-2004, 06:28 PM

You will repartition and format hard drive during the installation.

Can you explore the install disk on another computer? Does the computer have a floppy drive.

Is there a floppy disk in the drive!

If the computer has a floppy drive, you can create the 3 floppy boot disks found in the /boot directory of the cdrom. Access the cd from another computer and produce the disks. You can use a program in the dosutils directory to create the boot disks on a windows or dos machine, and then use the boot disks to start the install. At this point, linux will be running the machine and access the cdrom itself.

SuSE uses the reiserfs by default. You will be deleting the current hard drive partition and letting the install program repartition the hard drive.

Here are the instructions for creating the 3 boot disks for SuSE Linux 9.1. Read the readme files in the /boot directory because they might be different then the information I gave, for instance, I don't know for sure how many boot disks you will need with your SuSE product. I'm getting this information from the SuSE 9.1 Pro AMD64 installation DVD.

Code:

You can create the boot disks if you have access to a running Linux
box or a running DOS box.
Under DOS, write bootdsk1, bootdsk2 and bootdsk3 to formatted (i.e.,
error-free) 1.44MB-floppies using CD1:/dosutils/rawrite/rawrite.exe. For
Windows systems, there is CD1:/dosutils/rawwritewin/rawwritewin.exe.

With Linux, use commands like:

  cd /where_CD1_is_mounted/boot

  # insert first boot floppy, then run:

  dd if=bootdsk1 of=/dev/fd0u1440

  # insert second boot floppy, then run:

  dd if=bootdsk2 of=/dev/fd0u1440

  # insert third boot floppy, then run:

  dd if=bootdsk3 of=/dev/fd0u1440

Now you have three boot disks. Start your computer using the first disk.

By creating the correct module disk, you could even install from a usb or firewire cdrom/dvd drive.

blink_00 · 10-17-2004, 10:57 PM

Ok Floppy & cd both work.

I can only find 1 file that is boot and when I rawwrite it , it has only this:

command com
drdos <DIR>
oak < DIR.>
NR < DIR >
WWBMU exe
README txt
AUTODOS7 BAT
DCONFIG SYS

The wwmbu boots to some german loadscreen...which i cannot read .

The other files on the CD are modules 1-4, rescue, liesmich,root, loader, trans.tbl

As an aside...how come when I boot the install CD from my VMware machine it boots right off the disk without needing boot disks?
And yet on the Dell machine it does not seem to find the same files. I dont understand ISO that much but thought it meant you could boot directly off the disk.

jschiwal · 10-20-2004, 04:43 AM

When you burn an .iso file you need to select an option something like 'burn cd from image'.
However if another computer was able to boot from it and enter the install program, then It was probably burned correctly. Explore the disk on another computer without booting up to it
and read the README or INSTALL file. It will tell you which boot image you need to make. Also, there may be a boot.iso cd image that you could burn. Maybe that one will boot properly.

blink_00 · 11-17-2004, 06:26 PM

Well can you believe it...
I used Nero to burn the iso but there are 2 ways to burn an iso...one of them being the correct way. I needed to Re-burn the ISO using "Burn Image to Disk' not the option of "Make Bootable Disk"....they both sound like similar. argh!

The thing that reallly threw me was the fact that I could boot the cd's perfectly on my XP machine using VMWare. Must be a smart program. Anyway....success after re-burning the iso images using the "burn image to disk " option.

Let my stupidity be a lesson.....goes off smacking forehead.....