Re: Bad boot disk for RH 6.1????????????

[Chris Watt <cnww chebucto ns ca>]

At 01:06 PM 3/8/01 -0900, Andy wrote: 

>Loading initrd.img.................
>            vm linuz ......
>Boot failed: please change disks and press any key to continue.
>  
>Arrrrggghhh!!  Is this a bad boot disk?

Yes. That and/or a bad floppy drive. Floppy disks have a tendency to do
that. Try to avoid them myself.
  
>So now I try to make a new boot disk....I need help here as well please!!

In windows the easyist way to do this is to download the dosutils and
images directorys for the version of Redhat you plan to install, copy the
boot image you plan to use (I assume bootnet.img, since AFAIK there is no
reason to make a boot disk unless either you're installing over a network
or the machine does not currently have a working copy of either DOS,
Windows or Linux) to the same directory you put the rawrite.exe file (part
of dosutils) in, stick a blank 1.44mb floppy in drive A:, pull up a command
prompt in the directory where rawrite is and type "rawrite -f bootnet.img
-d a -n" and then sit back for 30 secs or so while it makes you a disk.

>I have win98 on a 2GB partition.  I have a FAT16 2GB partition I am trying
to >put RH6.1 onto.

I would hope that you do not actually mean what I think you mean. FAT16 is
a filesystem which is just fine, for storing files in DOS or Windows. It
does not have the capability to store simlinks, hard links, or UNIX style
file permissions and ownership. As such it is (for a new user) nearly
impossible to actually install a UNIX like operating system (e.g. Linux) on
this filesystem and then have it work afterwards. This gets even worse when
you consider that Redhat usually expects to have (at least) one partition
(preferably ext2) to store its files on and another swap partition to use
for virtual memory (it is possible to do it all on one partition, but it
slows things down a bit).

Thankfully you can use the RH installer program to delete your FAT16
partition and create a more apropriate partition set for you without
touching your existing FAT32 partition(s).

>I also have an ATAPI CDROM that linux will not see no matter what I do

This is an interesting situation, but I'm not sure why it should be an
installation issue if you don't have a Redhat cd. You can deal with this
later, probably you just need to compile in support for something that
isn't in the kernel on your boot disk.

>In MSDOS I go in there and go to dosutils and then use rawrite and the
machine >just sits there.

If you have a Redhat install cd, and are able to access it in DOS, then
there is (AFAICT) no reason to use rawrite at all. Just run the autoboot
script and it will start installing Linux off the cd. Better yet if you
have a somewhat modern computer, go into your BIOS and tell the machine to
boot off the cd-rom drive.
If you do not have a Redhat install cd, you can probably make your life a
great deal easier by getting one. You can have any friend who has both a
fast internet connection and a cd-burner download the Redhat 6.2 main iso
file for you and burn it to a cd, typically this costs between $0.75 and
$2.00. For just a little more you can order a cd on the Internet (e.g.
cheapbytes.com lists the basic Redhat 6.2 install cd for $1.99 and the full
5-cd set for Redhat 7 for $7.49).

Hope (some of) this helps :)
--

Microsoft is not the answer!
"Microsoft?" is the question.
NO! (or Linux) is the answer.