booting from drive other than prim/master?

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February 3rd, 2004, 10:09 PM
Shard92

booting from drive other than prim/master?

This past weekend I tried out Linux. SUSE 7.0 to be exact. I had an older compaq and it went very bad.... No sound, no modem, problems with video, etc.... Anyway I believe it was in part at least due to the computer ( usb was there sometimes and not ohters ). I'm thinking of trying it on my other computer.... Here is the idea I have.... This computer use to have a second hard drive and the cabling is still all strung out ( very tight case a lot of pain in hte neck making things reach) so will Linux have a problem booting from the secondary master? The set up would be primary slave - cdrom, secondary master Hard drive 0, secondary slave cdrw. PRimary master would be disconectted to insure current setup would not be tampered with....
February 3rd, 2004, 11:29 PM
MobilePCPhysician

You need to leave the primary hard drive hooked up ( the one with windows )
Suse will load a boot loader to the drive and allow you to choose which operating system to boot to. If you leave the windows drive out and install Suse, and then re-connect it after the Suse install, you will need to create a Suse boot disk to be able to access the install..
February 4th, 2004, 10:53 AM
Shard92

Quote:

Originally Posted by MobilePCPhysician

You need to leave the primary hard drive hooked up ( the one with windows )
Suse will load a boot loader to the drive and allow you to choose which operating system to boot to. If you leave the windows drive out and install Suse, and then re-connect it after the Suse install, you will need to create a Suse boot disk to be able to access the install..

I understand but the object isn't to every have both drives running at the same time.... I have used boot loaders in the past to dual boot. THink of it as a trial run. I want to find out how well the linux will run on this system. If it can do the things I need it to i will finish the backing up i have already started on the main drive and then redo the drive completely. If it doesn't work I want to be able to just unhook the linux and plug in the old drive and go from there... I don't want to physically remove the current drive as the cabling and mounting took some acrobatics and especially right now my hands aren't up to doing it again... I just wanted to know if it can be done.... is this a fair test for linux.... could trying to boot from the secondary master cause problems that wouldn't be there otherwise? If this is a bad idea I'll just have to wait until i can come up with another computer that isn't a compaq......
February 4th, 2004, 11:05 AM
MobilePCPhysician

Just disable the primary master in the bios. Test your suse on a secondary master drive. Depending on the age of your system, you may have to enter the bios to have it recognize the new drive. No after effects should you decide to remove the second master.
February 4th, 2004, 11:33 AM
Gollo

You mention that it doesn't recognize your hardware. Suse 7 is fairly old (they are up to 9 now). I would either get a newer version or try a different distro (fedora is a good learning distro as well as mandrake. Slackware is a little bit more poweruser oriented so you kinda need to know a little bit of what your doing ;:)
February 4th, 2004, 11:47 AM
Shard92

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gollo

You mention that it doesn't recognize your hardware. Suse 7 is fairly old (they are up to 9 now). I would either get a newer version or try a different distro (fedora is a good learning distro as well as mandrake. Slackware is a little bit more poweruser oriented so you kinda need to know a little bit of what your doing ;:)

I know 7.0 is kind of old that is why I used it as the computer I was putting it on was kind of old.. compaq deskpro4000 5166mmx. It wouldn't see my hard wired 33.6 modem or my sound blaster 16. i think it was the bios or lack thereof on the compaq. i tried the download from compaq for the "diagnostic" partition twice and it would make the disks but trying to make the partition would lock on the second disk.... My other computer is a P233mmx that i built myself which is also old but still does the things I want it to do ( internet, burn cd's, play old dos/windows games. ) I have thought of getting SUSE 9.0 but I don't have a ton of money to through around. I don't want to get 9 then have to get new hardware, etc etc... by the time i get everything I'll have an old distro again.... personally i wouldn't have bought 7.0 either but it was given to me... I also have 6.2 and mandrake 6.5 but all still old( also given to me ) the only books/manuals I have are for SUSE and that is the distro my friend is somewhat familiar with. I do appreciate the input though....

I do want to run linux and get familiar with it.

Goals with linux
1) get online
2) get cdrw ( mitsumi- don't remember model ) working
3) learn to install/compile/whatever some linux games
4) get/learn wine to emulate as much my current software ( mostly games )
5) get confident enough to actually work on others machines...
February 4th, 2004, 11:50 AM
Shard92

Quote:

Originally Posted by MobilePCPhysician

Just disable the primary master in the bios. Test your suse on a secondary master drive. Depending on the age of your system, you may have to enter the bios to have it recognize the new drive. No after effects should you decide to remove the second master.

Yeah it is an older system ( see reply to gollo ) that is why my friend got me an older distro ( I didn't have any input really )

I think I will try it and see what happens. I may still unplug the drive ( i'm paranoid :rolleyes: ). I'm also going to order an external modem, I understand they are much friendlier with linux.
February 4th, 2004, 01:30 PM
Gollo

Ok I can understand your line of thinking that older distro works with older system. This however is not the case. The newer distros have much MUCH more hardware support and are more friendly to older hardware. Plus everything you want to do is already installed in fedora. As for installing/compiling software. Just read the readme that comes with the software. It should tell you what exactly you need to do. But the most common commands are:

./configure (makes sure you have everything to compile the program and puts the location to said info in a file)
make (compiles the program using the information from the configure command/file)
make install (installs the program.)
Usually they will put a symlink in the /usr/bin folder but sometimes they don't so you have to type in the full path to said program. (/usr/bin is where linux looks by default when you run a program. If the file isn't there then you have to put in the full path as I stated above).

If you want to check and see if linux will run on your old pc download knoppix (see the links page) and run it off a cd. This never even touches your hd so you don't have to unplug anything ;) Have fun.
February 4th, 2004, 02:49 PM
Shard92

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gollo

Ok I can understand your line of thinking that older distro works with older system. This however is not the case. The newer distros have much MUCH more hardware support and are more friendly to older hardware. Plus everything you want to do is already installed in fedora. As for installing/compiling software. Just read the readme that comes with the software. It should tell you what exactly you need to do. But the most common commands are:

./configure (makes sure you have everything to compile the program and puts the location to said info in a file)
make (compiles the program using the information from the configure command/file)
make install (installs the program.)
Usually they will put a symlink in the /usr/bin folder but sometimes they don't so you have to type in the full path to said program. (/usr/bin is where linux looks by default when you run a program. If the file isn't there then you have to put in the full path as I stated above).

If you want to check and see if linux will run on your old pc download knoppix (see the links page) and run it off a cd. This never even touches your hd so you don't have to unplug anything ;) Have fun.

Thanks Gollo, actually I have a knoppix cd and it sort of runs. I don't know if it has trouble with my monitor or my video. when I run knoppix it says something along the line of unspecified mode.... It then asks you for mode and gives you I think about 16 choices. I haven't gone through all but the couple I did gave me mirrored desktops... split the screen about 60/40 haven't messed with it that much since. obviously not sure linux will find my sound ( ess1868 ) or modem ( isa hardwired- rockwell i think )
February 10th, 2004, 12:50 PM
Shard92

Well I did it I have linux running on this machine.... :thumbs:

unfortunately I have run into more problems.... See my LATEST post... linux and the internet