Ubuntu
ubiquity package

No OS, no cd boot, floppy only, how to install

Asked by Roy Burgin

I want to install Ubuntu on my old laptop
* NEC Versa C140 about 10 years old.
* 28 Gb hard drive.
* 1500 Athalon cpu running at 1300 Mhz
* existing CD Read Write /DVD Read drive defunct and replaced by CD/DVD Read Write drive.

My laptop crashed out of Windows XP home edition and would not even boot in safe mode so...
I tried to use recovery cd provided but bios will not recognise the DVD drive now installed and refuses to boot any cd or dvd.
I can boot from floppy or a functioning hard drive only.
Once booted using a windows ME floppy I can access the dvd drive but ME does not know about ntfs so unable to see the hdd.
Used a downloaded utility to access the hdd and checked it out... no errors.
Eventually I decided to wipe the hard drive and reformat it in FAT32.
I now have a clean computer with no OS.
I removed all previous partitions and created 2 new ones of 600Mb and the rest of the drive, both formatted to FAT32.
How do I install Ubuntu? I have downloaded V11.10 on my other computer and burned it to DVD. The laptop can now see all the files and I have copied these to c:\ thinking the laptop might boot from the hard drive but no... my limited understanding is now exhausted.
Somehow I think I need to add some files to the C drive to form an OS and boot it. I assume that the download would do this if I could boot it so: can I force it to boot some how? are these files somewhere on the dvd I created? if not, where can I download them and what do I do?
Help!!!

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu ubiquity Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
Chris
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#1

11.10 and further might not work on a 10 y old laptop due to sys requirements.
Rather consider another distro.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/FromImageLoadedOnHardDrive
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DemystifyingUnityGraphicsHardwareRequirements

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

You need to burn the ISO as an image (not data) to a DVD (assuming you have the DVD ISO).

If you can boot floppy, you can use this floppy image to boot a USB stick if you cannot boot USB. You can make the USB using the ISO and the unetbootin program.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/use-a-floppy-to-boot-usb-pendrive-linux/

Here is unetbootin:
http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/unetbootin-windows-latest.exe

Revision history for this message
Best Chris (fabricator4) said : 		#3

You might find that Lubuntu is a good alternative for an older machine:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/GetLubuntu
Get the ISO and make a bootable USB stick (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/create-a-bootable-ubuntu-usb-flash-drive-the-easy-way/) or a bootable CD. (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto)

Further to Andrew's suggestion, if your machine will not boot off USB you can make a floppy with a bootloader that will do the job. Plop is very easy, as all you need is the .img and rawwrite for windows.

Before you do any of this however, you should have a look at the BIOS setup on the machine and see if there's some other reason for it not being able to boot off the DVD drive. (Like, it needs to be set as the first boot device etc)

Some of the older BIOS's are very confusing in this regard, as you have to set both a boot priority and a boot order.

Chris

Revision history for this message
Roy Burgin (bayldon5) said : 		#4

Thankyou for your messages and advice.
I have now loaded Ubuntu from USB using PLoP so I have managed to circumvent my boot problem.
However, it has thrown up another problem which will take a little more cunning. When I was originally trying to load windows XP it always crashed out at the same point, the computer made a tick sound and the screen went blank. The fan then started to race and eventually the laptop switched itself off. I assume it overheated. Ubuntu goes through the load sequence with the four dots on the screen then when it is about to start up for real, the same tick sound occurs and the laptop dies. My guess is that in each case, the programs switch to a higher definition GUI and this is where the problem may be, i.e. the graphics chip. As I say this will take a little more guile.

Thanks again for solving my problem

Revision history for this message
Roy Burgin (bayldon5) said : 		#5

Thanks Chris, that solved my question.