Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

ohnonot · 2017-05-14 15:09:48

Yep.
found it on a skip, boots windows xp just fine.
would not boot from usb, but i installed plop, and now i can get to the initial boot menu for the bl-Deuterium-i386+NonPAE_20170429.iso.

however, plop is known to not support usb keyboards, which is the only one i have right now.
so i can't control the Deuterium bootloader.

question:
does the initial boot screen have a timeout?
i left it sitting for almost 10min i think, but no change.
otoh, that could also mean that the computer is still too old or sth.

wild thoughts:
is it possible to tinker with the .iso to make it autoboot?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-05-14 15:19:58

ohnonot wrote:

does the initial boot screen have a timeout?

No.

is it possible to tinker with the .iso to make it autoboot?

Yes, just unsquash the image, alter grub.cfg then repack it and burn the ISO.

found it on a skip

Note to self: visit more skips 8)

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2017-05-14 15:21:24)

johnraff · 2017-05-15 04:58:56

ohnonot wrote:

however, plop is known to not support usb keyboards, which is the only one i have right now.
so i can't control the Deuterium bootloader.

You're sure it's not the BIOS? I remember a machine which wouldn't recognize a USB keyboard at the boot stage, even booting from HD. Once the X session was up, it worked.

The NonPAE image is small enough to fit on a CD, another option might be to burn one and boot from that.

ohnonot · 2017-05-16 05:53:39

yes, the CD is definitely an option to consider.
i just have no more blanks and am very reluctant to invest anything but time into this.

HoaS: the very first bootloader is definitely grub? isn't that usually syslinux on live/install isos?
anyhow, i'll look into un- and re-squashing, thanks for providing the keyword.

about 'skip': it wasn't really that, i just chose a 4-letter-word to avoid typing - it was the recycling area in next block's backyard, they happen to have an electronic devices recycling bin.
and yes, it's incredible what you can find in there.
a complete working machine is rare, but cases, peripherals etc...

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-05-16 06:23:01

ohnonot wrote:

HoaS: the very first bootloader is definitely grub?

Actually, I'm not completely sure — I've been using our UEFI capable image recently and that uses the gummiboot menu

Anyway, it will be obvious once you unsquash the image

ohnonot · 2017-05-20 16:07:22

unsquashfs is not needed.
it might be needed for the squash image that is inside the iso, but i don't need to modify that, just the initial bootloader.

after some trial & error, i went with this.
i changed the file isolinux/isolinux.config to change the timeout from 0 to 100.
supposed to be 10s, but it went on almost immediately - hmmm.

anyhow, bunsenlabs is installed.
the installer hickuped on my ethernet (found the connection and set up dhcp, but then refused to find repositories), but i was able to finish the install and fix the sources later (also bl-welcome hickuped there).

unfortunately the hideously old mobo has a savage gpu. i had to disable hardware accel to make it usable.

still, i'm surprised at how usable BL is on this 15 year old machine, and how it has developed since its beginnings!
bl-welcome found out that the cpu has pae support after all, and offered to install a pae kernel. nice.

would the devs consider adding a timeout to the isolinux bootloader of the iso?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-05-20 17:01:28

ohnonot wrote:

would the devs consider adding a timeout to the isolinux bootloader of the iso?

I would certainly agree with this change, why not open a thread in Development & Suggestions?

johnraff · 2017-05-22 03:18:14

ohnonot wrote:

the installer hickuped on my ethernet (found the connection and set up dhcp, but then refused to find repositories), but i was able to finish the install and fix the sources later (also bl-welcome hickuped there).

I remember at least one other user getting that bl-welcome problem. I think the code needs to be more thorough in checking for a misconfigured sources.list, and maybe offering to paste some default stuff in, if it looks a complete mess.

But that begs the question of why the debian installer failed to set up apt in your case. Any hints?

ohnonot · 2017-05-22 07:04:18

johnraff wrote:

I think the code needs to be more thorough in checking for a misconfigured sources.list, and maybe offering to paste some default stuff in, if it looks a complete mess.

that's exactly what i did manually, after that all good.
iirc, originally it contained only 1 line, maybe even commented out.
i just took the default stuff from https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList, with contrib and non free already added.

But that begs the question of why the debian installer failed to set up apt in your case. Any hints?

i'm not sure.
the machine had 2 additional network/modem cards in there, maybe the installer got confused by that.
and it just might have had sth to do with my router; i manually configured the network during install, using dhcp from my router, and that worked.

anyhow, the clunky monster from the vaults has been shelved again.
i have some spare pc parts lying around, but none would fit. so it's really a museum piece, with single core 1.8GHz, 768MB RAM, and 40GB hd... i just might reinstall Windows XP to make it more authentic

Last edited by ohnonot (2017-05-22 07:06:32)

johnraff · 2017-05-22 07:41:21

^I've got a couple of single-core/1GB laptops in almost the same league, but they're both still quite usable.

ohnonot · 2017-05-23 04:17:12

oh i agree, but this is a desktop, so-called minitower. takes up way too much space, makes too much noise. and smells.

#1 2017-05-14 15:09:48

Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

#2 2017-05-14 15:19:58

Re: Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

#3 2017-05-15 04:58:56

Re: Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

#4 2017-05-16 05:53:39

Re: Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

#5 2017-05-16 06:23:01

Re: Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

#6 2017-05-20 16:07:22

Re: Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

#7 2017-05-20 17:01:28

Re: Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

#8 2017-05-22 03:18:14

Re: Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

#9 2017-05-22 07:04:18

Re: Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

#10 2017-05-22 07:41:21

Re: Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

#11 2017-05-23 04:17:12

Re: Trying to boot Deuterium on 2003 Presario

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