Weird issue trying to boot Dell 2450 ...

[Matt Fahrner]

There might be a firmware image that you can use to upgrade the CD 
drive. I've been able to get CD readers to recognize additional media by 
getting the latest firmware in (or in some cases, hacked firmwares)...

- Matt

Klaus Steden wrote:
> 
> Yeah, the CD is fine (I can read it elsewhere), so I think you’re right 
> about it not being able to read CD-RWs. I wouldn’t be surprised, this 
> machine is quite old (Pentium 3!!)
> 
> cheers,
> Klaus
> 
> On 2/1/08 11:31 PM, "dwight at supercomputer.org" 
> <dwight at supercomputer.org>did etch on stone tablets:
> 
>     Many older systems have CD-ROM drives that only support CD-R format.
>     They won't recognize a CD-RW disk. That would be the first thing
>     that I'd check. I used to have a system like that.
> 
>     The key question here is whether Fedora ir CentOS will even read the
>     CD that you have. If it is indeed a media incompatibility, then no
>     OS will be able to read it. If the CD can indeed be read, then I'd
>     suspect a BIOS issue.
> 
>        -dwight-
> 
>     On Thursday 31 January 2008 11:23:27 am Klaus Steden wrote:
>     >  Hi there,
>     >
>     >  I've encountered a strange issue trying to bootstrap an old Dell
>     >  2450. It will boot from floppy, it will boot from a Dell
>     >  provisioning CD, but it won't boot from a CentOS disc (neither the
>     >  LiveCD nor a CentOS 4.5 ISO), and it won't boot its own hard
>     >  drive.
>     >
>     >  I'm working around it using a boot floppy (!! how vintage) to
>     >  bootstrap the OS into loading, but I'm baffled as to why it won't
>     >  load itself by any other means. When Windows 2003 was installed,
>     >  it booted off the hard drive fine, so I know it -can- do it ...
>     >  but I have no clue why it won't load Linux on its own.
>     >
>     >  Has anyone ever had an experience like this with a machine, Dell
>     >  or otherwise? It's running Fedora Core 6, so it's a fairly current
>     >  OS, and has no issues when the OS is actually loaded.
>     >
>     >  I'm okay with it booting off the floppy but that seems like kind
>     >  of a ghetto solution, so I'd rather not have to if I don't have
>     >  to.
>     >
>     >  thanks,
>     >  Klaus
>     >
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> 
> 
> 
> 

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Matt Fahrner                                    2 South Park St.
Chief Systems Architect                         Willis House
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Fax: (603) 443-6190                             Matt.Fahrner at COAT.COM
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