Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

mtbvfr · 2024-11-30 10:08:44

Hi Folks,

I created a live USB using the file devuan_daedalus_5.0.0_i386_desktop-live.iso.

I entered the BIOS and made USB first in the Boot Order but the Laptop is still booting to Windows XP Professional.

Is it possible to solve this?

Thanks, MTB.

fsmithred · 2024-11-30 15:14:36

You should be able to get to a boot device menu by pressing F12 or possibly some other key. The POST screen will tell you.

How did you prepare the live usb? Do you have another computer to test the usb stick to make sure it boots?

greenjeans · 2024-11-30 16:48:20

2005, that would be awesome! But I think I have some to work on that are even older, lol, tagging this thread for interest, hope you get it working!

mtbvfr · 2024-11-30 21:31:07

@fsmithred

Been there done that mate.

I used the dd command as per instructions from the website.

sudo dd if=devuan_daedalus_5.0.0_i386_desktop-live.iso of=/dev/sdd bs=1M && sync

Would using bs=4M make any difference?

I found the following to go through but does Win XP use Fast Boot or Fast Startup? I haven't found anything conclusive about that yet.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions … aptop_via/

Will try disabling the Legacy USB option in BIOS.

steve_v · 2024-11-30 22:59:14

As already suggested, make sure the drive boots on something else... preferrably something more modern.
Blocksize shouldn't make any difference, and AFAIK XP didn't do any off-but-not-really-off "Fast startup" bollocks.

FWIW, I have found USB boot pretty hit-and-miss on machines from that era. There were several ways to make removable (CD, USB) devices bootable, and which worked with what BIOS was kinda down to luck.

Personally I'd just burn a CD, since that machine looks to have a fixed optical drive and CDs were still pretty much the standard install media at the time.
It'd also be interesting to try a bootable USB image from the period (e.g. knoppix or the like). If that works, you'd have somewhere to start with figuring out why the BIOS doesn't see the Devuan image as bootable.

greenjeans wrote:

I think I have some to work on that are even older

I have Jessie (last release supporting i586) running on a K6-2 from ~1998. It's quite usable, so long as you don't do anything silly like trying to run a modern GUI.
I'm sure it'd run Daedalus too, if only the "i386" build still meant "i386".

IIRC I used PLOP on a floppy disc to boot the CD, because BIOS CD boot was flaky as all hell and USB boot hadn't been invented yet (also only USB 1.0, which would have been painfully slow anyway).

Last edited by steve_v (2024-11-30 23:14:00)

mtbvfr · 2024-12-01 01:11:32

@steve_v

I don't have another 32-bit machine to test with.

If I install the 64-bit version on the same USB and try it on a 64-bit machine I have, will that prove if the USB is bootable or not?

Looking at the USB in GParted, the File System is iso9660, Label is ISOIMAGE and there are no Flags set.

Hopefully I can find a blank DVD at the local Newsagent tomorrow and give that option a try also.

How do you quote and mention posts and people with this forum portal?

Thanks!

golinux · 2024-12-01 01:28:54

mtbvfr wrote:

How do you quote and mention posts and people with this forum portal?

Immediately above this input window there is a line of functions to choose from. You will find many useful tags there including [ quote ].

mtbvfr · 2024-12-01 01:45:09

@golinux

If I click on the quote tag all I get is "[" quote "]" "[" /quote "]", minus the double quotation marks, entered into the Message box.

How did you manage to have "mtbvfr wrote:" entered into the Message box?

Thanks!

mtbvfr · 2024-12-01 01:51:29

The USB drive is detected in Win XP but can't be read in File Explorer. It suggests to format it.

Turning off USB Legacy support didn't help with booting.

The USB drive is an 8GB Verbatim Store'n'Go Pinstripe USB 2.0 Drive.

golinux · 2024-12-01 01:53:32

"[" quote=name of user you are quoting "]" text to be quoted " [" /quote "]"

All the extra " and spaces are to make the structure viewable when posting. Maybe there is a better way to do that . . .

mtbvfr · 2024-12-01 02:00:48

Just testing, sorry for the interruption. Back to the same bat channel for now.

golinux wrote:

All the extra

steve_v · 2024-12-01 03:53:01

mtbvfr wrote:

How did you manage to have "mtbvfr wrote:" entered into the Message box?

By manually copy-pasting the text and the username like it's 1999, because golinux childishly disabled the quick-quote functionality some time back on account of a few users excessive use of it annoying him.

The full quoting annoyed a few (or more accurately, one) people. Removing the quick-quote links creates extra work any time a quote is warranted, and removes such niceties as timestamps and back-linking to the quoted post.

mtbvfr wrote:

I don't have another 32-bit machine to test with.

Most (if not all) 64bit systems should still be able to boot the 32bit install media (at least in legacy/CSM mode). Even if the live kernel won't boot for some reason, you should still at least get to the boot menu.

golinux wrote:

All the extra " and spaces are to make the structure viewable when posting. Maybe there is a better way to do that . . .

In any capable and half-way modern board software, the post editor has a "disable BBCode" checkbox. This one apparently does not, having it as a global toggle reserved for administrators... Which you are, and so should know.

Last edited by steve_v (2024-12-01 04:05:25)

mtbvfr · 2024-12-01 04:03:15

The USB drive is fine. I installed the 64-bit version on it and successfully booted a Dell Latitude 6530 with it.

I also previously tried using the Live USB Maker app of MX Linux with the latest 32-bit MX Linux but no go. I am about to try using the dd written version instead and see if there's any difference.

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · 2024-12-01 08:49:04

machines in that era were hit and miss regarding usb booting. sometimes only one of the ports was bootable. if you are able to access the bios setup area where the boot devices/order settings are then you can insert the usb stick in each port and cold-boot the machine to the bios settings area and see if the usb stick shows up in the boot order list. as was suggested earlier in the thread, if you have experience burning and booting cds and/or other lightweight *nix distros you will probably figure things out. good luck and keep us posted!

rolfie · 2024-12-01 09:26:38

That laptop should have a DVD drive. Its possibly easier to boot from there instead of from USB.

And if only 512M of RAM is installed, this isn't good enough to start from.

ks · 2024-12-01 09:28:07

@greenjeans

I have a Dell i686 bought new in 2004 that's been used as an onprem backup host for at least 17 years. Starts at 7am in the morning, pulls backups from a few machines, then shuts down till tomorrow morning. When backups are large and it's still on when I start in the morning, it's the loudest box here now, making all sorts of grinding noises. Had to increase RAM a few years back (was running with 256Mb!) and occasionally bigger disks, but I won't kill it as long as it works - I know what it's like to be old.

ks

steve_v · 2024-12-01 10:31:12

rolfie wrote:

if only 512M of RAM is installed, this isn't good enough to start from

512MB is fine for a netinstall, though the live desktop will likely choke. What it's not good enough for is pretty much any modern graphical web browser.
Frankly, for anything <2GB I wouldn't be running a full DE (even XFCE), and for <1GB It'd be a straight-up CLI-only install.

That's not to say you can't run a GUI with 512MB RAM, just that you probably won't like it very much.

Last edited by steve_v (2024-12-01 10:32:41)

golinux · 2024-12-01 16:37:07

steve_v wrote:

golinux childishly disabled the quick-quote functionality some time back on account of a few users excessive use of it annoying him

LOL! Nice dig but no cigar on several counts. Go back to bed. Get out of the other side and try again, grumpus. It's a bit sad that after so many years you know so little about us.

greenjeans · 2024-12-01 17:44:36

@ks Nice! My everyday machine since 2014 is a 2010 model Compaq laptop with a little dual-core APU, one of the hinges is broke, and the screen did some weird crap a while back like it's trying to become de-laminated from it's backing, so it turns the whole screen into nothing but weird colors, so I literally have to keep a spring clamp from my shop on it at all times so I can view the screen, lol. It came with 2 gigs of ram though, and I upped that to 4, so we're still rollin' and squashing up new stuff...it does take it's sweet time though.

Wife keeps telling me we can afford a new one, but i'm not giving this thing up, too much sentimental value, and it's been a complete workhorse.

Got a couple of desktops I built circa 2005 and 2008 that still work, lol dual-booting windoze xp and Devuan 1 with my first vuu-do experiments back in 2016-2017.

Ahh the beauty of Linux and not having to buy a new machine every 3 years!

mtbvfr · 2024-12-02 09:24:55

Hi Folks,

I've exhausted the testing for the current options I have using the USB Drive including using every USB port.

I have a blank DVD but when I went to use the wodim command as documented on the following page, …

https://www.devuan.org/os/documentation … all-devuan

wodim dev=/dev/sr0 -eject filename.iso

… I received the following response:

wodim: No write mode specified.
wodim: Assuming -tao mode.
wodim: Future versions of wodim may have different drive dependent defaults.
wodim: Badly place option. Global options must be before any track.

Does that mean the "-eject" option should come immediately after wodim and before "dev=/dev/sr0"?

Are there any other tips I should be aware of? I haven't used wodim before.

Should I use tao or sao mode?

I tried "wodim -checkdrive dev=/dev/sr0" and got the following response:

wodim: No write mode specified.
wodim: Assuming -tao mode.
wodim: Future versions of wodim may have different drive dependent defaults.
No tracks allowed with -load, -lock, -setdropts, -msinfo, -toc, -atip, -fix, -version, -checkdrive, -prcap, -inq, -scanbus, --devices, -reset and -abort options.

I was using Devuan 5 on a Dell Latitude 6530 to attempt to write to the DVD.

wodim appears to be version 1.1.11 from 2006.

The Toshiba has 512MB RAM.

Thanks!!

mtbvfr · Yesterday 04:05:01

I am going through the Man page for wodim at present:

https://www.mankier.com/1/wodim

wodim --devices returned the following:

wodim: Overview of accessible drives (1 found) :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 dev='/dev/sg1' rwrw-- : TSSTcorp' 'DVD+-RW SU-208BB'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Under /dev/disk/, I can't find any reference to an sg1 device but there are references to sr0 with the in the /dev/disk/by-id/ directory with a name of "ata-TSSTcorp_DVD+_-RW_SU-208BB_R8VQ6GUCC005JD" which links to ../../sr0.

Why does wodim return "sg1"?

I do see an sg0, sg1 and sg2 listed in the /dev/ directory?

greenjeans · Yesterday 14:55:51

Shame Refracta-to-usb isn't still around, or is it somewhere? That's what i've been using since Devuan 1, it'll do whatever you want it to as long as you can figure out how to ask it right, lol.

I see there's Mintstick in the repo, have never tried it though.

DD works, saw a little wrapper shell for it the other day that uses some sanity-checks so you don't screw yourself, can't remember where it was.

greenjeans · Yesterday 14:59:58

Ahh, another thought just struck me, forgive me as i'm still a novice at this, but the Daedalus livedcd is a UEFI enabled version, I couldn't even install it on my machine as I use legacy bios and MBR, I could boot the liveCD just fine, but could not install it on my machine.

That's why I made the Mate-mini without that option, so it could be installed on legacy machines.

Possibly yours won't boot that as it's old and also uses MBR/BIOS?

Might try the mini I just made and see if that works if nothing else.

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · Yesterday 15:20:29

referencing "/dev/sg1" this material dates from a few years before your unit:

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/scsi/scsi-generic.html

golinux · Yesterday 15:58:47

greenjeans wrote:

Shame Refracta-to-usb isn't still around, or is it somewhere?

There is still documentation on the refracta website:
https://refracta.org/docs/readme.refracta2usb.txt

Have no idea how current it is . . .

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#1 2024-11-30 10:08:44

Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#2 2024-11-30 15:14:36

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#3 2024-11-30 16:48:20

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#4 2024-11-30 21:31:07

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#5 2024-11-30 22:59:14

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#6 2024-12-01 01:11:32

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#7 2024-12-01 01:28:54

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#8 2024-12-01 01:45:09

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#9 2024-12-01 01:51:29

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#10 2024-12-01 01:53:32

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#11 2024-12-01 02:00:48

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#12 2024-12-01 03:53:01

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#13 2024-12-01 04:03:15

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#14 2024-12-01 08:49:04

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#15 2024-12-01 09:26:38

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#16 2024-12-01 09:28:07

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#17 2024-12-01 10:31:12

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#18 2024-12-01 16:37:07

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#19 2024-12-01 17:44:36

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#20 2024-12-02 09:24:55

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#21 Yesterday 04:05:01

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#22 Yesterday 14:55:51

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#23 Yesterday 14:59:58

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#24 Yesterday 15:20:29

Re: Devuan 5 not Booting on 2005 Toshiba Tecra A7 Intel Centrino Duo

#25 Yesterday 15:58:47

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