[TriLUG] Old BIOS

[Mike Mueller]

On Monday 03 November 2003 19:58, Nick wrote:
> Worked like a charm!
> Thanks!
>
> On Saturday 01 November 2003 12:53 pm, rasch at raschnet.com wrote:
> > On Sat, Nov 01, 2003 at 12:49:19PM -0500, Nick <trilug at dogstar1.com> 
wrote:
> > > I just purchased an old dual PII 266 to use as a firewall. I have run
> > > into a snag which I'm hoping someone has a workaround for. I need to
> > > boot from CDROM and the BIOS will not support it.
> > >
> > > Any ideas are appreciated.
> >
> > This is a great tool, which can be installed on a floppy, or the MBR.
> > It allows boot from CD: http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/  even works on my
> > old Pentium-90
> >
> > David

I've got a couple of 1994/1995 machinest that can I use btmgr on.  I managed 
to get one loaded with Debian using DOS, a DOS CDROM driver, and Debian's 
DOS-based loading that took some major tweaking.  RH6.1 had a handy 
floppy-then-CDROM initial load capability but I haven't seen anything like it 
in the recent Debian, Mandrake, or RH releases.  

Debian supports initial loading from a floppy and the net. If you've got a 
broadband connection and one of the favored NICs listed in the Installation 
Manual (3Com always works) this could be an alternative. I've done CDROM boot 
and net loading and it works well.  Haven't tried the the floppy/net loading 
though.  (Hmm - another todo list item?)
-- 
Mike Mueller
324881 (08/20/2003)
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Now use your right hand to draw the number "6" in the air.