Boot CDROM through GRUB

All latest computers can boot from CD when there is a bootable CDROM in the drive. It is the ability of the BIOS. But legacy PCs does not have that feature. Many operating systems provide bootable floppy for this purpose. But it is pain to prepare boot floppy for different operating systems. So we need a solution to address this issue.

Recently I tried install Slackware 11.0 with first CD, which is bootable. But my PC does not boot through CDROM, it skips CDROM goes to grub installed in first harddisk (Primary Master). But other bootable CDs works fine in my PC. This happens to only Slackware 11.0 CD-1 only (I have to check whether the culprit is Slackware CD or GnomeBaker, that is different story..). So my PC is not CD bootable atleast for this Slackware CD. Then I found the following method to solve this issue and it works like charm. This method is applicable for all legacy PCs which can’t boot from CDROM drive.

Step 1: Download the memdisk.bin from here or if you have syslinux installation, you can use the installed memdisk.bin.

Step 2: Download the sbootmgr.dsk from here or here or if you have any version of Slackware CD-1, /isolinux/sbootmgr/sbootmgr.dsk file you can use.

Step 3: Copy both memdisk.bin and sbootmgr.dsk in your grub existing grub installation path, /boot/grub.

Step 4: Add the following entry in your existing grub menu. Note: root(hd0,0) should be according to your configuration.

title CDROM

root(hd0,0)

kernel /boot/grub/memdisk.bin

initrd /boot/grub/sbootmgr.dsk

Step 5: I hope you need not to run grub-install again. If necessary you can do.

Step 6: Reboot the machine.

Step 7: You can see an entry called CDROM in grub menu list. Select the entry. You will be shown boot device selection screen showing all your harddisk and CDROM drives. Insert your bootable CDROM in the CD Drive and select that drive from menu. Waavv..!! your machine is booted from that CD.

Yesterday I had a wonderful time in getting this done. Hope you too!

Ubuntu, SuSE, Fedora and Debian Comparison

I have installed the following OS on my PC of following configuration.

Hardware: PIII-800MHz/192MB/20GB/Intel 82815 Video
OS: Ubuntu 6.06 / Suse 10.1 / Fedora 5 / Debian 3.1

I have installed all these OS, with mostly same configuration (2.6 kernel/ GNOME interface, services…). I have not done any tweak. Here is my observation with ranking. This ranking is based on performance on my PC only.
Rank 4. Suse 10.1:
Installation – slow, Eye candy desktop, Monitor not recognized properly.
After installation – Very slow desktop
Rank 3. Fedora Core 5:
Installation – dead slow, wonderful X configuration
After installation no X, due to issue in locale setting
Rank 2: Debian 3.1:
Installation: Easy and fast first phase installation, second phase installtion after reboot failed (but managed with apt-get manually, package selection interface is not user friendly
After installation – Cool, wide range of applications
Rank 1: Ubuntu 6.06:
Installation: crashing but managed through command line (using fdisk, mkswap and swapon), installation speed is normal
After installation – Fast, Cool, eyecandy, high performance.

Moral: Good installation method does not mean good desktop performance. Ubuntu wins!

got a legacy machine!!!

I have got a used Intel PIII machine for my home, thanks to my guru ManiVS and Mr.Mukunthan. Though it is bit old configuration, I don’t feel so, when I loaded Mepis 3.4.1 and Gentoo 2005 Linux on that. I don’t feel any difference between working on PIV with 512MB RAM and this PIII with 192MB RAM. Linux is really mighty to run on old machines. That too KDE does not seem to be bloated. Here is the configuration:

Intel PIII 800MHz

Intel Motherboard – 815EEA based on 815 Chipset

20GB HDD + (10GB of mine)

SDRAM 128+64 = 192MB

Built-in Video 82815 Chip

Built-in Audio Ensonique 1371

2 USB Ports external

LG 14″ Color Monitor – supports upto 1024×768 60Hz

I bought the above configuration for Rs. 3000/-. Apart from this I bought Samsung Keyboard, Intex Optic Mouse, Intex Speaker and Mic for Rs.700/-.

I am going to install Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 on this machine. I dont’ have internet @ home. I have prepared Extra packages CD, from Ubuntu repositories when I was using Ubuntu Dapper in my work at T & B. This CD will make my job easy to install all the packages which are not available in Ubuntu Installation CD.

my home pc plans…

Life is now quite different for me without a Computer in my home after around 5 years. Some times it is irritating and some times I find good time in helping my loving wife and enjoying the times with my cute 4 months old baby.

I dream for a PC with the following configuration at the minimum, which should not cost above 50K. Do you think impossible for this price? let us see..

Configuration of proposed Dream PC:

• AMD Athlon 64 X2 >4200+ (Socket AM2)
• Motherboard ASUS M2NPV-MX or MSI K9NGM2
• 1GB RAM DDR2 – 800 MHz
• Seagate 200GB SATA HDD x 2 (RAID 0)
• Viewsonic Wide screen 19″/20″ LCD monitor
• Sony DVD-RW 4x
• Speakers min. 5.1 Channel with woofers
• Good Microphone
• Wireless Keyboard cum Mouse
• APC 500VA UPS
• Bluetooth dongle
• Infrared dongle
• ATX Cabinet with SMPS

Multiple OS Configuration of proposed Dream PC:

• Ubuntu Linux with GNOME (>= 6.06) – For productive Home PC for everyone @ home (and also to have a feel of Debian)
• Gentoo Linux with Fluxbox/WindowMaker – For serious Linux learning purpose (a lot of compilation/optimization/configurations)
• Fedora Linux with XFCE/Enlightenment – For updating me with the Industry leader Redhat’s way and upcoming beautiful enlightenment desktop
• OpenSuSE with KDE – To know the Novell’s effort in Linux
• Mandriva Linux with KDE – To keep track of what is going on here
• FreeBSD – To have a feel about BSD systems – no serious work, just to weigh the OS
• OpenSolaris based distribution – Want to have live feel of how this evolves
• FreeDOS – To have this OS to have a feel of old DOS and mostly for DOS based games (I don’t know whether this DOS will work on latest hardware configuration)
• Test Partition 1
• Test Partition 2 – These two partitions are meant for testing different Linux/BSD/Solaris distributions.

Applications of proposed Dream PC:

• A basic office suite such as documents/spreadsheets/slides for home
• Base System programming development platform
• Audio/Video such as MP3/Audio-CD/VCD/DVD Playing
• Image and Video editing of my kid Udhaya’s photos and video clips downloaded from Kodak C310 camera
• Internet and email
• My web site and blog maintenance – HTML authoring tools
• Various Linux distribution downloading/installing/learning and keep in pace with them
• Education Software and games for my kid Udhaya
• My mobile Nokia 6610 backup/restore
• Nice strategy and Racing games.
• I want this machine to be my all time favourite…. it should server for every purpose in my day to day life.

It will take some more time for me to spend for my dream PC. Till then to work, I am planning to rebuild my legacy PC. I have a faulty motherboard (Tomato board with AMD K6 Processor, 400MHz) given it for servicing. I have not yet collected from the service guy for more than a year. Since it is reported that it is not repairable, I have to get an alternative board of good old cheap one. I hope to build a simple PC, based on this old configuration. I have most of other peripherals. It seems to be economical to go for a good second hand PC, instead of rebuilding this PC. But since it is my first PC, which I assembled it for more than 3 months, buying a part of components every month – I have a sentiment of retaining, rebuilding and keep it alive for ever.

Configuration of proposed Legacy PC:

• AMD K6 400MHz
• Legacy motherboard with AMD/USB/SDRAM support (to be bought)
• 32MB SDRAM min. (to be bought)
• 10GB IDE HDD
• Yamaha Audio Card
• SiS 1MB Video Card
• Cheap Speaker/Mic
• Legacy 14″ Color CRT Monitor (to be bought)
• Keyboard
• Legacy Mouse (yet to be bought, if possible repair the current faulty one)

Multiple OS Configuration of proposed Legacy PC:

• Damn smal Linux (>= 3.0) – Ideal for legacy PCs
• After assembling my dream PC, I can make use of this legacy PC for my hands on work on system programming and OS development kind of nice dirty works.

Hope to update you with my experience on legacy PC @ home by next month!

A short break in my Home PC experience…

This month I have faced a lot of changes with smile (Who moved my Cheese?). I have given my Home PC to my loving brother. And also I have handed over my official HP nx6120 Laptop to T & B International, as a part of my relieving from T & B. I have joined HCL Technologies Ltd, Chennai on 15th June. Now I don’t have any personal PC or Laptop. Hope to go for some nice futuristic Configuration of my dream PC! Till then I will move this blog with something I think, I experience in my office workstation, my wish….!