Ask Klaus!

Ask Klaus!

Article from Issue 70/2006
Author(s):

No DVD Boot Regarding the “No DVD Boot” problem in Linux Magazine, issue #64 / March 2006, p50, where the BIOS would boot from CD but not DVD, you might find a simple answer is to make the DVD player the master and the CD the slave on the relevant controller. I had the same problem. I could boot from CD but not DVD until I switched controller connectors, and now I can boot from DVD (but not the CD). Thanks for your input! You're right; some boards need a bootable IDE/ ATA-device as the master; otherwise, they just ignore the device until the operating system loads a driver for it. I have something to add, too, from a recent case where Knoppix (and other Live CDs) would show the bootscreen, but as soon as the kernel and ramdisk were loaded, the DVD drive magically disappeared, causing an error message that the file system could not be found – on the same device where the kernel and initrd were previously loaded without problems. The reason was a missing master drive on that IDE port, and the DVD drive was a sentinel slave. Rejumpering the drive to be the master at this port fixed the problem. What amazes me most in the case of a wrongly jumpered DVD drive is the fact that when no driver is loaded (i.e., when the BIOS is used to transfer data from the drive), everything worked, until the system switched to protected mode and the correct driver for the controller was loaded, and then the drive disappeared. Makes you wonder about hardware and BIOS design.

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • Ask Klaus!

    Klaus Knopper is the creator of Knoppix and co-founder of LinuxTag expo. He works as a teacher, programmer, and consultant. If you have a configuration problem, or if you just want to learn more about how Linux works, send your questions to: klaus@linux-magazine.com

  • Ask Klaus!

    Klaus Knopper answers your Linux questions.

  • Ask Klaus!

    Klaus Knopper is the creator of Knoppix and co-founder of LinuxTag expo. He works as a teacher, programmer, and consultant. If you have a configuration problem, or if you just want to learn more about how Linux works, send your questions to: klaus@linux-magazine.com

  • Ask Klaus!

    Klaus Knopper is the creator of Knoppix and co-founder of LinuxTag expo. He currently works as a teacher, programmer, and consultant. If you have a configuration problem, or if you just want to learn more about how Linux works, send your questions to: klaus@linux-magazine.com

  • Knoppix 7.3

    Knoppix 7.3 comprises the current state of Debian GNU/Linux development and comes with the current hardware support of kernel 3.13, a new update function, and extended security and privacy features.

comments powered by Disqus