kentares
asked on
Compaq Armada 1550DMT -- Boot Priority
How do you set this laptop to boot from the CD-ROM drive first? We have read about a multiboot feature but cannot find it in the BIOS. The BIOS is currently running the latest version available from Compaq / HP.
Gary Case
According to the manual, if you access the BIOS Setup (with F10) there is a section under "System Features" for "boot management" ==> I would expect you can set the boot order there. Have you tried this ??
ASKER
Good evening,
The only available options are disable diskette boot, enable numlock, and quick boot. And we just completed installing the Compaq Security Software that did not give us the ability to change the Multiboot options.
Thank you,
kentares
The only available options are disable diskette boot, enable numlock, and quick boot. And we just completed installing the Compaq Security Software that did not give us the ability to change the Multiboot options.
Thank you,
kentares
Is 'disable diskette boot' referring to the hard drive or the optical drive?
If it's the optical drive then maybe it's already set to boot from the cd drive.
If it's the optical drive then maybe it's already set to boot from the cd drive.
is there an advanced section? check for an entry for the bootup order (maybe like cdRom, hdd0, floppy
Can you enable diskette boot and try booting from a win98 boot disk floppy. This should load drivers for the cd drive and perhaps give you access to the cd.
One other question, you haven't made it clear whether this is internal cd drive or is it a PCMCIA or parallel type cd drive.
One other question, you haven't made it clear whether this is internal cd drive or is it a PCMCIA or parallel type cd drive.
ASKER
Good morning,
poeticlykist, the disable diskette boot is referring to the floppy drive.
nobus, no there is not, that is what I am trying to find.. or trying to enable so I can change the boot order
sparkmaker, this CD-ROM drive is an IDE CD-ROM not PCMCIA
I apologize one thing I should have specified is that we are trying to install Gentoo on this laptop and we haven't been able to figure out how to make a Gentoo floppy boot disk to access the CD-ROM drive. If we can do that then we should be able to get rolling on this project. We would prefer to be able to boot off the CD-ROM directly.. but if we cannot a floppy is the next best available solution.
Thank you,
kentares
poeticlykist, the disable diskette boot is referring to the floppy drive.
nobus, no there is not, that is what I am trying to find.. or trying to enable so I can change the boot order
sparkmaker, this CD-ROM drive is an IDE CD-ROM not PCMCIA
I apologize one thing I should have specified is that we are trying to install Gentoo on this laptop and we haven't been able to figure out how to make a Gentoo floppy boot disk to access the CD-ROM drive. If we can do that then we should be able to get rolling on this project. We would prefer to be able to boot off the CD-ROM directly.. but if we cannot a floppy is the next best available solution.
Thank you,
kentares
Having read some of the info from the HP site on this laptop, the only reference I have come across is here on page 5
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/UCR/SupportManual/TPM_prt011b0998/TPM_prt011b0998.pdf
In the stup and installation for win98 on this model laptop,It states-->"You must prepare an MS-DOS boot diskette with the Compaq Real Mode CD-ROM drivers to
have access to the CD-ROM drive during the installation process."
The only driver I can find is the win 3.1 IDE cd drive drivers http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/notebooks/us/download/8285.html
And its for the Armada 1500c model.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/UCR/SupportManual/TPM_prt011b0998/TPM_prt011b0998.pdf
In the stup and installation for win98 on this model laptop,It states-->"You must prepare an MS-DOS boot diskette with the Compaq Real Mode CD-ROM drivers to
have access to the CD-ROM drive during the installation process."
The only driver I can find is the win 3.1 IDE cd drive drivers http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/notebooks/us/download/8285.html
And its for the Armada 1500c model.
Another question, do you have to swap the floppy and the cd drive as there is only one bay to use either in?
Once you get win98 installed and setup with the cd drive enabled, you should be able to get Gentoo to load over the tp of Win98. Got to be careful though with the partitions that the Compaq diagnostics program sets up as it could cause problems if erased during Gentoo setup.
The OakCDROM.sys driver is a generic CDROM driver that works with almost any CD drive -- I have not seen any it wouldn't work with.
Download it; make a bootable floppy; boot to it; and then change the prompt to the CD drive and run the Gentoo setup program.
You can download it from about the middle of the page here:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/floppies.htm
There are plenty of sample CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT setups on the net. The two key lines you must have are:
(1) In the CONFIG.SYS
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mycd001
(2) In the AUTOEXEC.BAT
mscdex.exe /D:mycd001
In fact, if each of those files consisted of just that one line it would be enough to use the CD.
Download it; make a bootable floppy; boot to it; and then change the prompt to the CD drive and run the Gentoo setup program.
You can download it from about the middle of the page here:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/install/floppies.htm
There are plenty of sample CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT setups on the net. The two key lines you must have are:
(1) In the CONFIG.SYS
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:mycd001
(2) In the AUTOEXEC.BAT
mscdex.exe /D:mycd001
In fact, if each of those files consisted of just that one line it would be enough to use the CD.
ASKER
Good afternoon,
sparkmaker, Yes we did get Windows 98se installed in the hopes that the security software would enable multiboot. But from what I gather now we can install Gentoo over Windows 98. Now can this be done while in Windows or while in DOS with CD-ROM Support Enabled? I am just making certain that I understand the procedure.
garycase, Okay so basically if I use a Windows 98 Boot Disk with CD-ROM support I could install Gentoo directly from the CD? I don't have to be booted into a "Linux Setup" I can just boot into DOS with CD-ROM support, access the CD-ROM and install from there?
I will get to testing these out on the laptop. Will post back with some additional information.
Thank you,
kentares
sparkmaker, Yes we did get Windows 98se installed in the hopes that the security software would enable multiboot. But from what I gather now we can install Gentoo over Windows 98. Now can this be done while in Windows or while in DOS with CD-ROM Support Enabled? I am just making certain that I understand the procedure.
garycase, Okay so basically if I use a Windows 98 Boot Disk with CD-ROM support I could install Gentoo directly from the CD? I don't have to be booted into a "Linux Setup" I can just boot into DOS with CD-ROM support, access the CD-ROM and install from there?
I will get to testing these out on the laptop. Will post back with some additional information.
Thank you,
kentares
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ASKER
Good afternoon garycase,
Yeah just found out about this too, will try it out in a few moments. If it works out you will get the points and we can close the case. :)
Thank you,
kentares
Yeah just found out about this too, will try it out in a few moments. If it works out you will get the points and we can close the case. :)
Thank you,
kentares
ASKER
Good afternoon garycase,
Yup worked perfectly. Thank you for your assistance.
kentares
Yup worked perfectly. Thank you for your assistance.
kentares