IDE-0 not found

[MariLinx]

Hi
i am all new on here and my english is not so good.
i am trying to explain my problem. I have an old computer PIII 500mhz with 256mb ram.
And I manage to install puppy linux on sda1 system and sda2 data, from my live cd
I used grub to create one but when my computer is booting my "IDE-0 is not found".
I suppose my boot loader is incorrect but i don't know how to fix it.
I put a flag boot on sda1 partition after creating it.

Does somebody have a suggestion to fix ? how to know if the MBR is good or not ?
I am writing from another computer.

Thx in advance for your answers
Regards

[eric52]

Hello, MariLinx, and welcome. IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics. It is also called PATA. It describes older hard drives the connect to the MB with ribbon cables. (Newer drives are SATA). I guess your computer boots the optical drive for you to have gotten to the point you have. Boot the live CD and look at your two partitions. Is there a menu.lst file? You may have to run Grub4DOS to get the MBR written to. Did the hard drive boot before you installed with Windows or whatever? - Eric

[MariLinx]

Hi eric52
Thanks for responding
Yes there is a menu.lst file. To give you the content, I have to connect this old computer to internet first.
I am trying to run Grub4Dos and see how to get the MBR written;it seems to be my problem
For the last question, i have erased all the content of the hard drive by deleting the existing part with gparted and resize it in two sda1 and sda2.
I do that and i come back to post the results.
Thxs again

[eric52]

Hi MariLynx, it sounds like you're moving along quite well with this. You're instincts are good. When the computer starts there is a Power On Self Test (POST) during which you can enter the BIOS setup by pressing F2 or Del or whatever the "splash" screen says. You want to check that the BIOS is correctly seeing the HD and that it isn't disabled or missing from the boot sequence. The menu.lst file will open in any text editor (Geany for Puppy). As long as there is something in this file about titles, kernels, initrd, etc. it should at least produce a menu once booted. Just in case it's in the wrong partition, copy it from one to the other (which will give you a backup). If you can access the inside of the computer (unplugged) make sure the power and data (ribbon) cables are correctly and securely connected. Oh, and my question about Windows was just to determine when was the last time this machine booted any OS from the HD.

[MariLinx]

Hi eric52
I manage to connect to internet from the live cd and use Grub
Here is my menu.lst

Code: Select all

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.8.0
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
#splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 10
default 0

# Frugal installed Puppy

title Puppy lxpup 13.01 (sda1/lxpup13.01frugal)
  kernel /lxpup13.01frugal/vmlinuz   psubdir=lxpup13.01frugal pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
  initrd /lxpup13.01frugal/initrd.gz

title Boot MBR of Hard Disk
	chainloader (hd0)+1
	rootnotverify (hd0)

# Advanced Menu
title Advanced menu
  configfile /menu-advanced.lst
  commandline

I added the part "title BOOT MBR"...I am hoping it will work...come back soon.
For windows, any info is useful to understand a problem...

Merry Christmas to you and everybody

[eric52]

You're making progress. I think that's "rootnoverify" - no "t". If Windows used to boot from hd0 and hasn't been altered, that menu item should boot it. lxpup should boot from the other choice. Does it work? &Merry Christmas to you and yours!

[MariLinx]

Hi
I have modified "menu.lst" without "t" but it doesn't work. I have to find something else.
I tried to boot with a windows xp cd to fix the boot sector, but it doesn't work too. I missed something, and I don't know what at the moment.
With the life CD, i can mount sda1/sda2 and i can read/write on it. So, i suppose hardware works well inside the computer.
I am searching further...
Thx in advance for helping...

[eric52]

Odd that the Windows CD won't boot. You should consider backing up menu.list as menu.bak. Then, use the live CD to download some other version of Puppy - Wary or some other issue good for older machines. Put the ISO on your data partition. Navigate to it on sda2 and right click it. Choose burn with pburn. Hopefully, you can swap in a new blank CD to do this. Then install your second Puppy version and let it run Grub or Grub4DOS (I prefer this). It should find all other OS's and make a new menu.lst for all, which might work by rewriting the MBR.

[MariLinx]

Odd that the Windows CD won't boot. You should consider backing up menu.list as menu.bak. Then, use the live CD to download some other version of Puppy - Wary or some other issue good for older machines. Put the ISO on your data partition. Navigate to it on sda2 and right click it. Choose burn with pburn. Hopefully, you can swap in a new blank CD to do this. Then install your second Puppy version and let it run Grub or Grub4DOS (I prefer this). It should find all other OS's and make a new menu.lst for all, which might work by rewriting the MBR.

Let's try that...come back next to post the results.

[MariLinx]

Hi
According to your suggestion, i made a live cd with puppy-wary 5.5 which is more stable for that old machine than lxpuppy precise 15.09.
I have installed wary 5.5 on sda2.
And i run Grub4Dos ; i joined a pic of the result...now i click on ok and i reboot my machine...
I will see, if my boot loader is created

The content of menu.lst before clicking on ok

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.8.0
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
#splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 10
default 0

# Frugal installed Puppy

title Puppy lxprecise 15.09 (sda1)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /initrd.gz

title Puppy Linux 15.09 frugal in sda1 dir
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /initrd.gz
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd
initrd /initrd.gz

# Advanced Menu
title Advanced menu
configfile /menu-advanced.lst
commandline

I insert that :

title Puppy Linux 5.5 frugal in sda2 dir wary5.5frugal
find --set-root --ignore-floppies /wary5.5frugal/initrd.gz
kernel /wary5.5frugal/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd psubdir=wary5.5frugal
initrd /wary5.5frugal/initrd.gz

[MariLinx]

After clicking on ok, i heard something write on the hard disk...
I am coming back to post the result after booting

[MariLinx]

So, here is my new "menu.lst"

# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.7.2
color white/blue black/cyan white/black cyan/black
timeout 10
default 0

# Frugal installed Puppy

title Puppy wary 5.5 (sda2/wary5.5frugal)
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /wary5.5frugal/initrd.gz
kernel /wary5.5frugal/vmlinuz psubdir=wary5.5frugal pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /wary5.5frugal/initrd.gz

title Puppy wary 5.5 (sda2/wary5.5frugal) RAM mode\nBoot up Puppy without pupsave
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /wary5.5frugal/initrd.gz
kernel /wary5.5frugal/vmlinuz psubdir=wary5.5frugal pmedia=atahd pfix=ram,fsck
initrd /wary5.5frugal/initrd.gz

title Puppy lxprecise 15.09 (sda1)
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /puppy_lxprecise_15.09.sfs
kernel /vmlinuz pmedia=atahd pfix=fsck
initrd /initrd.gz

# Windows
# this entry searches Windows on the HDD and boot it up
title Windows\nBoot up Windows if installed
errorcheck off
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /bootmgr
chainloader /bootmgr
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /ntldr
chainloader /ntldr
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /io.sys
chainloader /io.sys
errorcheck on

# Boot from Partition Boot Sector

title Puppy lxprecise 15.09 (sda1:PBS)
uuid 37331fcb-e453-4c85-b1b3-55ffa365a0d0
chainloader +1

# additionals

title Find Grub2\nBoot up grub2 if installed
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /boot/grub/core.img
kernel /boot/grub/core.img

title Grub4Dos commandline\n(for experts only)
commandline

title Reboot computer
reboot

title Halt computer
halt

I have to find how to do a "fixmbr/fixboot" something like that, but my machine doesn't want to boot with an XP CD.
May be i have to try command lines, but i don't know what of them...

[eric52]

MariLinx - Pour mes vieux yeux, tous les regards à droite. Vous avez bien fait. Ce que votre ordinateur de démarrage Puppy et Windows à partir du disque dur? Est le CD de XP le seul problème? Pardonnez mon Français scolaires et de Google. - Cordialement, Eric

[MariLinx]

Hi Eric52

Well done for your french...Je vous souhaite une bonne année 2016

Actually, I haven't Windows on my computer only 2 versions of puppy lxprecise 15.09 on sda1 and the old one wary 5.5 on sda2.
I want to boot on my Windows XP CD to repare the MBR, but it doesn't work. It is only booting with the linux live cd.

I open that old machine and the CD reader/writer is on primary and the hard drive on secondary. I tried to put in the other order - hdd on primary - but I get error when it boots. it dosen't go further...

I am trying now to find how i can do a "fixmbr/fixboot", but under linux only...

[eric52]

Happy New Year to you also! Grub or Grub4DOS should be writing freshly to the MBR. Try this: boot from Wary CD. Don't open (mount) the HD icon. From main menu-system select gparted. Agree to its hard drive query and let it scan. From the gparted menu you want to create a new partition table. This will wipe out the drive. From the newly unallocated space, make a new partition. Leave an extra 1MB in front and 1GB after it, and format it in ext4. Then do a 1GB partition formated as Linux swap. Exit gparted and install Wary. Then run Grub4DOS from the main menu. Reboot (CD out) and cross fingers. If it works, install as many Puppies as you want and will successfully boot from your CD drive. Any that don't work, can just be deleted. If it just won't boot, try disconnecting your CD drive. Also check the tiny jumper on the back of the hard drive. Cable Select or Master should be jumped - not Slave. Good luck!