Hello, another Noob here. I have been through this forum for a couple of days and I have been unable to find my answer, so my first post must be a plea for help.
The computer I am using was an E-machine which served the sole purpose of being the machine that I did my taxes on (no Linux software) and play Madden from time to time.
It suffered a massive failure.
I was by design a high proprietary, ahem, machine.
My wife is a computer tech by trade and replaced the mobo (ASUS A7V400-MX) Hard drive (?), ram and stuffed in an old Gforce 440. It still had issues under windows (controlers for the drives/ networ issues) so she said she was done with it and walked away.
So I scooped it up and coverted it to Mandriva. It works fine but install was a pain as I ended up making a boot floppy off another Mandriva machine.
I decided that I don't really need another linux box so I've tried KnoppMyth.
It won't install.
Yes, as I have gathered from other posts I have tried everything I can think of.
yes, I burned an image, several using K3B and Power2go at ever slower speeds including x1 from several machines.
Yes BIOS is set at CDROM boot.
I've put disks in both CD-ROM and DVD and Both, I've unplugged one or the other.
I've tried to get my wife to help but she won't touch this machine or linux.

Is there somewhere I could download a Knoppix bootable floppy? It was my only option with Mandriva and the only directions I've found is to use a Knoppix machine, which, I don't have.

Any help would be wonderful, and keep in mind I'm kinda stupid.

Thank you.

not a lot to go on.

Hi,
I use the e-machine, W1640, and just installed a triple boot on my son's T3104.. Also set up an older 500mhz (I forget the model) and all basicly work well. Only problem I have heard of is the power supply will sometimes toast the motherboard. Asus is not an e-machine.

It is the only machine that I have been able to have audio mix, example, playing tunes, and use festival at the same time. I normally play tunes while doing these little forum notes and the machine smoothly mixes the time annoucments for me.

Now if you are to obtain any assistance, you will need to give more specific details. Hard drive needs to be set to master on ide1, best if the cd is on ide2 as master. Download a copy of Knoppix live cd or quicker, DSL and you should be able to bring either of those to life. If they don't work, you most likely won't be able to install KnoppMyth of any flavor.

Mike

[not a lot to go on.]
I'm sorry, the problem is when Knoppmyth, Mandriva, Winxp anything is placed in either drive, it boots right past them. A windows or Mandriva boot floppy allows the machine to install either OS.
The ASUS mobo is not original.
There is a CD-R and DVD, BIOS seems them as one entity, a single CDROM.[/quote]

Picking a boot device is solely up to the BIOS on the motherboard. Make sure the cdrom is higher priority than the hard drive in the boot list. Also, unplug the hard drive and see if that can force it to boot to a CD. If that's still not working, you'll need to contact the motherboard manufacturer, see if there's a newer BIOS or something.

Been there, did that, I guess the next step would be to download Knoppix and raw write a floppy. That or stay Mandriva and download all the other stuff for myth. You'd think there would be easier access to a boot disk for those of us with a non-supportive BIOS.

How are your cdroms connected?

are they on the same cable or different with one shared with the hard drive?

Depending on their configuration you will need to make sure that the slave/master jumper is set correctlly on the cdroms.

Sometimes when they are set incorrectly they will work once the os is booted but will not work as a boot device.

First, I should say thank you for the reply's.

There is a controler card, it leads to both the CD-r and DVD, there is a single cable, I have tried removing one drive or the other. I am unable to find a master/slave option, just CDROM listed once.

So, Frankenputer?

Master/slave/cable-select are hardware jumper options on the drive itself. Usually abbreviated MA/SL/CS on the controller board or jumper block shell.

Hi,
On some machines, pressing F11 ~ F12 will open "a what to boot" menu.
Mike

The drives on a separate controller card is the trouble. Depending on how old your motherboard is, it may still be possible. Try everything in the BIOS's list of boot devices. I have one machine that needed it set to something like "Int 18h device" to boot off a SCSI card.

I'll try them all when I get home from work. I also found a read me on the image disk that suggest's putting the boot image file on a geek stick, my wife is lending me hers.
This machine runs very well when it is in it's OS and is a dandy candidate for this. I could throw some money at the problem but it's been a tough year. Then again, when this isn't frustrating the @#$& out of me, it is a learning experience.

Thank you again for the ideas.

Well, nothing was working, but then I took to heart what cjd1 said (The drives on a separate controller card is the trouble.) It was put there by someone else for a reason, but I got the mobo manual out, pulled the controller card and rehooked everything. It is installing as I type.

Thank you!!!
Holst

Update, it turns out the DVD doesn't work without the controller card, there is something wrong with the mobo, but the install is done so all is working fine.