[Cialug] "Designed for Microsoft Windows XP"

[Rachel Garrett]

Thank you for all the suggestions. I tried F12, and it gave me the message

PXE-E61 Media test failed, check cable
PXE-M0F Exiting PXE-ROM

I had to do this about ten times, since the message flickered by very
quickly and wouldn't stay onscreen even when I held the key down. I
figured that it wasn't reading the CD-ROM, and then trying the "boot
from LAN" option, hence the "check cable.

I tested two more disks, and it was definitely spinning up and trying
to read them.

I tried it with the machine running on battery verus plugged in, in
case it had some freakish power-saver mode that skipped some boot
steps. That didn't make a difference.

I didn't have any Windows boot CDs, and this machine doesn't have a
CD-burner, so it was back to the BIOS. I found a setting that I
haven't seen before: "Large Disk Access." It can be "DOS" or "Other,"
and it's set to "DOS" by default. The BIOS setup help utility says
that "DOS" is for Windows, and "Other" is for Novell or Unix. I tried
"Other," and now I can boot from Linux CD-ROMs. I have to go through a
three-part restart to get back into Windows, though. The first restart
gets me to a black screen and blinking cursor, which doesn't respond
to Ctrl-Alt-Delete. After I reboot manually, I have to get into the
BIOS and change Large Disk Access back to DOS. Then I save changes and
reboot, and it goes back to Windows (bypassing the Linux CD-ROM still
sitting in the hard drive).

I've messed with BIOS settings that pre- and post-date this one
(2001), and I have never seen the Large Disk Access setting before.
What use is it? It would seem as though the computer can be smart
enough to look at your first bootable device, and figure out how to
access it. It definitely throws a monkey wrench into the whole idea of
being able to tell the computer what devices to boot, if they all have
to be DOS or all have to be "Other."

Next up on the agenda, GParted.

Thanks!
Rachel