[GTALUG] Unbootability

[Peter King]

I'm trying to revive an old computer.

The CPU is an Athlon XP 2500, on an Asus A7X87 motherboard, with 3GB
of RAM.  The internal connections are all PATA.  It has both USB ports
and a DVDRW drive installed.  Up until a month or so ago, it ran as
well as an old computer could, with Gentoo installed.  Then a hard disc
went bad, and that's when the fun began.

The BIOS, which dates from 2004, wouldn't let me boot from a USB stick
(the only options are USB-FDD and USB-ZIP).  So I started burning boot
CDs, all of which fail: Gentoo current install disc; SysRescue CD; the
Debian 7.0 live install disc; Archliinx; and OpenBSD.  As I said, they
all fail, quite early on in the process: the BIOS tells me "ATAPI CDROM:
No Emulation" and then starts loading each disc, but fails one way or
another, never getting through a kernel load as far as I can tell (which
isn't very far).  I have swapped the DVDRW drive out for another one,
with no change in results; I have changed the PATA cable connected to
the DVDRW twice, also with no change in results.  MemTest seems quite
happy with the installed RAM.

The boot failures are inconsistent, but, for what it's worth, here is
how they each fail:

(1) Gentoo install disc: Gets as far as starting to load the kernel when
    the screen goes black.  Sometimes that triggers a BIOS reboot, but at
    other times it just sits there.  Tried several combinations of kernel
    modules: nofb, noacpi, no-hardware-detection, and so on, without any
    making a difference.

(2) Sysrecue CD: Latest version simply segfaults after the "ISOLinux"
    declaration.

(3) Debian 7.0 live install disc: Gets to the menu of choices, and will
    usually allow me to make a choice; picking "Install" in any form 
    causes a black screen followed by a reboot.  Under the "Advanced"
    menu I can run MemTest, though.

(4) Archlinux install disc: Once I got to the menu, with the motherboard
    wildly beeping in the background, but wasn't able to select any of
    the choices.  Every other time it just triggers a reboot.

(5) OpenBSD 5.6 install disc: Starts loading the kernel but freezes after
    printing the UC copyright notice.

Google turns up lots of suggestions for the "no emulation" message,
most of which are either "switch the cable" or "change the drive", both
of which I've tried, as noted.

The next thing I'll try is to remove one hard disc, install it in some
other functional computer, and install a bootable Gentoo (or whatever)
on it there, then reinstalling the disc on the old computer to see if
it will boot from it.  I'm happy (enough) to do that, but I'm bothered
by the brick wall I've hit in trying to do something ordinary, namely
to boot from a CDR.  Any ideas?

-- 
Peter King			 	peter.king at utoronto.ca
Department of Philosophy
170 St. George Street #521
The University of Toronto		    (416)-978-4951 ofc
Toronto, ON  M5R 2M8
       CANADA

http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/

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