On Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:08:06 -0700, raylopez99 wrote:

> On Jul 10, 9:14*am, Unruh <unruh-s...@physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
>> raylopez99 <raylope...@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>> >Don't you see
>> >that I cannot even bootup when I install a large HD--so it has to be
>> >the BIOS.
>>
>> No, it does not have to be the bios. It could also be that the hard drive
>> controller is incapable of handling large disks. Rare but possible.
>> Note when you say "I cannot even bootup" that is totally consistant also
>> with your not having properly read the previous posts. In the boot
>> sequence, the hard drive is read by the bios in order to load initrd and
>> vmlinuz. They MUST MUST MUST be on the first few bytes of the hard disk for
>> the bios to be able to read them.
>
> Wait. I just realized something. You think I have a Linux system,
> "load initrd and vmlinuz". The old target machine is running Windows
> 2000 (before that, it was running Windows NT), not Linux.
>
<snip>
>
I believe Unruh is speaking in the presumptive tense; he is
speaking in the case where you eventually attempt to install
a GNU/Linux. I guess that could happen- if you ever run out of excuses.
And monkeys might fly out of my butt.

Your research on old hardware is all valid. Whenever I use old hardware,
I often purposely avoid using the onboard disc controllers. UltraDMA
makes a big difference in performance, and was not present at all on
the earliest controllers because it had not been invented yet. PIO modes
were the first IDE modes. UltraDMA makes a big difference in
performance. Then UltraDMA went through several performance improvements
which had different burst modes, as listed below:

22 MB/s *
33 MB/s
66 MB/s
100 MB/s
133 MB/s

* Likely to be present on motherboards using Intel's Natoma/Neptune
chipset (440FX and similar.)

I like to avoid the onboard IDE controllers and their onboard BIOS
restrictions whenever it looks like problems would be difficult
to overcome. I simply disable the onboard controller and add a PCI IDE
controller. There are PCI IDE controller boards available on
EBay for next to nothing ($5 to $10). I prefer using the Promise Ultra100
TX2. However, IDE drives are on there way out- SATA is taking over. Also,
on EBay are Via chipset based combo controller cards which include SATA
and IDE ports (on a PCI expansion card).

Again, and this refers back to my first response to you,

http://groups.google.com/group/comp....de4d19cbb518af

all of these little detours can add up, in both time and money. If you
know that the end user is not going to be happy running with that CPU
speed, then the first step is to get a better starting platform. As I
said, I wouldn't use a 200MHz class CPU in 2008. Better computers
are in the trash. People are junking their 900MHz Pentium III class
machines for $20 salvage. As I said, I have a Dell Dimension 4100, circa
2001, outfitted with 512MB RAM. Its performance is definitely acceptable.
But a PC of the vintage you are attempting to use for the install would
most likely choke when attempting to load OpenOffice. It might be able to
_finally_ do it, but by the time is gets past the splash screen hours
may have passed by. I think any user subjected to that treatment
would come away with a bad taste in their mouth, and a negative opinion
about Linux. At some point, old computers get put out to pasture.
Fortunately, with Linux a lot of old hardware gets new life as file
servers (boot headless, etc.) I know that I could get something
working on the system you describe, because I have worked with hardware of
that vintage quite a lot. However, it is _you_ and not _me_ that would
have to roll up sleeves and get to work. You appear to be too easily
discouraged to even attempt it. In any case, trying to fixup a 200MHz
system for an end user is a losing proposition, IMO. If you are looking
for a first Linux platform, then get something you know is likely to work.
Once the hardware "just works," then you can concentrate on working with
the software, and tweaking it for the end user (if necessary).

p.s. My earlier post (as referenced above) had a bad link. It
should have referenced these screen shots of my Dell Dimension:

http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/im...8-06-20.01.png
http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne2/im...8-06-20.02.png

--
Douglas Mayne