installing on old machine, outdated bios

[Guest]

I am trying to upgrade my oldest machine, an IBM thinkpad with a 1999 bios from kubuntu 7.04 to 8.10. I downloaded the install cd and set the boot on the IBM to boot from cd but the install cd does not start up. I checked the read me on the install cd and see that I need a sbm floppy however I do not have a floppy drive. Is there a way to upgrade the bios or a command line solution to start the install?

[GrokIt]

Re: installing on old machine, outdated bios

I've got an IBM ThinkPad A30 from the same era. I also had the same problems upgrading from 8.04 to 8.10. The way I got around it was like this:

1- open a terminal or press Alt-F2 to get the 'Run Command' dialog box
2- paste the following code and press enter:

adept_manager --dist-upgrade-devel

Adept will open in the usual way but with an extra "Version Upgrade" icon on the top. It looks like the regular upgrade icon but is two blue up arrows squished together instead of one. I forget if I went through an update cycle or not.
3-click on the "Version Upgrade" and the upgrade will start.

Do not forget to BACK UP everything you want to keep before you start. Although you will probably not have a major problem, there is always a small chance that your stuff will get borked, especially if you do not have your /home on a separate partition.

Let us know if this works from 7.04 to 8.10 so you can help the next person with this problem.

This is where I found out how to do it: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading

[Teunis]

Re: installing on old machine, outdated bios

shredi, you mean to say your BIOS does handle the 7.04 CD but not the latest?
My experience is a BIOS supports booting from CD or not, period.

In the latter case a (used) USB floppy drive might be a very cheap and useful investment.

An other option I've heard about would be to put the HD in a newer computer, do a bare bones install and stick it back in the original lap top where you complete the install.

[Guest]

Re: installing on old machine, outdated bios

The bios is compatible with 7.04, not 8.10 because it does not support sbm. It looks like it will have to be a floppy drive if the bios can not be updated.

[dibl]

Re: installing on old machine, outdated bios

Are you sure the installation CD is a good one? Did you burn it "as ISO" and at 4X speed? Does it boot on other computers?

I've never heard of anyone ever needing a floppy diskette to boot Kubuntu -- there's something wrong with your CD, I think.

[Teunis]

Re: installing on old machine, outdated bios

There must be something fishy with your CD, as I said before a BIOS either supports booting from CD or not.
sbm or Smart Boot Manager is something you would run on computers who's BIOS don't allow booting from a CD, mostly pre 1996.
Have a look at this page:
http://hubuntu.blogspot.com/2007/08/...-rom-boot.html

[kasunbg]

Re: installing on old machine, outdated bios

I also have 1999 bios. I directly installed kubuntu 8.10 from CD and it worked fine. I didn't need a sbm floppy. So me too think the CD is the case.