[Solved] Install issue in old laptop with IDE to Msata SSD Adapter

[Member Irina060]

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I have a working wireless conection with pcmcia wifi card which is pretty fast if I say so myself. I will try to update the installer ^^

[Member ModdIt]

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How many partitions are there on the msata drive, some old bios can only cope with 2.
And how big is the drive, many older devices have limits, modern drives were unimaginable
when many devices were designed.
If your computer dates from 1997, it might have the 8.4 gig limit. Anything newer than
that is more likely to have the 34 or 137 gigabyte limit.
So yes I would first try to install antiX using the default setup, separate home and
let it use the wholedisk, main thing now is to see if you can get a working install
and the auto setup has helped me several times.
Admit to (more than once) failing dismaly with advanced install.

BIOS is already legacy on a device so old :-), I tried searching the adapter you
have but pretty much as expected no go. Depending on where you are living, you might
order a couple of candidates which do not have too many devastating reviews from amazon
and keep what works. Problem is often the adapter works on some devices not on others due
timing. The one I have and trust (on my EEPC) has a pretty big processor, I think it
negotiates with the IDE interface on the computer and keeps working settings.

Maybe useful for others, available on amazon. Probably ali but I prefer solid service to
saving a couple of euro.

CY NGFF B/M-Key SSD auf 2,5-Zoll-IDE 44Pin-Festplattengehäuse (case) für Notebooks…
Marke: chenyang
Used with NGFF B/M-key SSD ONLY! It doesn’t work for M-key and NVME SSD.

Transcends TS120GMTS820S 120GB M.2 SATA fits and combination Known working with antiX.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by ModdIt.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by ModdIt.

[Member Irina060]

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I have one partition for xp, another for 7, and I made one for root and other for home, 4 in total. It is a 256GB msata. Before that I used a 160GB hard drive with no problem. I will format the whole drive now, that is not an issue. The laptop is from 1999-2000. After formating everything I will use the default installer from the live usb and see how that works out, lets hope for the best.
Also if in the end the adapter is the problem I will follow your advise and buy the one you suggested 🙂

[Member Irina060]

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I formated the whole and while I try to do the install using the whole drive it gets stuck at 12% and the system freezes. Also sometimes gparted has a lot of trouble formating the drive. Not really sure why it is freezing at 12%, it was getting to 95% earlier. And sudo apt update and upgrade tries to download something but cannot (that might be the pcmcia card being lazy tho)

[Member madibi]

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the installer freezes at 12% when it cannot format properly the entire hd
m

[Member ModdIt]

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Stubborn beast of a machine you have.
Please do update the installer, released version had some bugs.
The packages you definitely need are antix-installer installer-data-antix not sure if you will need cli-installer-antix
unless the graphical setup totaly fails that is. If you just do apt update apt install above packages it should
hopefully pull in anything else needed. Trouble is your device sorely lacks RAM so I am unsure if that is a viable approach.

One tried and effective work around would be to run live on another machine, upgrade system then remaster with the antiX tool
before another install attempt.
Case where I wish I was not far away and could just drop by with the netbook and a freshly updated and remastered stick..

Several days ago I did an install where the process was at 12% for ages, I think because I set the installer to check the disk,
in the end, after about an hour, for a rotating 160GB 7200RPM disk the process went on to waiting for user input which can also
be confusing, to me anyway. If unsure just tap enter to see if the system reacts..

Should that fail please try with gparted.
make / (root) /home and swap, you will need swap due limited available memory then for next attempt
set the installer to use those partitions without reformatting, use ext 4 except for swap, finaly install grub to MBR.

If you get that far and the grub install fails boot live and try to use the grub repair tool. Again set install to MBR.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by ModdIt.

[Moderator BobC]

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I’m guessing that you have an IDE cable with two drive connections, or two separate IDE cables, one connected to the original main HD and the second connected to the msata to IDE adapter? I wonder if you were to disconnect the original drive and plug the msata ide adapter in its place, would it then recognize and be willing to boot from the SSD attached to the msata to IDE adapter. If it will, then connect it that way and use a CD to install to that drive.

Whichever drive you can get it to boot from, I suggest you use any computer with a CD writer to download the base antiX 21 386 base version that fits on a CD, burn the CD, and then boot the old laptop from the CD, then use gparted to setup the partition on the first drive, then install to it and write the grub to the MBR on it, and then try to boot from it after the install is done.

If after installing, it doesn’t want to boot from the drive, boot from the CD again and use gparted to look at what drives it sees, and then use boot repair to try to fix the boot on the drive.

You can add the packages left out of the base version using Apt, Synaptic or the Software installer.

PS: old IDE systems sometimes had jumpers on the drives for Primary and Secondary or Cable Select. Usually the Primary drive is going to be the one it wants to boot from.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by BobC.

[Member Irina060]

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Im doing whole disk wipe (filling with 0s which Idk what that means but hopefully it means total wipe). I will sure try to do the updates to the live usb in other pc I havent thought about that 🙂
Yeah I bought more ram for the laptop a month ago to max its capacity of 512mb. For a laptop of that era (came with windows 2000) it was pretty good I believe, in todays standards tho… not so much.
If default install fails I will try gparted as you suggest and make a root, a home and swap partition. I’ll come back with news in some hours because this will take a bit

[Member ModdIt]

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Do not know what the ssd controller will make of DD write over. That is really a method for an older rotating drive
where the computer controller is the absolute master.

Regarding live updates and remaster, I have done that on anything available where a live system will run without any
issues.

Hope things go better with install today.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by ModdIt.

[Member Irina060]

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The live usb freezes trying to the sudo apt upgrade. Also trying to erase the ssd there are 400mb that wont go away no matter what I do, maybe thats causing the problem. Im using the usb enclosure to format the drive. Im not using IDE cables as it is a laptop.
I also hope to install it today, lets hope for the best 🙂

[Member ModdIt]

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Live usb freezes trying to the sudo apt upgrade, guessing bot enough memory available, did you at least
manage to update the installer to latest ?.

sudo apt install antix-installer installer-data-antix As the installer is already installed the apt
command will update it to latest.

The 400mb which will not go away on the ssd are probably reserved area, you can never format to the full
drive capacity as the controller writes its management data to disk.

[Moderator caprea]

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Do not upgrade the whole system. just use the command already told
sudo apt update && sudo apt install --reinstall antix-installer

[Member Irina060]

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This kinda worked, the installation went through just fine. But when I restarted the laptop I got to the same grub rescue promt. This time though when I typed “ls (hd0,msdos1)” the ext2 format was detected which is new. I tried set root=(hd0,msdos1)
set prefix=(hd0,msdos1)/boot/grub
insmod normal
But “insmod normal” gave this error: attempt to read or write outside of disk ‘hd0’

Should I try to go back to the live usb and do a grub reinstall and repair or should I try another thing in the grub rescue promt?

[Member ModdIt]

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Getting nearer, Somewhat irritated at ext2, ext4 is the far better option. and very irritated at hd0,msdos1
Can you please give us a screenshot of your disk from GParted while running from live stick.

First I would try to install grub to MBR from live using the boot repair tool.
Have pretty much nil experience with grub rescue commands. Been lucky.
See what other helpers suggest if needed.

@caprea, thanks for joining in, just apt install then package name will update an already installed package.
so I left out the reinstall flag as pretty sure the available installer package would be an updated version.
Apt seems to be getting smarter every update. wish I was like that..
Just had a quick read, apt with flag –reinstall also installs latest so no problems there.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by ModdIt.

[Member Irina060]

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Big update: It works!! Doing the reinstall and repair from the live usb worked!

I will now try to explain all I did that worked. I dont know if some steps are skippable but I’ll explain everything that did work.

1-Downloaded antix21 base 32bits iso.
2-I used a virtual machine to create a live usb.
3-Rename the file /boot/syslinux/gfx-cpio to /boot/syslinux/gfx-cpio.xxx to convert the boot option into simple text.
(3.5-Optional. Make a full installation in a separate usb and copy the Live files from the live usb into the fully installed usb. That will copy the installer to the full installation. It didnt help me much but it could help others)
4-Open terminal in live usb and do sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade. Also sudo apt install antix-installer installer-data-antix
5-I took the ssd out of the laptop, placed it in an usb enclosure to use other pc to wipe it and format it as ext4.
6-I the used other different pc from the same era, a Athlon classic 1000mhz cpu desktop. Unplugged all other hard drives and connected the usb enclosure to it.
7-Using the live usb installer I managed to install antix. Default install using all the drive, installed grub to mbr.
8-I placed the ssd back to the laptop turned it on to see the grub rescue.
9-In grub rescue I typed:
“ls”
“ls (hd0,msdos1)” this showed me that it is there where antix is installed (as ext2 tho not ext4 I dont know why). But it could be elsewhere for other people.
“set root=(hd0,msdos1)”
“set prefix=(hd0,msdos1)/boot/grub”
——-
“insmod normal” and then “normal” would have been the way but it gave me this error: “attempt to read or write outside of disk ‘hd0” this may not happen to other people tho.
10-I plugged the live usb into the laptop, used plop boot manager cd to boot using the usb. (Remember to take out the cd as soon as antix starts booting)
11-Used the repair boot option and did both reinstall grub and repair grub.
12-Took the usb out and voila it worked!

Now I have to check if everythings works fine, update and stuff.

Thanks everyone we have done it! I couldnt have done it without your help, I deeply appreciate it. I will let everyone know if any problem comes up. But I think everything else will go just fine. Thank you! 🙂

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