I'm not really a fan of Linux; it never worked right or even at all for me, but I'd like to install some version on my old, old Compaq Presario on a dual boot basis against the probability that its Windows 7 will give out on me sooner rather than later, leaving me with a boat anchor.
The immediate difficulty is that the CD drive already gave out -- the door won't open and the tray can't slide out -- and the booting priority page in the BIOS does not include an option for a USB boot. The only choices there are hard drive, network, CD and floppy, as if floppies still existed in about 2010 or so when the computer was assembled. I'm not going to install a CD drive myself for about $40 on a 15 year old unit even though I really don't want to throw it out either.
Are there options for me to get some Linux dual booted?
I should note that I did a dual install with Linux Mint 17.3 back in 2017 and it turned out to be a disaster. It could not find the wifi dongle -- manufactured years earlier and working perfectly under Windows -- even after I followed the manufacturer's instructions to create a driver on a cut and paste basis. (I was able to get it going with an expensive relay device that received wifi and then patched the signal through an ethernet wire, but it was a jury rigged solution.)
In due course I tried to upgrade to Mint 19.3, hoping a current version would be able to find my dongle, but that turned out to be a disaster too. I didn't want to try a fresh install; I was not certain I could avoid a full disc wipe which would wipe out Windows (it happened to me before). And at the time, you could not jump an upgrade to a new full edition a year or two newer; you had to upgrade to each quarterly edition one at a time, ie from 17.3 to 18.0 to 18.1 to 18.2, like that. And each partial upgrade took a minimum of 6 hours, and more that that as a practical matter because at times it would stop along the way to ask for instructions, and if you weren't babysitting the unit, it would never proceed. But at other times, it would just allow 30 seconds or so to respond, and without a response the process might take some drastic and unwanted action like formatting the entire hard drive.
Somewhere along the way, after about 2 full days of upgrading, I came to a quarterly upgrade that took six hours to first simulate the upgrade and then tell you if it was possible to actually do the upgrade. Alas, I was told it was possible if I deleted 20GB or so of files (on a 30 GB partition), with no hint as to what was safe to delete to keep the installation going. I guessed right, I guess, because after 6 hours of deleting 20GB and 6 more hours of installing it did install (on Day 4 of the process) and I was then on to the next one, 19.3 as I recall, where I got the same instruction during the 6 hour simulation to delete 20 more GB with no hint what was safe.
By then I was not so lucky. Even though I was told the installation was possible, after six hours of deleting and six hours of installing, it apparently wasn't possible. I got all manner of errors and demands for passwords I never set, and ultimately it never booted and completely crashed. To this day, I have nothing.
Now with the pandemic over I was ready to try again but no CD and no USB options in the boot priority menu, so am I just stuck with 30GB partition of nothing and the potential to have to throw the computer out at any random moment?
The immediate difficulty is that the CD drive already gave out -- the door won't open and the tray can't slide out -- and the booting priority page in the BIOS does not include an option for a USB boot. The only choices there are hard drive, network, CD and floppy, as if floppies still existed in about 2010 or so when the computer was assembled. I'm not going to install a CD drive myself for about $40 on a 15 year old unit even though I really don't want to throw it out either.
Are there options for me to get some Linux dual booted?
I should note that I did a dual install with Linux Mint 17.3 back in 2017 and it turned out to be a disaster. It could not find the wifi dongle -- manufactured years earlier and working perfectly under Windows -- even after I followed the manufacturer's instructions to create a driver on a cut and paste basis. (I was able to get it going with an expensive relay device that received wifi and then patched the signal through an ethernet wire, but it was a jury rigged solution.)
In due course I tried to upgrade to Mint 19.3, hoping a current version would be able to find my dongle, but that turned out to be a disaster too. I didn't want to try a fresh install; I was not certain I could avoid a full disc wipe which would wipe out Windows (it happened to me before). And at the time, you could not jump an upgrade to a new full edition a year or two newer; you had to upgrade to each quarterly edition one at a time, ie from 17.3 to 18.0 to 18.1 to 18.2, like that. And each partial upgrade took a minimum of 6 hours, and more that that as a practical matter because at times it would stop along the way to ask for instructions, and if you weren't babysitting the unit, it would never proceed. But at other times, it would just allow 30 seconds or so to respond, and without a response the process might take some drastic and unwanted action like formatting the entire hard drive.
Somewhere along the way, after about 2 full days of upgrading, I came to a quarterly upgrade that took six hours to first simulate the upgrade and then tell you if it was possible to actually do the upgrade. Alas, I was told it was possible if I deleted 20GB or so of files (on a 30 GB partition), with no hint as to what was safe to delete to keep the installation going. I guessed right, I guess, because after 6 hours of deleting 20GB and 6 more hours of installing it did install (on Day 4 of the process) and I was then on to the next one, 19.3 as I recall, where I got the same instruction during the 6 hour simulation to delete 20 more GB with no hint what was safe.
By then I was not so lucky. Even though I was told the installation was possible, after six hours of deleting and six hours of installing, it apparently wasn't possible. I got all manner of errors and demands for passwords I never set, and ultimately it never booted and completely crashed. To this day, I have nothing.
Now with the pandemic over I was ready to try again but no CD and no USB options in the boot priority menu, so am I just stuck with 30GB partition of nothing and the potential to have to throw the computer out at any random moment?
)
