[RESOLVED] creating a non EFI ISO image

I have a very old lap top. I am trying to install Zorin Lite on it. The problem is that the image is set up for EFI booting. I can not find a non EFI image anywhere and the bios in my laptop has no support for EFI. I need a work around to resurrect this lap top. It currently has Windows XP on it, but that is a useless os now, and was hoping to put something a little more useful on it.

HP Pavilion ZE5600
1 GB memory
60GB HDD
2.8GHz Processor

Yes, it's been upgraded, but it should still run Zorin with no problem, if I can get the usb drive to boot. Legacy boot is enabled, and "Removable Devices" is at the top of the boot order. It has nothing specific for booting from USB, so I am thinking Removable devices is what I am looking for.

Any suggestions would be awsome as I am not familiar with EFI or UEFI or whatever. lol

rholden wrote:I have a very old lap top. I am trying to install Zorin Lite on it. The problem is that the image is set up for EFI booting. I can not find a non EFI image anywhere and the bios in my laptop has no support for EFI. I need a work around to resurrect this lap top. It currently has Windows XP on it, but that is a useless os now, and was hoping to put something a little more useful on it.

HP Pavilion ZE5600
1 GB memory
60GB HDD
2.8GHz Processor

Yes, it's been upgraded, but it should still run Zorin with no problem, if I can get the usb drive to boot. Legacy boot is enabled, and "Removable Devices" is at the top of the boot order. It has nothing specific for booting from USB, so I am thinking Removable devices is what I am looking for.

Any suggestions would be awsome as I am not familiar with EFI or UEFI or whatever. lol

You may need to try in Legacy, instead:
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23393_01/ht ... 09150.html

I would love to enable legacy, however, as my bios is not capable of EFI at all, there is no "Legacy" to enable. The only Legacy support is for USB Legacy, which is already enabled.

As I understand it, the .iso image should work on older BIOS and newer UEFI.
Seems you can't get the machine to boot from the USB even after making changes to the BIOS.

My HP Compaq laptop uses the F9 key to access the machines boot device menu. As soon as I press the power button, start tapping F9 and a boot device menu pops up. Not sure what key this is on your machine however most machines will display a list of keys and there functions upon powering up.

Alternatively, sometimes USB boot on these older machines is actually NOT in removable devices but under another entry, such as Hard Disks or similar. It seems counter intuitive but that is where it is on an old Gigabyte motherboard I have.
Be sure to have the USB connected and try going through a few of the boot/device menu's looking for it.

Alternatively you can also burn the image to a DVD and install Zorin that way.

I'm also wondering if it is more of a PAE issue. I was gobsmacked when I installed MX Linux 19 on an old Dell D600 Notebook with only 512 Mb RAM - and on reboot it states it is pae distro installed! All other distros, including Zorin12 Lite needed the forcepae --forcepae command to boot. Also 1 Gb RAM might be struggling - I would also take a look at Antix 19 too.

Thanks for then information. I can pull up the boot devices by pressing ecsape, and I see it set right, but perhaps as MBMz10 said, it is not considered a removable device but something else. I will investigate it. I will also look into Antix 19 as Swarfender437 suggested. I'll keep you guys updated.

Also take a look at MX Linux 19 - Niiiiiiccccceeeee!

I have come to the conclusion that the HP ze5600 does not boot from a usb stick. The "removable devices" in the BIOS is talking about a "USB Cradle" for FDD or CD/DVD. So I will burn a DVD and install that way. I did check out Antix 19 on the computer I am using now. However, if failed to start an x window session. I believe it is because pci=noaer is needed in grub as both ubuntu and deeping did, but I didn't get into it. I am going to try zorin and Mint, see which works better. Then I am going to give it to my dad and his friend to play with. With Windows 7 loosing support this is a good time for Linux to grab some more users.

So I'll mark this is as resolved due it being a hardware limitation. Thanks for the help you guys.

Also to consider re your USB issue:

https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/intro.html

It's how I got Wolvix / Cub installed years ago on a Toshiba Satellite that only had 128 Mb RAM!

Swarfendor437 wrote:Also to consider re your USB issue:

https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/intro.html

It's how I got Wolvix / Cub installed years ago on a Toshiba Satellite that only had 128 Mb RAM!

Thank you for the tip, I will look into it

I'd also take a look at Voyager 18.04.2 which is xfce (4.12) LTS and available in both 32-bit and 64-bit and based on xubuntu too!