Boot problems on PC hardware

[m_]

Hello All,

Apologies if this is the wrong place for this question.

I have been trying to get the latest Icaros release, both the DVD and pendrive media, to boot on several machines with no luck and I'm looking for some guidance.

I have read through a some of the documentation and forum posts, but I haven't found what I am looking for yet. When I boot either from thumb drive or DVD image on any of my systems, I get the GRUB menu, and when I select the default boot config, I get the screen with the "eyes" and a message that says "Waiting for boot media".

I assume that there is a limited amount of compatible PC hardware that is supported, and my stuff is all new enough that everything has SATA and there is not a single system in my collection that has ATAPI/IDE interfaces. I'm guessing this is the problem.

Can anyone point me to a definitive source for blocking hardware configs or Bios settings? Also, a single source for allowed parameters to pass from GRUB would be helpful, if this exists?

Thanks in advance,
m_

[magorium]

Hi Mike,

Apologies if this is the wrong place for this question.

As good as any place though the issue is not specifically related to Icaros Desktop.

I have read through a some of the documentation and forum posts, but I haven't found what I am looking for yet.

Then let's try and fix that 

When I boot either from thumb drive or DVD image on any of my systems, I get the GRUB menu, and when I select the default boot config, I get the screen with the "eyes" and a message that says "Waiting for boot media".

I am already suspicious because of the chose words 

How did you prepare the thumb-drive and DVD Image ? Note that details matter here.

I assume that there is a limited amount of compatible PC hardware that is supported, and my stuff is all new enough that everything has SATA and there is not a single system in my collection that has ATAPI/IDE interfaces. I'm guessing this is the problem.

Most probably, yes. That said, disabling sata (if possible) in your bios can be a (second) step. First step would be to see if your bios support USB booting from non efi/secure devices (sometimes also referred to as legacy boot). These days some bios' even allow you to set the over-current settings for USB.

But seeing that you are able to get into grub is already promising though doesn't tell anything about what hardware in your machine is supported and what not. Did the grub/cat-eyes appear for both thumb-drive and DVD image ?

Can anyone point me to a definitive source for blocking hardware configs or Bios settings? Also, a single source for allowed parameters to pass from GRUB would be helpful, if this exists?

Unfortunately there isn't a definitive source as there are many different BIOS' makers out there, not to mention different versions of them and sometimes differ per model of the (same) hardware.

You can however have a look at my a-turd directory which f.e. links to the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL for short).

Also there isn't a single source for all available grub options (unless you count the AROS source-code as such).