[Bio-Linux] odd and confounding behavior with BioLinux distros 5 and 6

[John Bradsher]

I have recently turned on to BioLinux 6, and I run it daily on one machine
with an Intel Core i5 processor. I have been interested to install BL6 on an
older Pentium 4 machine. First, understand that I've been successful
installing Ubuntu Linux 10.10 on this older machine, so I'm fairly confident
that the processor is able to do the trick. The trouble comes when I insert
the disk for BL6, I repeatedly get the error "x86 is expected, but found
only i686 processor. Find a kernel appropriate for your processor." OK, so I
found alternative means to boot with BL6, only to be foiled again: the
machine is old enough that I have no option to boot from a USB key, though
options for onboard NIC and cardbus NIC are present (I don't understand what
boot options these represent). So I can't use the USB boot option (or at
least my understanding of this jargon is poor enough that I'd profit from a
bit of explanation if booting from the USB key is possible somehow).
So, I considered this conundrum a bit, and concluded that I'd prefer to put
an archival copy of BioLinux 5 on the machine, then choose from the options
from the GRUB menu. Here is where it gets really interesting. So I download
and burn the DVD-ROM, then insert and attempt to boot. I went into the BIOS
and specified the boot order (verified numerous times), only to realize that
the machine now refuses to boot from the DVD-ROM!! I don't get it. It boots
straight from the hard disk copy of ubuntu 10.10.
I will add that during the time I've been looking at BL6, I have manually
downloaded a few of the packages for BL6 from the nebc site. Among these are
the welcome page with Craig Venter's Institute advertised proudly. For the
booting process, I don't really know what's keeping the DVD-ROM from working
properly. Could it be one or more of the packages that identify the boot
process as a (BL6) updated version of what's in the boot (DVD-ROM) drive? If
so, is there any way to remove the offending packages, and get the archived
(BL5) version of the software on the GRUB menu?
Thanks,
John Bradsher

-- 
John Bradsher
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