On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 03:09:09AM -0500, Steve Litt wrote:

> I think you need to slow down, catch your breath, and take things one
> step at a time.
>
> First, take the time to read "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" at
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html .

Promise tro do so. A problem is that I'm pressed by high intensity work,
and it lends itself to careless ness elsewhere.

> I'd recommend you take 5 minutes to read each of these:
>
> * https://www.troubleshooters.com/utp/ninja_presentation.pdf
>
> * https://troubleshooters.com/telsfail.htm

Will do

>
> You mention a "daedalus ISO on a key". Devuaners, can you just place a
> DVD ISO as a file on a thumb drive? Do you have to use some sort of
> program to make the thumb drive bootable?

I put EasyOS netinstall on a key and had no trouble booting it.

> Is there a way Haines can
> make a non-UEFI bootable (old school BIOS, in other words) Daedalus
> thumb drive?

I have Daedalus Live on commercial usb key and have no trouble booting it.

> With Haines using maximum size 2TB boot drive (or 1TB, he
> stated both sizes),

At one point I was trying to install to a 2 TB SSD and in another to
a 1 TB SSD. I installed to a single partition because my understanding
is the wipes out all partitions and starts from scratch

> UEFI isn't necessary,

This cmes as a complete sudrprise. Are you saying that an install on a
drive initiall without partitions, UEFT not involved?

> and it sounds like his
> motherboard is probably old enough to have "Legacy BIOS Mode". Taking
> UEFI out of the picture would simplify things if it can be done.

But didnnt you say that instralling to entire disk takes UEFI out of the
picture?

> Just a question Haines: You didn't enable secure boot, did you?

Nope

> One more thing I can tell you Haines. Nvidia video cards sometimes
> cause base system problems like hard freezes and spontaneous reboots.
> Just such an Nvidia problem stopped me cold for over 48 hours before I
> ordered a Radeon video card to replace it, and the problem simply
> vanished. I tried all combinations and permutations of the Free
> Software Nvidia driver and the proprietary Nvidia driver, asking all
> sorts of questions on all sorts of lists, and never got the Nvidia card
> to work on that computer, which is the same computer I've used for 5
> years and the same computer I'm using right now.

That I have suspected all along the line. I should try an inexpensive
video care witn the Intel driver. I have a spare motherboard, but replacing
the old board would be a challenge.

     Haines Brown