cannot boot to cd?

gtjr92 · 04-17-2006, 11:14 AM

noobie here
Just downloaded DSL burned the ISO to my cd.
i could not get the cd to boot on my old laptop though.
I set the laptop to boot from cd but it won't.
when i try to boot the pc comes up i see the light flash on the cd rom like it is checking the cd drive then it stops i don't hear the cd spinning or anything. The screen just has the post operation listed and then just a cursor blinking.
The cd rom on the laptop works the laptop still has win 98 on it so i booted into that just fine and checked to make sure the cd drive could read my boot cd.
I tried booting the cd on a different pc and it worked fine.

Any ideas? Maybe I could load a file or two to a floppy and boot from that then somehow access the cd drive?
or what if i were just to totally copy the cd to the drive?
that is probably not the best solution.

thanks

pljvaldez · 04-17-2006, 11:33 AM

Did you remember to "burn from image" when you created the CD?

In windows, open the CD with Exploder. If you see a single ".iso" file, you burned it incorrectly. If you see a bunch of files and directories, then you did it right and you might just have a bad download or burn. Did you remember to check the md5sum?

gtjr92 · 04-17-2006, 11:44 AM

yes i burned as iso image, as i stated i booted the cd to another computer and it booted dsl fine. so it's not the cd.
probably not relevant but not sure what you mean when you said check md5sum.

I just tested booted another bootable cd to this drive with no issues. for some reason ti does not want to boot from the linux cd. I left it in there for 10 minutes and it did not act like it was doing anything
Thanks

pljvaldez · 04-17-2006, 11:52 AM

Well, if it booted fine in another machine, the md5sum isn't the problem (sorry, missed the part about trying it in another machine). md5sum is just a string of numbers and letters that you use to see if a file was downloaded completely. You can look it up in wikipedia for more details about it if you're interested.

Did you try booting a different CD? Like a Windows CD or another linux install CD. You don't have to go through the install, but see if it will boot at all from CD. Also, did you remember to save your settings when you exited the bios? Have you checked the laptop's website to see if there is a bios upgrade?

gtjr92 · 04-17-2006, 12:14 PM

"I just tested booted another bootable cd to this drive with no issues"
ok so i mistyped i can see if you didn't get what i meant. yes i booted a windows cd fine

pljvaldez · 04-17-2006, 12:33 PM

Which version did you download? isolinux or syslinux? From the dsl wiki:

Quote:

The 'syslinux' version emulates a single floppy at boot time. Therefore there are fewer drivers in the syslinux version since they must all fit within a single floppy-sized file. The reason Knoppix and the other derivatives went with 'isolinux' (dsl-1.4.iso), is that there is no single floppy size limitation. The isolinux version has many more drivers to support booting from newer computers.

So why do we have both? On some older computers the BIOS requires that emulated floppy image be there or it won't boot. That is why we say if you cannot boot from the isolinux version, try the syslinux version. Or if you have an older computer it is probably best to start with the syslinux version.

gtjr92 · 04-17-2006, 12:37 PM

i'll check it out i did do the isolinux i'll try syslinux

gtjr92 · 04-17-2006, 12:54 PM

that did it sweet thanks!