downloaded and burned ISO, but can't install
 

I already have a dual boot system, Windows XP and RedHat 9.0. I want to install Mandrake 10.0. I downloaded and burned to CD the ISO files. When trying to install from the ISO CDs I hit F1 during the boot-up process, but when I select to boot from the CD drive nothing happens and then I am directed to my normal boot screen where I am asked to boot to Red Hat or Windows. The CD in the drive is not recognized. I booted to Red Hat and tried looking at the file on the CD but when I open it, it's basically just garbled characters.
I have no idea where to start troubleshooting. Shouldn't I be able to install from the ISO disc?

try booting from the second cd. a lot of problems with man 10. then if that does'nt work make a boot disk < google to find one and boot from disk to cd.
wolfe

Verifying ISO images
How to Burn ISOs

Have a read through the links to see if they shed any light on your issue.

Xavier has always nice links to solve problems...
Hey, have you considered building a section like "Xavier's bookmarks" in LQ?

Did you burn the ISO`s straight over or did you burn them as an image? They must be burned as an image to the cd and you did tell your bios to boot from the cd right?

Check the first link in my signature. :)

well........ I'm assuming that I burned the ISO as images..... I used Nero and I did it the same way that I downloaded and burned the ISOs for RedHat. I'm just wondering if I forgot that I need to do something more than just insert the disc into my CD drive and instruct BIOS to boot from the CD drive. Are there extractions that I'm supposed to do first?

Also........ perhaps I'm wasting my time with Mandrake 10.0 I purchased the box set of Mandrake 9.0 and installed that with no problem.....however, I could never get 9.0 to recognize and configure my ADSL modem. That's why I went back to Windows for so long and eventually started using RedHat. If Mandrake 10 is much more improved than 9.0 I'd rather use Mandrake than RedHat. Perhaps there are some fix-it files I could correct my ADSL problem with Mandrake 9.0 ???

I'm such a Newbie........... know enough to mess around with things, but not enough to do any serious configuration file manipulation.

Its easy to check the iso file thing:

In win, browse the cd. If you burned iso images the right way, you should see a bunch of dirs and files. If you didn't, you'll see only one file, which is the iso file. "blablabla.iso"
There's no big deal on that, besides wasting the media. Just burn again.
I think you should try the 10 mdk.

In Windows, if you re-insert the CD after you burn the image. You should see a screen about mandrake. If you do not, then you did not do it right. You should use 700 MB CDs and make sure they are named brand CDs. Burn at a very, very slow speed because it creates a lot of pit distortion if you burn to fast. The best is 1X. If you have downloaded with BitTorrent you should not have a problem. If you download it from an HTTP or FTP server, run a md5sum program against the images.

oddly enough when I decided to re-burn the CD images ( to make sure I did them correctly, as when I did a file search as suggested I did not see any folders (directories)) I made sure that I selected burn as image.........went through the set-up process......used Memorex Black CD-R 700 mb disc.......and just before the burn process I got a warning pop-up window that said the medium was not large enough to burn the image.
Very weird.....as I downloaded the files (3) which said they were something like 635mb in size.

Perhaps it's the Gods warning me not to go there.

I wish I had more time to devote to studying Linux so that I could better understand all these tarballs and RPMs and trying to install applications and discovering that I need other files before the application can work, and on and on. I hate being trapped by Windows' inablility to customize......but there is something to be said for thier ease of use.

But then.......if it were easy, everybody would do it.

Without knowing your location, this may or may not be helpful - linux Format magazine normally carries at least one full download version of a distro per monthly issue (this month's is Fedora Core 2). If you can't get hold of a mag, you could also try one of the online stores which sell very cheap cds of the various distros.

There is always an obstacle when something you may like. Sometimes the harder obstacle is the more you will like it. I would just ignore the warning and see what happens.