I was wondering if it makes a difference when I burn the iso image to the disc, but the name of the iso file gets shortened from valhalla-i386-disc1.iso to valhal~1.iso . Will this keep me from installing properly?

I realize this is because of the DOS extension issue when using Easy CD creator. (I am using an HP 8110i burner and win98 to create the CDs).

Is there a way to read what is in the iso image with windows 98? Can I make the boot disk for the A: within a windows environment since I can't read the iso image?

Last question, I noticed that when downloading files from the mirror images, you are sometimes given the choice of downloading the os and the iso. What is the difference between the two? Is one just the plain operating system?

Thank you. I would appreciate any help with these questions. Have a great day.
Mike

the filename is irrelevant

not aware of any iso browser, there probably is one.... you should really be able to just open it in your burner program i suppose. of course.. linux does it natively...

i wouldn't touch Easy CD Creator, nasty piece of crap. Nero would always win hands down. also check linuxiso.org for any hints for burnign iso's for each program.

i presume by "downloading the os" you mean an ftp download? yeah that's all the installation packages open to the air and stuff, if you wanted to install it from a harddrive or something.

Some burining programs use "their own image format", but if you change the extension from .iso to the one used by this program and it works... In Linux extensions do not matter and there's no such problem. Filename does not matter. Only the extension sometimes do.

OK, if you're asking what I think you're asking, then you're going the wrong way about installing the OS.

When you download a .ISO file, you need to burn it to a CD (normally). Now, you don't want to open Easy CD and simply add the ISO file to it, that'd be a CD with an ISO file. You want to burn a CD from an ISO file, which is a different kettle of fish entirely. With Easy CD installed, you should be able to simply double-click on the ISO file and it'll sort out all the details for you. Alternatively, open up a new Easy CD session and go the File menu. Select 'Burn CD from Image'. As per default, Easy CD will select some strange Easy CD only format... just check the drop down box, ISO file formats are available. Then, once you select the relevent file, just let it do the things for you.

The tell-tale sign of whether you've burnt the CD correctly, or not, is when you open it up in Explorer. If you see ONE file with the extension .ISO, then you've done it wrong and you've wasted a disc. If you see a load of files, directories and stuff, then you've done it correctly. But, beware, you may still have problems. Before you burn any ISO file to a CD, you should check the checksums (also called MD5 sums) to make sure that the file you downloaded is identical to the one on the internet.

Now, as for viewing the contents of ISO files from within Windows... it is possible. There's a program called ISO Buster. It's quite good, but once you've got Linux installed, you'll be able to do it natively anyway.

Hope this helps.

Golf clap for Thymox, very well put

Thank you guys for the help! I am working on doing a dual boot system this weekend or next, so I will let you know how it goes.

As far as the checksum program, can you run that under windows or DOS somehow?

yes, also check out www.linuxiso.org for information on how to do it in Windows.

"also check linuxiso.org for any hints for burning iso's for each program."

www.md5summer.com or www.md5summer.org

Seems to be down right now though, otherwise I could tell you which one it is, org or com.

Nero