I have downloaded the three ISO's for Mandrake Linux and burned them to CD. I have correctly burned them as ISO's, but when I boot from the first CD and begin to install, it says there is no kernel. Does this just mean that the copy I burned is poor? If that's the case, could I expect another copy to work better? A burned them at the slowest speed possible. If not, is there any way to install from the files on my Windows partition?

I haven't used nor installed Mandrake, so my knowledge might not be completely perfect...but if Mandrake's installation is even a bit the same type like other linuxes', then I have some info.

At least some distros provide a way to check the cds before installation. I guess it's somekind of md5sum or similar method, but it checks that the cds are burned correctly. try that out if it exists... (but as I said, I don't know if Mandrake has this). and yes, (again) at least on some distros it is possible to manually define the place where the installation media is - I'm not saying the setup could read your windows drive, but you could try that out.

also, if the place you downloaded your cds from has some checking method to see if the cds are burnt correctly (like md5sum or other fingerprint), see that against your discs...then you at least know if they're burned correctly.

You might try booting from the second CD. I've read somewhere that the first CD sometimes has problems booting.

The CD boots just fine. When I try to install, it tells me that there is no kernel.

check out the cd's directories and compare them to the file listings you probably can find from the net (what the cds should have inside)...see if you simply lack the kernel or if it's damaged somehow...

Did you do an MD5 check on the downloaded ISO before you burned the CD ?

I've had problems burning CD's at high speeds, I now only use 8x.