I have done the exact same thing as tHEOldfella said in his re: Mandrake.iso 9.0 post. I downloaded the same 3 iso's (from a French site - ftp.free.fr) and I also used md5summer to verify the downloads. All ok.

the ftp site in france also has a README with some burning instructions in it. It says with Nero to select Data Mode 1, Block Size is 2048, Image Header & Image Trailer are -0-. Well, in my Nero those settings are in the "foreign" section under File/Burn Image. All of those foreign settings are "greyed out", so I can't select them.
So do I just burn the ISO's as normal under Nero, and ignore the ftp site's burning instructions?

My computer is currently a dual-boot setup with win98se and Mandrake 8.1. Everything is working fine (LILO works good).

My 40Gb H-D was partitioned automatically during my initial install of mdk 8.1 a year ago. Mandrake decided to give win98se 23.5Gb and the remaining 16.5Gb was partitioned for linux.

Anyway, when I install my new 9.0 iso's, will they just install OVER my 8.1 partitions? I don't want 9.0 to repartition anything and I hope LILO doesn't get messed up - cuz its working fine now.

I've never done this before. If I'm happy with mdk 9.0 after all this, I'll just put 9.0 on the whole H-D and get rid of win98, which I totally hate.

thanks

You can have them overwrite whatever you want, or you can have it install ALONG with 8.1, your choice. If you want it to just stay how it is, and install 9.0 on there, then when you get to that part of the install, just click on the existing linux partitions, and make them their respective mount points. It's really pretty straight forward and easy to understand once you get to that point with Mandy's partition software.

LILO probably won't get messed up, as long as you do the install normal and don't try to do too many things out of the ordinary, but it will install a new LILO, it has a new background image, but still works the same.

Cool

thanks, MasterC. Good to know that mandrake will just go on top of what I already have if that's what I tell it to do. I don't want to lose my windoze 98 part yet, cuz I need to get some stuff off first - unburned mp3s, etc.

Anyway, I still haven't burned my 3 mandrake 9.0 iso's yet. The French ftp site where I got them from has a README that tells you what settings to use for a Nero burn (see Post # 1). However, the settings they say to select happen to be under File/Burn Image in a section called "Foreign" settings. I'm in USA.

Do I just go into Nero, and say File/Burn Image and then select the iso file and then let Nero burn it at its default settings? Nero's default settings for Burn Image are different from what the French ftp site has in its README instructions for Nero burning.

I bought the retail box for 8.1 last year. I've never downloaded & burned iso's before. I intend to buy the mandrake 9.0 PowerPack soon, but I want to play around with the iso's a little first on this computer (my older computer).

thanks

go to linuxiso.org and follow the link to burning instructions, has methods for most burning progs.

thanks, I went there and checked it out.

However, I just got back from the local Best Buy, and they finally had the Mandrake 9.0 PowerPacks on the shelf. So I bought one.

I deleted my download iso's.