I have a DVD with a Linux distribution on it that I'd like to install on a system that has a CD/DVD drive but doesn't seem to be able to boot from DVDs - therefore installing in the normal manner won't work.

I could get the CD installation media and try again, but I'd like to see what my other options are (to give me an interesting challenge). I have a Linux live CD (Knoppix), which lets me boot into in-memory Linux. I also have Windows currently installed (which I'd like to overwrite with Linux).

Once I've booted into the Linux live CD, how can I install from my other Linux DVD? Once I'm in the Linux live CD, I imagine I can remove its CD and put in the DVD, but I'm not sure how to proceed from there.

If anyone could lead me through this unique process, I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks.

If you can boot from a floppy, you can use the smart boot manager to transfer the boot process to the DVD drive. BUT - you seem to be saying that it can boot from CD media? What makes you think that it is incapable of booting from a DVD?

Actually, I'm not sure that it's unable to boot from DVD - when I start with a CD, it boots to the CD; but when I start with a DVD, it goes to the Windows operating system.

In the startup options, boot from CD is the first boot option (it doesn't explicitly say boot from DVD, but I assume so because CD/DVD drives are combined).

It's an older computer (Compaq EVO desktop), so I'm not sure whether it's able to boot from DVD, so I guessed it wasn't - though I hope otherwise.

What can I try?

It would do that if there was something wrong with the DVD. Have you tried it in another system? (This happened to me recently and it drove me nuts until I realized that there was peanut butter on the DVD surface :/ )

The DVD does work in another system - I'm less worried about why it doesn't work in this system that about how to fix it. How can I use an existing Linux installation to get the contents of the DVD into some place in memory/disk where I can boot from it, if this is even possible?

Here's where I'm at so far - I've copied the ISO of the Linux DVD to my Windows filesystem (which my other Linux live CD is able to see).

How can I configure my Linux live CD or boot process to boot from the ISO stored on my filesystem? Is this something I even need the Linux live CD in order to do, or can I tell Windows to do this?

http://marc.herbert.free.fr/linux/win2linstall.html
... there are many methods, one of them installs from a windows system.

Interesting document, thanks.

If the only two files Linux needs to start up are a kernel image and an initial ramdisk, why is the Red Hat installation DVD, for example, roughly 3 GB? The two aforementioned files are only a few megabytes - what takes up all that other space?

if you can boot a knoppix cd, then you should be able to boot any distro's "cd"...not necassarily that they will all install correctly (as some boards and distro's arnt cross compatilible) but knoppix cd live is no different to booting an install cd...

So in essence, it may pay for you to use the install cd's instead of the install dvd's..