Itronix IX250 laptop running openSUSE 11.3
Trying to update OS via DVD and have multiply confirmed had correct boot sequence in place [cdrom;A;C], the software refuses to use the install cd and stays on booting the harddrive. Have tried different install OSes [openSUSE 11.4 & 12.3; Vector Linux; Uberstudent] to make sure the problem isn't with them, but they are fine.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated. [have tried altering boot option instructions like ide=nodma, but nothing works].

Are you sure the DVD is bootable? Did you burn it as an image? When you mount the DVD on a working system (Linux or Windows; doesn't matter), do you see a single ISO image file, or a complete filesystem? If the former, you will need to re-burn the image as an ISO image, not simply copying the image file to the DVD. Then it should be bootable. Are you sure your drive is a DVD drive?

--- rod.

The OSes I used were not burned, but purchased intact, and at least one had been used before with perfect results; also some are DVD [the openSUSEes] and some CDs [vector linux and uberstudent], so at least one should work -- and am sure it is a dvd drive as used it before to mount the OS it presently has. It is truly strange; can see that there is an attempt to use the install disc as its indicator lights for some time as the hard-disc is also being used, but eventually it is repressed by something in the software and never is allowed to take priority.
Appreciative of your input, Bil VERCH

Download and try the network cd. If other dvd's work we have to assume some issue with this disc. Is it a 64 bit disc on a 32 bit computer?

You ought to consider installing 12.3 if you want to also, I don't get the update of 11.3.

Even most purchased disc's are not really pressed disc's anymore. They are burned disc's that can easily be off a bit or your drive off a bit or some error in burning.

I guess I wasn't clear enough about the other dvd and cd discs that were tried: they ALL got same "no acknowledgement" treatment in trying to use them for installing their respective OSes -- and they had been used successfully on other laptop, thus my statement they were all OK; that is, the problem isn't with the install/update disc; the software just won't accept them for some really strange reason. Can anyone think of some work-around?

We are trying to establish whether the disks are readable at all on your problem hardware. Is some existing, installed software on that host able to read the disks in the drive you're attempting to boot from? if yes, then I can only conclude that the BIOS of the host in question is incapable of booting from an optical disk. It's possible that even though the drive was used to install an existing OS, it has gone faulty in the interim. If there is no installed OS as a test system, and if the host can boot from a USB thumb drive, you may be able to load a pendrive linux to test the optical drive.

--- rod.

You may need to try updating your cmos.....you may also need to check the health of your cd/dvd drive to make sure that it is still working.

Cheers,
Nbiser

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"they ALL got same "no acknowledgement" treatment in trying to use them for installing their respective OSes --"

Ohhhh!

So disc's prove to read on different system but not on suspect system.

We are then lead to believe some issue with your computer. Any part from optical drive to motherboard could be at fault has changed since you last used it.

A workaround is to diag the drive to motherboard issue.

A second solution may be to make a live usb and use it.

Another more difficult solution would be to pxe boot it or gpxe/ipxe boot to some network location.

Not sure but the exact phrase error might be a wireless error. Never heard of that as a boot error.

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After chewing on this for a bit, I think the 'No acknowledgement' message may be a low-level error message from the BIOS about errors communicating with the optical drive. This would be consistent with the rest of the symptoms. If possible, try another optical drive in the same system. Another thought is that the drive may be failing in a way that simply makes it unable to read disks created on another drive. If you have an otherwise working system, and if the drive is also a burner, try downloading and burning a bootable ISO on the existing drive. It is possible that the disk will then be readable. This is a long shot, however, as I believe the acknowledgement error refers to the IDE/SATA communications part of the drive. Perhaps check the drive cabling to make sure no cables have wiggled loose.

--- rod.

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Tried using disc clearer on optical drive, but didn't improve; got another similar dvd module and replaced the one getting no results and it finally worked and was able to update old OS. Still trying to figure why the old -- but rarely used -- one suddenly stopped working just for booting sequence [other functions seem fine -- and didn't seem to be dirt on optics]. Thanks for all the suggestions; replacing dvd module far better than losing whole laptop due to corrupted bios.

The boot record is usually the first record on the disc, and in the case of optical media, it just happens to be the most difficult to read because it is nearest to the hub, where the track has the shortest radius in its spiral to the outer edge. Could also be that the laser is becoming increasingly weak, and is a marginal state. Due to normal variation and fluctuation of the electronics, it happens to make a successful read, but with increasingly less regularity. IOW, you may simply have gotten lucky this one time.

--- rod.

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