Please...help me...for the love of God.

I've been trying for days to install Debian over that cursed distro Linspire. Linspire is filth and trash and has been a bane on my existence for the better part of a week.

They basically force you to sign up for their damn service CNR to download the programs that I could get for free elsewhere if they hadn't blocked 'apt-get' with their bullshit dependencies.

I need to get Debian. Now. Preferably. I went to their website and downloaded and burned the i386 ISO to a CD to install Debian to my hard drive. But...when I restart my computer and put in the disc nothing happens...it just boots to Linspire as if nothing is even in the CD drive. I tried hitting F2 at the first boot screen to bring up the boot menu. I told it to boot from ATALA CD DRIVE...the screen went black...the disc began spinning...then stopped...and it booted to Linspire as if nothing happened. I'm running an HP Pavilion desktop. I may have the wrong ISO. I don't know what to do. I just want Debian so bad. So bad.

To recapitulate my question:

What is the simplest and most effective way of installing Debian over Linspire on a HP Pavilion desktop (6645C)?

May your answers be swift and many.

did you burn the image as a BOOTABLE cd? that might be the most likely problem.
i think debian is more than 1 cd long to install, also, so youll need the others, unless im wrong.

i was going to recommend, but you said you did, about setting the cd/dvd drive where the cd is as your FIRST boot device. try double checking this.
one of these 2 solutions would be the correct one... or maybe try burning the cd again, but i doubt thats it.. possible though.

be sure, of course, to delete the partition that L$ is on after you get the cd to boot.

The problem is more than likely either a bad cd burn or it didn't get burnt as a cd image.

You only need the first cd.

You might want to take a look at www.debianpure.com
it is a single disk Debian install, with it you can pick whether you install KDE or Gnome or both.

Hi,
Go for Debian proper. Once you have burnt a new cd you could check this page :

http://www.us.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual

you don't need to read it all, just relevant parts. Also check the post-install thread
in the debian forum here. Very clear and informative. In fact I would begin by that if
I were you.

regards