Hello, all! I'm embarking on a grand adventure here! I have several question for you.

First off, please take it easy on me. I'm quite dumb at this. I inherited a PII laptop and I'm tired of using WinBlows on it. I decided to try Linux again. I had tried it a year or two ago, but couldn't get past the learning curve. I decided to try again, though.

1. I have downloaded Redhat 9 from their website. I extracted the ISO images and burned them to a CD. I tried booting with the CDs and it didn't work. I tried making bootable floppies and it didn't work. Apparently it wasn't recognizing the Linux disk I had created. I found a notation at Redhat's website .../docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/install-guide/s1-steps-install-cdrom.html#S2-STEPS-MAKE-CD that might give some insight. "isolinux is now used for booting the Red Hat Linux installation CD. To create your own CD-ROM to boot the installation program, use the following instructions:..." From that, I think I need to create file.iso, but how can I do that in DOS or Windows? Does the fact that I'm using a Windows machine to burn the CD-ROMs make a difference?

2. The second question is aimed toward my newbieness. Besides this forum and others like it, what resources (books, websites, etc) would you guys recommend to get the full use out of Linux?

Thanks all!

1: On the laptop, make sure that the bios boot order is CD first, then the harddrive.

2:redhat.com is pretty good. I learned to use RH9 from it. Also, you can look at linux.com for some articles.

You said that you extracted the ISO's before you burned them? No extraction is needed in order to burn them to a CD. Just do NOT burn them as a data cd. If you are using Nero make the cd from an image file and select that ISO and Nero will do the rest. If you are using some other software like NTI, it is more or less the same way... But you do not need to extract anything from the ISO.

If, however, you did not extact the ISO and you still can not boot, go into your system BIOS (usually either the Delete key or one of the F1 - F12 keys.) and make sure that CD-ROM boot is before Hard Disk boot.

-AquamaN

Thanks, js530, I had already checked that.
Excellent, AquamaN! That did the trick!