First, I've tried to find my own answers as much as possible before
posting here.

I've done a lot of programming on linux at college but this is my first try
at installing linux and running my own linux box.

I've downloaded the CD1 and CD2 iso's for slackware 9.1 and burned them in windows. My problem is that I can't get my Dell
Dimension 4100 to boot from the CD Rom. I've updated my bios and told it
that the only available device to boot from is the CD-Rom, yet it just refuses If I put a RH CD in, it boots just fine. I know that you can boot
from floppies but I was hoping there was an answer to why I can't boot
directly from the CD-Rom.

did you burn the slack CDs as image files? if it boots the red hat cd, then it's not your hardware setup.

If your Bios is set to boot first from cdrom, and the RH cd will start the install process, my guess is there is something wrong with your slack cd's. Did you check the downloaded isos with MD5sum?

i burned them directly from the iso file...if that's what you're asking me.

and when you view the contents of the slack cd's you see several different folders and files just like on the rh cd?

if you burned them as data and not as ISO/images, they won't boot.

>check out the ISO burning instructions

If it is a size problem of the file you downloaded, (which does happen) here's a good link on checking the file size of an iso before burning..

http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/verifyiso.html

Well, I've done everything that you've instructed me to. I've checked the size with a md5 utitlity. I've followed the instructions on the ISO Burning Instructions page (which I happened to be doing incorrectly before). So, I'm thinking that maybe the iso is just not an image that i can boot from. I downloaded it from
ftp://ftp.biochem.uthscsa.edu/pub/linux/slackware/
and chose the 9.1 CDs 1 and 2.

Thanks for the help all.

those should work. or try the ones at linuxiso:
http://www.linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=17

you burned them correctly as images the second time and it still didn't boot?

Yup. Wasted two disks just to make sure.

Did you burn the RH disks in the same way, and from the same utility as the slack cds?

Yes. Also, when burning the RH discs I let windows handle the details and used the default values from my burning program. I'm using Adaptec Easy CD Creator. The RH disk works fine.

You obviously know how to burn isos since you did the RH disks, so If the file size of the slack isos checks correct, and you're getting no errors while burning, I'm afraid I haven't a clue. I'll think on it though...

edit: Did you burn the RH cd's from the same cd-r manufacturer as the ones you're trying to burn Slack with?

No, I didn't. The RH disks are about two months old. I'll try to burn some with these new CD-Rs and see how I make out.

OK. I burned RH on to the new media and worked like a charm. I've exhausted google, I think. I guess I'm stuck booting from floppies? Then I mount the CD and install from there? Is that right?