PC Won't Let Me CD-Boot

So, I've got Linux Ubuntu 7.04 on a CD, and I've confirmed that it's correctly burned on there. My problem is that I just can't boot from CD. Yes, I have two drives, and yes, I've tried both of the drives. Nada. I've also tried pressing Tab and C (separately, of course) during boot. Still nothing. I've also gone into the BIOS and made sure that I have the ability to boot from CD. Still, nothing. Is there anything anyone can recommend for me? It's a system from 2001 or '02. 2.5GHz P4, 512mb RAM, 40GB free space on the hard drive. I'ma try that floppy disk thing. Until then, any suggestions?

Oh, and I haven't partitioned the hard drive yet. Is that something necessary? Someone told me that Ubuntu will let me do that during the installation process.

 

Have you selected the option at the LiveCD menu "test CD for defects"? If not, I would strongly recommend that you do so.

 

Alright, finally, using RawRite I was able to boot off of a floppy. Scared the hell out of me though, to go into the BIOS and mess around with things. Eugh.


Thanks anyways.

 

If he can't boot from the CD then he can't make that selection.

 

That's weird though, are you sure the ISO file wasn't corrupted, and that you burned the CD properly (with the contents of the ISO, not burning the ISO file)? If you burned the disc in a different machine, are you sure the drives are functional?

 

I installed my ubuntu from the live DVD version. But I can't imagine any difference between the liveCD and the liveDVD, except for different amounts of stuff available. If you can get into the BIOS, have a look at the boot devices ordering. Sometimes the defaults may be set to look for something in the hard drive first, or perhaps it doesn't even look for anything in the CD drives.

To note: I am assuming that your ISO image was burned to a CD correctly and that it didn't get corrupted somehow.

 

Also, ability to boot from cd does not mean a priority to boot rom cd. Did you remember to set the cd boot as a higher priority than booting from HD?

 

No, I did not. But my computer is semi-old, so it doesn't auto-boot. I need to go to Boot Menu (F12) to select. When I selected IDE-CD, it gave me that error message. When I selected Diskette Drive, it ran fine.

 

Have you tried using that CD to boot on another machine? And/or used a different bootable CD (Windows install media perhaps?) to boot on this machine?

 

No, I've only tried this single boot CD. I've also used it on my mom's 2003 Inspiron notebook from her work. Same thing. I had to press F12 during computer startup to choose how I wanted to boot. CD, Floppy, or Hard Disk. Chose CD, and it worked fine without a floppy. I'm gonna check this out when my new notebook comes in

 

I'm sorry, which error did you get? I had assumed it was just skipping to the hard drive to boot.

 

I've run into an old computer before that wouldn't read burned CDs at all (may have to do with the burner, media, or burn settings, didn't have enough time to test it out), however pressed CDs worked with no problems. If that turns out to be the case with this machine, you can always request free Ubuntu CDs from Canonical, https://shipit.ubuntu.com
It's not the quickest solution, but it should solve your problem (I usually try to keep a couple of those handy to hand out to people).

 

It was something like "error booting from CD. Press F1 to retry, or F2 to boot from disk." I have the exact message copied down in one of my earlier posts. And no, the burned CD works out fine. I ordered some CDs about February, were confirmed that same week, and still haven't gotten them. Oh well.

And if you guys haven't noticed, I got Ubuntu to work. A couple of days ago. Thanks though

 

That doesn't make me want to solve the problem any less
But I suppose your new notebook will do that.

 

BIOS should allow you to alter the device boot order (ESC, F2, to get to BIOS?? differs on different notebooks), or you can select a temporary boot order by pressing a function key (F12, maybe?)

IF that doesn't work, and you know your optical drive isn't defunct, then the CD is corrupted. Re-download the ISO, and re-burn it.