[vox-tech] problems installing Debian on a Dell laptop

[ME]

Were the CDs burned on another computer?
Are the CDs CD-RW?
Is the drive on the Dell that won't boot the *just* at CD-ROM drive?

There are CD-ROM drives cant read disks that are CD-RW.

If this is the case, try burning the CDs onto CD-R and see if they work.

Some people have reported attempts to read CD-RW in CD-ROM drivce have
damaged the CD-RW or data on the CD-RW, but I have never seen this first
hand. (Meant to be a prodding suggestion, not a statement of disbelief.)

-ME



Charles McLaughlin said:

> Hello,
>
> I've been using Red Hat for a while now and would like to try Debian.  I
> recently downloaded the Debian "Woody" ISO disk images and burned them,
> but I had many problems today while trying to install Debian on my Dell
> Inspiron 2100 laptop.  It seems that the laptop is having trouble reading
> the disks.  I'll provide some specific error messages below.  After trying
> to boot from CDs 1 through 5 several times, I tried booting from the CDs
> on a different Dell desktop with no problems.
>
> I thought that I may have damaged the CDs by labeling them with a
> "sharpie"
> pen, but I concluded that there is nothing wrong with the CDs since my
> desktop machine can read them and boot into the installer with no
> problems.  I also thought something might be wrong with my laptop's
> CD-ROM drive, but I just reinstalled Red Hat 8 with no problems.
>
> I had varying levels of success booting from CDs 1-5.  For CD 1, sometimes
> the laptop won't boot off the CD at all and justs skips the CD and boots
> from the hard drive.  For the other CDs, most of the time I get errors
> such as the ones below.
>
> There is one thing that I should mention because I find it very strange.
> The first time I attempted to install Debian, I booted from CD 1 with no
> problems and even got so far as to recognize my existing partition and
> swap space.  I then continued to install the kernel, but I got a little
> confused at the point where I should choose my hardware (such as NICs, USB
> stuff, etc) and I restarted the computer.  That is when all of my problems
> began.  After that point, I was able to boot into the installer a few
> times from CDs 2-5, but when the installer prompted me to insert CD 1, it
> failed to mount.  Now, it seems that I can't even boot into the installer
> from any of the CD.
>
> Here are the specs I was able to gather on my laptop:
>
> Intel mobile P3 700Mhz
> Intel Mobile 440BX PCI chipset
> Texas Instruments TI1410 CardBus controller
> ATI Mobility 4MB AGP Video
> Crystal CS4281 Audio
> 3c905 3Com Ethernet
> Lucent WinModem  :-(
> 256 Mb Ram
> 20 Gb Hard Drive
> External IDE 24x CD-Rom
> External Floppy
> Linksys WPC11 Ver.3 Wireless NIC
>
>
> I would appreciate any advice on how to get Debian installed.  Thanks in
> advance!
> -Charles
>
>
> Here are some errors I received:
>
> ---------------------
> loading install.....
> loading idepci.bin........isolinux:
> Disk error 0D, Drive 9F
> Boot failed: press any key to retry
> ---------------------
>
> loading root.bin
> loading linux.bin..... ready
> uncompressing linux.....
> invalid compressed format (err=1)
> -- system halted
>
> ---------------------
>
> loading root.bin
> loading linux.bin..... ready
> uncompressing linux.....
> invalid compressed format (err=2)
> -- system halted
>
> ---------------------
>
> couldn't find ramdisk image:
> idepci.bin
> couldn't find kernal image:
> /install
>
> --------------------
>
>
>
>
>
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