On Thu, 3 Jun 2004, Robert G. Scofield wrote:
> I can't seem to burn a bootable Linux iso image.
>
> I downloaded two of the three Mandrake 10.0 files. I assume that CD 1
> is the bootable file. But every time I burn a CD, the CD fails to
> boot. Is there a secret as to how to get my downloaded file to boot?
No secrets. However, you may be missing something obvious... failing to
tell us what steps you took leaves us guessing.
First thing that comes to mind is the old "burning the image as a
file" problem... this is uncommon in Linux, but if you are using some kind
of fancy GUI burn program then you may be victim of this. I usually use:
$ cdrecord -dao speed=16 dev=0,0,0 -data myisofile.iso
where the "0,0,0" comes from "cdrecord -scanbus", and the speed depends on
your drive. In a gui program, choose the "burn an image" option rather
than the "make a cd" option.
Another possibility is that you are downloading in a manner that corrupts
the file. For example, if you download in Windows with Netscape from an
improperly configured http server, the server may deliver the binary file
but tell Netscape that it is a text file, and Netscape will perform CRLF
conversions and corrupt the file. Use an md5sum or checksum program to
compare the actual checksum with the reported checksum to determine if you
have obtained an uncorrupted version of the file.
Is your cd drive set as a boot device ahead of your hard disk in the BIOS
setup?
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