can't boot from CD or flopy?

[headshot.com]

so after a long time trying to get the red hat 9 discs to burn properly(frst i got the wrong file, then i burned the .iso insted of unpacking, then i had to drop the record rate for my cd burner to 4x to stop it from canceling with errors, etc..)i finaly got the 3 red hat discs burned, but now when i try to restart so i can boot from the CD it just gives me a blinking dos-esk curser for a minet then puts up the "windows did not boot properly, would you like to use safe mode, bla bla bla" screan, which then boots up windows.

i've booted from a CD before, so i know i can do it, but figured what the heck, so i went and made a boot flopy with the rawrite progeram on the 1st disc, and that seems to have gone ok, but when i try and boot from the flopy it doesent even show the blinking curser, it just goes to the "windows did not boot properly" screan atomaticly
:confused:

the burning seems to have gone ok, i went and riped the files off the cd just to make sure they were not corupted, and every thing seems ok.

i got all three files from linuxiso.org, i case you want to know.

[mdwatts]

Did you check the iso's before burning

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

and run Redhat's mediacheck (I believe I read that somewhere here at JL) on the resulting cd's?

Redhat should have docs on their website to help with verifying the iso's/media.

Can you boot from a known working bootable cd?

[headshot.com]

yes, i've booted from a CD before:D

[headshot.com]

allright, well, the iso checked out:D

i went to the red hat doc's and as far as i can tell the red hat check only works when in the install progeram(i may have missed something) and since the install progeram doesent start up at all that does me no good:(

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by headshot.com

i went to the red hat doc's and as far as i can tell the red hat check only works when in the install progeram(i may have missed something) and since the install progeram doesent start up at all that does me no good:(

Oh yeah... forgot that I read that also. :(

Are there any differences between the iso images from linuxiso and Redhat's ftp servers?

Do you need to press enter at the initial boot screen when you are booting from cd?

Try the installation bootdisk images available from the Redhat ftp servers in the ?? install directory.

[headshot.com]

Originally posted by mdwatts
Are there any differences between the iso images from linuxiso and Redhat's ftp servers?

i don't know, they dident say there were any diferences on the site, and i used linuxiso becouse the severs seemed faster, which is a big deal when the file is 650m;)
perhaps some one could enlited me on wether there are any difereces or not:confused:


Do you need to press enter at the initial boot screen when you are booting from cd? i tryed to press enter from the screan with the curser, but it doesent seem to take and input from the key bord at all:(



Try the installation bootdisk images available from the Redhat ftp servers in the ?? install directory. i'm not sure i folow you but if your saying make a flopy boot disc, i tryed that with the iso images i have, and well, my rezults are related on my 1st post:(

and if you mean get the iso's from red hat, while i'm willing to do it if nessisary, i rather not, seeing as it took me the better part of 3 days to get the set i have now made;)

[mdwatts]

Compare the iso filesizes between the two (linuxiso and Redhat).

Just to verify... Bios boot order is set to cdrom first?

[headshot.com]

hm, here is the deal, on both sites the disc 1 file size is said to be 638, but there is soming off, what happed was the 1st time i burned the .iso onto the CD instead of the files(i have never worked with .iso before) since i deleted the .iso from but PC, i checked the CD to see what the file size is, and i don't know if this is from the burning or what, but that file is 653:confused:

now since i had deleted the file form my pc, i instead riped the data off the CD, then burned that data back onto the new CD(i said before i had some truble with making the CDs, now you know what;)) wether this some how corupted the files or not i don't know, but if it did i can't tell(the size of the new cd that i'm using says 644, just to add to the confustion

[mdwatts]

If nothing else works or other JL members can not come up with a solution, you may need to redownload the first iso image again (maybe from Redhat or one of their mirror sites).

[headshot.com]

well i've run some tests and it seems to be a issue with the disc, here is how i came to that concluetion



i have a older ver of red hat that i got out of the back of a linux for dummys book my parents gave me for xmas, i tryed to boot from that disc, and it worked fine, so to be sure i took both the dummys CD and the burned CD over to my old PC(it's about 5 years old now, runs win98) and it gave me the same results as the newer winXP comp i am installing linux on(the only diference is that the courser only blinks for a few moments before loading up windows on the older PC)

i couldent find my way into BIOS in my XP comp(i dident see a "press X to open BIOS" type thing any where, and i tryed F1 and F2 for good mesure)but i could on my old comp and it said that the first boot divice is the CD drive

now this leads me to beleve that it's an issue with the burned disc, and unless some one can help me out i think i will just d/l the files from red hat this time.:(

P.S. now when ever i start upwindows(ever when it doesent have any disc in it) it gives me that windows did not start properly diologe again, any idea on how too get rid of it?

[mdwatts]

Most generic motherboards use the 'Del' key to access the bios.

If you bootup into safe mode, reboot, does Windows not then start normally unless something is wrong with the device drivers.

[kevinalm]

I'm thinking that you may not have burned the disks properly. What do you mean by "unpacking" the iso's. The correct method is to "create disk from iso image".

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you?

From the way boot is failing, it's almost certain there is something wrong with the disks.

[headshot.com]

well, i've almost compleatly given up on using the discs i have burned right now, but i before i go and redo the hloe prosess i have a thought, does red hat have a auto-update type thing in it, where i could use the outdated red hat i have now that i know should work and install it, then have it update it's self to 9.0? is that a posibility?

[headshot.com]

hm, well, i think you may have just explaned my mistake, not knowing how to work with the files, i tryed to open the .iso as a zip type file with winrar:eek: give it over to my n00bness:D

i gess i will reburn them, but i'm still interested in the update idea, to save the time of reburning;)

[headshot.com]

just finished reburning the 1st disc, but there doesent seem to be any change:confused:


EDIT:i just tride a new boot flopy, thinking the 1st one was corupt, but no luck:(

[headshot.com]

how do you make a boot CD, there are instrucktions on the redhat site but they seem to be for linux?

[kevinalm]

If you mean how to make install disks from iso file, that depends on your burner software. For roxio, (assuming the iso files are good):

Launch the data cd / most compatible (easy cd creator).

File>record cd from cd image

In the browser select file type .iso

Browse to file.

The rest should be no problem. It is hard to find if you don't know it's there.

Don't know about other windows burner's. Roxio came with my cdrw and I've always used that.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by headshot.com
how do you make a boot CD, there are instrucktions on the redhat site but they seem to be for linux?

http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/howtoburn.html has instructions.

[headshot.com]

well, i went and used the older red hat discs(i am in fact posting from linux right now:D) but now i wondering, is there a way that linux could use the burned CDs to update the OS?


P.S.1st post from inside linux, :D

[mdwatts]

Upgrade from which older version of Redhat?

Are you planning to upgrade by individual package or run a full distro upgrade?

You could try running the RH9 installer from the installation cd from with Linux. Not sure how and if that will work though as I've never tried it before.

[headshot.com]

RH8 TO RH9

[kevinalm]

You should be able to boot off install disk 1, and follow the on screen instructions selecting "upgrade existing install" or words to that effect. It's fairly straight foreward, just be certain to fully read all the screen's as they come up. That is assuming you've gotten past the no boot problem.

[headshot.com]

if you havent read the other posts, thats i problum, i burned RH9 disc 1 wont boot!!

i was wondering if there is a way to have linux update from a CD, since the normal way of booting the install from a CD don't work:confused:

[kevinalm]

Yeah, I was afraid of that. You could try pulling individual rpm's off the disk and upgrading via rpm(or package manager in the gui), but that is not very practical. You'll probably wind up in a dependancy nightmare with nothing working right. Then there is the fact that either the disks are corrupt or the cdrom is malfunctioning which means you can't trust the individual rpm's anyway. Can you test the disks on another computer? Boot off cd1 and do media check. Might tell us if your cdrom is ok or not.

[headshot.com]

well, this is strange, but the the newest burned disc1(i've done a cupel) works on my old PC i talked about earlyer but it wont work on the PC i need to to work on:confused:

[kevinalm]

About what vintage is the cdrom drive that won't work? (approx. date of manufacture) I don't remember if I've mentioned it in this thread, some older cdrom drives can't read reliably past 650 mb. This became a problem somewhere around rh 7.3 or so. Some of the burned disks extend into the problem region. A possible workaround is to temporarily borrow a drive from another computer for the install.

[headshot.com]

i'm not sure how old the drive is, i got the PC last summer, and i figure that the drive was made about then, and since windows isent liking me(i'll post on the problum latter), i can check there, and all i can get from linux is what i already know, the drive is 54x, and i don't see a brand name anywhere(i think it may be a little cheap;))

[kevinalm]

That should be new enough. Mostly we're talking drives made about 1996 or before. Could be failing, hope not. If install disk #1 will boot on another computer, and you are sure you have enabled cd boot in the bios, all that really leaves is hardware failure. Hopefully it's just the cdrom drive. They aren't terribly expensive. Other than "borrowing" another drive to install, I'm out of ideas.:confused: