[vipzzz]

hello,

well, i have downloaded the 3 iso from the net and burnt them on CD. then i have checked it on my window XP to see if the iso actully been burn. Which they have because when i have placed CD 1 and a welcome screened appear so i assume all the ISO have been burn perfectly. (by the way i am totally new to linux, but hard it is excellent)

so now i wanted to install it on my second hardrive which have two partitions on it, one partition is used with my windows XP (back up) and the other partition is emtpy. i have a 40GB hhd split in to 2.

i have created a bootable floppy disk which will load up in dos mode whihc linux have provided. i have placed the floppy disk in the drive and the CD 1 of mandrake 10.0 in the cd drive. i have then restarded my system the floppy loaded up perfectyl and asked me if i want to instal linux, i have then press enter to install it. when i have pressed enter the cd was active and then a message came up that it cant find the installation CD in my drive. so i have tried disc 2 and 3 on the cd cdrive and no luck.

so what can be the problem? can u please help?

the system i am using is new and there is now proplem and has all the lateset spec. (hope the info i gave will help you to solve the problem)


thanks

[Mel]

Try booting from Cd2.If that doesn't work try booting
from CD1.I could be wrong but I think the floppy is for
an ftp install.
If you're totally new to Linux,please describe your hardware
(computer brand/model,processor (AMD athlon,pentium etc.),
monitor brand/model etc.) Some solutions are hardware specific.
Please read "NEED HELP" in "General Linux".
More information = more and better help.
I do all my linux trials on a seperate drive so I'll leave more
specific help to other users.I think Dapper Dan,Danleff or Bernard
will be your best help on this one.

[vipzzz]

thanks for ur reply mel.

well the system i have got is a dell P4 HT 3.02 gz, 512 ddr ram, 2 hardrive (80 gig and 40 gig which is split in to two one partition is windows XP and the other is emtpy)

CD rom drive, dvd r drvie, nvidi video card. i hope that helped.

i have tried all of my CD's and tried to boot them. but i have created the floppy disk which allowed me to boot the cd in dos mode but a message appeared saying cannot find installtion cd. dunno y it is asking me that.

thanks!

[Mel]

When you insert the CDs and open them from windows or DOS,
does the volumn name end with ".iso"? If it does then you
didn't create the install disks,you just copied the files
to CD.
If the volumn name ends with .iso, leave a post and someone
will explain how to burn an iso to disk.
I assume from your post that you use XP.If your cd burner
does not have a "Burn ISO" option, I find 'CDBurnerXP Pro'
works very well and it's free on the internet.If you can't
find it,leave a post and I'll get a URL for you.
If you do have the ISO option on your burner, Some cdwriters
don't burn well at higher speeds so set your burning speed to
8x or lower.

[vipzzz]

i have, burn the iso corretly and the file does not end with a .iso. i used nero to help with this.

if i open the cd in windows the cd auto will enable and a welcome screen appears. i have also tried to install it not in dos mode but in window because it gave me a option in the welcom screen. but that dont owrk either.

[Mel]

If you put cd2 in the cd drive and restart your computer
with CD2 in the CD drive,it should boot from the cd and
not use dos or windows at all.
If it won't boot from CD ,you may need to set boot order
in BIOS.Make sure your CDRom is above your harddrive in
the boot list in BIOS.(Most new computers are set to check
floppy first then harddrive.You need to set BIOS to check
cdrom before harddrive.Then you can boot from cdrom.)

[vipzzz]

I have done that already, and tried many different ways. but i dont know. i know i have burned the files correctly. by the way, do i need to name my cd befor i burn the cd (eg, Mandrake)

[danleff]

Two things. Well, three. Make sure that you boot the system with the cd burner if poossible. Older cdrom drives sometimes do not boot burned cd's correctly, which are burned in a newer cdrw drive.

So, if you burned the cdr media on a cdrw and tried to boot the cd on an old cdrom drive, this can be an issue.

Try using cdr media, if you have not already done so.

Finally, to correctly burn iso images, do not burn them at the top speed rated for the cdrw drive. You need to burn them at 4X or at the most 8X speed. To properly burn iso images, you need to burn them at a slow speed, or they don't always take.

Let us know if any of these are the issue.

[vipzzz]

thnaks for all ur help, but i thik i sovled the problem. i think it was my fault. didnt relasied whihc was sothing very simple. they way i burned my cd was that i was extraced the iso and then copyied that ni to nero, but nero has a iso burner bult in so the CD name appeared on the cd and the computer rocnsiseed each CD and CD 1 - 3 or mandrake_of.

i think that it does work and everything is working, well i hope.

thanks for ur help!!!!!

cheers

[danleff]

That would do it. Just copying the extracted files did not make the cd bootable!

Good detective work!

[vipzzz]

Thanks for all ur help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


VIP

[vipzzz]

i have now installed mandrake, but how can i view the partiton in my computer in windows xp and how can i view windows partitons / hardrive in mandrake? and what is the best dirver site whihc atumatilly updates things for us?

[danleff]

[vipzzz]

thanks for that, i will chaeck dat out soon.

i cant connect to the internet using my modem. i got a BT voyager 105 (adsl modem) which is a usb. is there any way for me to connect to the internet on linux using that modem.

i heard there is a way but i dunno how to do it. i managed to make my printer work and dats it really.

[Godric]

how do you make the floppy load from dos?

[danleff]

Godric, look under the post that you started.