Why won't my computer reboot to CD?

[1arryb]

I have a Compaq Presario desktop pc

ASUS A8AE-LE MOBO
AMD Sempiron 3400+ CPU
2GB RAM
2 SATA HDD
CD/DVD combo drive
Pheonix AwardBios v. 3.13

This machine arrived with Windows XP on it. Works fine. I installed FC4 Linux, default partitioning. No problems, except that the computer won't boot unless the power is cycled.

If I try to soft boot by typing /sbin/reboot, init 6, or halting the processor and then pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL, The CD-ROM light goes on for a few seconds, the HDD light either doesn't go on at all, or flashes so briefly I can't see it, then the monitor light goes yellow.

For a long time I thought I was having grub bootloader issues, but I tried a soft boot with the FC4 installation CD in the drive and got the same results. My BIOS boot order is set 1) CD-ROM; 2) HDD.

I have repeated these results on 2 other identically configured machines, so defective parts are unlikely to be the culprit.

In summary:
I can hard boot Windows or Linux, from CD-ROM or HDD.
I can soft boot from Windows to CD-ROM (incl. a Linux install CD) or HDD.
I can NOT soft boot from Linux to either CD-ROM or HDD.

What is going on? How can the contents of the HDD affect a reboot to CD-ROM? I am seriously flummoxed.

Larry Barnett

[zeeone]

If you are running in terminal only, remember to unmount all of the drives, before doing the soft restart. Have you done a restart from the desk top log out yet, just to make sure everything is working right?

[spencerf]

what happens if you type reboot as root or with the sudo command?