Problem installin Linux on laptop

[Leshiy]

Hey there I just found my parents old n i mean old laptop (450Mhz, 158Mb RAM, Packard Bell) with CD-ROM TEAC CD-224E i downloaded CollegeLinux distr n burned it on CD but when i load from floppy on laptop n try read that CD it just displays message that CD not ready. i got few other distr n none of them read, I installed XP tho.
Now i thought maybe CD-ROM is too crap so i burned again in lower speed (4x) still no result some1 please help cos i really wud rather run linux then XP

[Roxoff]

Sounds like a really beat-up old cd-rom drive. Have you tried using a lens cleaner on it? Is there any way it can be changed, maybe by borrowing a USB Cd-Rom (mind you, the bios on the old laptop probly wont be able to boot of USB).

If all this fails, then you're probably down to trying to install over the network from some kind of boot floppy. I dont know if CellegeLinux supports this, but some of the more mainstream distros may.

[Leshiy]

I just been lookin on packared bell website n its def 24x but id there was problem with lens wouldnt it load no CDs at all cos i can read all others but not linux. it starts to spin up spin up then just stop and thats it. I dont have network on it yet. n I dont think it will boot up from USB drive.

[lambert]

Not knowing much about your experience I have to ask if you burned an image or data cd?

You'll want to make sure you burned a cd image.

[TheBigPhish]

i'll be willing to bet that old teac doesn't like the color of the medium you burned on. I've had teac drives that would only read the green burned CDs, and not the blue ones that i had bought...it sure as hell woudn't read the black maxell's my sister bought either.

Switch to a different medium color, or do what i've done on old laptops - buy a 2.5 -> 3.5 IDE connector - hook the drive up on your desktop, format, partition and copy the linux install files to your drive - boot it with a root floppy and then install from the HD.

It works.