a bootable disk that will not boot

[chejose2]

I am running Ubuntu 10.04. But since it seems like future versions after 11.04 will be Unity desktop only, I have been exploring other versions.

The one I prefer is Mint. But it will not load on my desktop computer and here is the problem:

I downloaded and burned the program 4 times (!) suspecting that there could be a bad disk. But since there were no problems using it on another computer, I thought it could be the video on my machine, but putting in another video card made no difference.

But last night I woke up realizing what could be the key. When I try to boot up the disk I get the following text:

ISO LINUX 3.36 2007-02-10 copyright 1994-2007 H Peter Arvin.

What I suspect is that the computer reads this file from the hard disk before turning to the CD, and that file is the problem. In other words, something in my Ubuntu installation blocks the Mint Cd from loading.

If that seems to be right, and there is a solution, I would apreciate help... but help for someone who is a bit lost with the linux terminology and workarounds.

Many thanks,

José

[yancek]

What I suspect is that the computer reads this file from the hard disk before turning to the CD, and that file is the problem.

Doubt it. isolinux is the bootloader used on almost all Linux CDs. Peter Anvin is the name of the major developer, as I understand it.

When you say you burned the "program" are you referring to the Mint CD? If you have one of these CDs which works on another computer, it is probably not the CD. You would need to try installing again and record the steps and any error messages or warnings you get.

[chejose2]

No, it was not to make an install but to test the live CD. I have tested a number of them on this machine with never a problem. But what makes me wonder is that on another machine that line for about isoliinux does not show up for the Mint CD..... it goes directly to the first page of setup. So SOMETHING is different in my machine that it stops there.

I had no trouble burning the iso files to a disk, and did a check on the checksum on one of them. And since they work on another machine (with XP installed) the problem must be here.

Thanks for answering...

José

[yancek]

it goes directly to the first page of setup

You have your machine set to boot first from the CD drive, correct?
What do you mean by the first page of setup? I have Linux Mint 10 and when I boot it I first see the Mint splash screen with the countdown, will boot in 10 seconds (not sure if it 10 but...?)hitting any key will give me I think four boot options. Is that what you see?

I don't think the isolinux line you report seeing is coming from Ubuntu on the hard drive. I am not aware of any Linux distribution that boots from a hard drive installation with isolinux. There may be but I doubt it. It was designed specifically for booting CD/DVDs

What do you see after the isolinux line you mention? Does it proceed? stop there? anything else happen? More details might help. I'm not sure what the problem could be.

[chejose2]

Yes, it a strange situation. Right, normally the boot starts with the splash screen (I didn't know the right word), but on mine it does not even get there. Just that line of text and then black. On another machine the CD works as it should, no sign of that text line and starts with the splash screen.

Thanks for getting on it.

José

[yancek]

On many machines, if you hit the ESC key during boot instead of seeing the splash screen you will see text scrolling by explaining what is happening. Didn't try it on Mint so I'm not sure if you could do that or if ESC is the key that would work.

Almost every CD I have used recently uses isolinux to boot and the first thing I see is the line you mention with Peter Anvin's name, etc.

Might be the graphics card, don't know.

[buteman]

Have you tried booting other CD's on this machine >> since << you have tried the Mint CD? One ( unlikely ) possibility is that the drive is failing. Another, equally unlikely, possibility is that your drive is not happy with the brand of discs.

probably not relevent but thought it worth logging these possible things to check.