suse 10.1 won't install (no autorun) or boot from cd

[tidy max]

Hi everyone, i got the linux itch again tonight and finally decided to scratch it haha.

 

So i burnt my suse 10.1 iso's to CD's and proceeded to try and install it on one of my computers. The computer is running windows xp home, the computer recognises the cd and i can browse the files, but will not auto run and there is no setup file that i can open on the cd either.

 

So i changed my bios settings to boot from my cd drives, on 1st 2nd and 3rd attempts, and it still just boots xp regardless!

 

Do i need some driver or program to enable home to be able to recognise the linux set up file?

 

Your help is very much so appreciated, and i eagerly await your reply so i can get cracking with the installation!

 

Thanks very much, Max

[Tootech]

Hi tidy,

 

Your Linux CD should be bootable. Most now run as a live OS in memory and drop an Install icon on the desktop.

 

Where did you download the ISO's from?

 

It looks like you are going for a dual boot setup - is that right? If so, do you have all your XP data backed up and have some kind of XP CD or Recovery CD just incase it all goes wrong?

[tidy max]

dual boot or dedicated os im not bothered which! preferably get rid of xp to be honest! its not my 'main' computer as such, infact i just use it for streaming my films over my network!

 

i do think my bios is rather old, the options i can choose to boot from are

scsi

hdd0

hdd1

hdd2

hdd3

floppy

zip

lan

cdd

disable

 

and one other which i can't remember! i can go and check now if that information is neccesary, i expect i got it from a torrent, but also possibly direct from the opensuse site, i downloaded it a long time ago, which explains why its 10.2 and not the newer 11 version!

 

thanks for your help tootech :)

[Tootech]

I noticed it wasn't the most up to date Suse, but that shouldn't matter. I've just looked up the install routine for 10.3, and its pretty much as you'd expect. Link here - I guess yours will be similar.

 

Installation/10.3 - openSUSE

 

Looking at your BIOS list, cdd is the only possibilty. You mentioned one other option - the other way it is described sometimes is ATAPI CD-ROM.

 

Do you have your CD as your Secondary Master drive? If not, connect it that way.

 

Another thought - is it a DVD you have written, and running in a CD Drive. Maybe a stupid question, but loads of Linux installs are DVD now, and looking at them I can't tell the difference.

[tidy max]

no, i considered compiling the 5 cd iso's and burning them to a dvd, but the computer i am installing to has two disk drives, 1 is dvd and 1 is cd-r, the dvd does not work.

 

Thus why i am using the cd's!

 

I will change the cd to the secondary master drive! Do you think this could be the problem as it hadn't even crossed my mind!!

 

I will also unplug the broken dvd drive while i am it, no its not atapi, i will also check that now too!

 

Cheers

[tidy max]

just checked, the cd drive which i am using is set to slave, the other pins on the back were master and ccsl or ccel couldnt tell what it said properly!

 

Also the other bios boot option was LS120? any idea what that is?

 

How do i go about finding my bios version/model/type (i really know next to nothing about bios!) and where could i get an update from?

 

Are bios's (plural for bios? biosees? bioces? lol) specific to motherboards? or is the bios completely independant of the motherboard?

[Tootech]

CD drive needs to be set to either Master, or CS, which stands for Cable Select.

 

Most IDE comms cables ( the one from CD to board) have two possible connections, one in the middle and one at the end. The middle one is always Slave, the end one always Master. Cable select refers to the CD drive's ability to change from Master to Slave dependent on which connector it is hooked up to. Hope that makes sense.

 

You need the CD Drive hooked up to the end connector - the Master, with no other drives attached to that cable.

 

Also, for now, make sure your hard drive is the only hard drive connected on the other IDE cable.

 

LS120 was a high capacity disk from the bad old days - its not so high capacity any more. See link

 

SuperDisk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

As far as your BIOS goes - it MUST be the correct update for your board - any other and it will trash it forever in alot of cases. Have a look on the board there's often a set of numbers and a name - if you can't get anywhere, try installing Everest Free Edition and see if that tells you.

 

Link here

 

http://extremetechsupport.com/forum/system-information/2202-system-information.html

 

Just wondering why you want to do a BIOS update?

[tidy max]

Fantastic reply :) i shall go and get cracking with that.

 

The idea of a BIOS update came from me searching the net for answers, and i came across a forum where someone who was also having trouble booting from cd drive and it was due to an old bios version, after updating he could then boot!

 

It was a long shot i know :) thanks for your help again tootech!

 

Much appreciated

[tidy max]

worked right away, changed the selector pin on the back and it booted from cd right away, the ide cable was connected to both the cd and the dvd drive, which i think may be where the problem was.

 

Upon boot up i right away noticed the primary master text thing.. said cd-r as opposed to the previous samsung etc, and the slave text was blank.

 

Thanks again, its much appreciated!

[Tootech]

Glad its working.

 

Come back and let us know how you get on :)