Problems booting from cd [SOLVED]

Aguiecha · 2009-07-08 04:44:59

Hello, I've been using arch for some time, lurking the forums once in a while, I did not know exactly where to post this so I decided on this subforum instead of kernel/hardware, hope it's ok.

The day before yesterday I broke something on my arch , got a bash error with libread, first I could not su, rebooted and it could not boot, I decided that I better reinstall instead of searching the net for a solution, the 500 mg + of upgrades that had been waiting for a week or so (probably this caused the error, installing something without -Syuç) played a factor too.

It would be almost the same amount of downloading I thought, I would get rid in the process of the many de, wm, and apps that I no longer would use I thought.

But the dvd/cd drive had a surprise for me, it decided that it does not like linux cd images anymore, so it ditched a shiny new 2009.2 arch ftp install (burned in the local computer cafe), an old dsl install, some linux that I cannot remember its name but it is labeled "cd to repair virus infected cousins windows", and a cd-rw I can't remember what distro is in it.

The drive has changed its predilection to something else, it only accepts to boot a very old winxp install and also very old reatogo test live cd that can't do much other that pretend it's a crippled windows, it had a .txt with the open dns IP adresses so it saved me from a hunt for the missing IPS in my messy room, another visit to the computer cafe or to tweak the router settings.

So I installed the windows to get my internet fix and to check the drive, I got bored playing rubik after a day.

The drive also does not recognize any new cd or cd-rw, after some insisting from me it read one of the new cd and burned the ftp install, but cd-rw's did not have the same luck , I haven't tried with dvd's I think they cannot handle rejection well.

Still no booting from the disc burned in this drive.

I flashed the drive to the new things its manufacturer provided but no change of mind for this drive, still no booting from anything other than windows or its live relative.

I made sure of burning the arch cd with low speed and chosed a regular cd not a cdrw (both times). The other disks used to boot before , even a cdrw that changed its contents to a new live distro very often when I was distro hunting, I even installed arch from the promiscuous cd-rw.

I am right now in a pre-service-pack-windows-era that I don't like and miss my dwm + dzen setup, the thing already have lost its system tray and cannot find it (so it says) and I'm not going to look for it , just for installing firefox, flash, the nero that came with the drive disk and nvida driver for a better resolution.

Any ideas? The drive?, The BIOS? Anything other than calling the drive a traitor with a windows fetish that hasn't been paying attention to the last years of what I've been doing ?

Last edited by Aguiecha (2009-07-09 17:24:47)

toad · 2009-07-08 04:54:55

2 suggestions:

- try to burn again at x2 speed
- try a different CD drive

Aguiecha · 2009-07-09 17:20:56

I solved this, for some reason I need to keep pressed a key in order to boot from linux images, not just press it at start, keep it pressed.(weird but it works), I'm posting this from arch now .

Thanks for the answer.

Last edited by Aguiecha (2009-07-09 17:28:05)

djszapi · 2009-07-09 18:58:35

Happyness to hear, but next time pls. don't write so much at first comment ) so much information first of all

Arch Linux

#1 2009-07-08 04:44:59

Problems booting from cd [SOLVED]

#2 2009-07-08 04:54:55

Re: Problems booting from cd [SOLVED]

#3 2009-07-09 17:20:56

Re: Problems booting from cd [SOLVED]

#4 2009-07-09 18:58:35

Re: Problems booting from cd [SOLVED]

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