CentOS 5.7 DVD won't boot

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Deadnight
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CentOS 5.7 DVD won't boot

Post by Deadnight » 2011/10/03 19:50:28

Hello everybody.
I'm little more than a newbie when it comes to the Unix world, so forgive me if I say anything wrong.

I downloaded the CentOS-5.7-i386-bin-DVD ISO, in order to install it in a new partition of my test pc (a mini-ITX dual core Atom330 / Intel 945 based nettop, with Windows 2003 Server already installed in the first partition).

Although I have triple checked all my BIOS settings, the system simply won't boot with the CentOS DVD. I am using an external USB Samsung DVD burner, that's nearly brand new and never gave me a single problem. The BIOS is set to boot ONLY from the USB DVD drive and to ignore the main hard drive.

I did re-download the ISO from another mirror and the result is exactly the same: no boot from DVD. The first ISO was burnt using the built-in tool in a Windows 7 based computer at max. speed, while I used CDBurnerXP to burn the second ISO at 8x. Still, the behavior of both is identical.

Thinking the burner might be malfunctioning, I tried booting a GParted CD and a Windows 7 DVD and they were both flawless.

As I have no floppy drive at all and my only USB pendrive might be too small for the whole ISO, is there any other way to install CentOS? Both DVDs I created are perfectly readable from Windows, so I guess I only need a way to start the installation somehow, and then insert the CentOS DVD to continue.

Thank you for your help.

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TrevorH
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Re: CentOS 5.7 DVD won't boot

Post by TrevorH » 2011/10/03 20:13:26

Look at the contents of the DVD that you have burnt. If what you see is a single file ending in .iso then you burnt this as a data CD when it needed to be burnt as a bootable image.

Deadnight
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Re: CentOS 5.7 DVD won't boot

Post by Deadnight » 2011/10/03 20:44:11

[quote]
TrevorH wrote:
Look at the contents of the DVD that you have burnt. If what you see is a single file ending in .iso then you burnt this as a data CD when it needed to be burnt as a bootable image.[/quote]

The content is absolutely OK. Here's what I've got:

[CentOS]
[images]
--[pxeboot]
--[xen]
[isolinux]
[repodata]
.discinfo
.treeinfo

And a whole bunch of release notes. I THINK it should be OK, given the presence of the Images and Isolinux directories.

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TrevorH
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Re: CentOS 5.7 DVD won't boot

Post by TrevorH » 2011/10/03 21:09:27

OK, that looks like it should be ok though I am wondering if it burnt correctly. The i386 DVD can only fit on a DVD-R disc but not on a DVD+R as it is slightly too big to fit. It'll fit on a dual layer disc of either format. Was yours a + disk perhaps?

Deadnight
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Re: CentOS 5.7 DVD won't boot

Post by Deadnight » 2011/10/03 21:15:54

[quote]
TrevorH wrote:
OK, that looks like it should be ok though I am wondering if it burnt correctly. The i386 DVD can only fit on a DVD-R disc but not on a DVD+R as it is slightly too big to fit. It'll fit on a dual layer disc of either format. Was yours a + disk perhaps?[/quote]

I indeed used DVD+R discs... BUT. I found 2 ISOs after downloading the torrent, 1of2 and 2of2. I burnt 1of2, of course, and it shows a total size of 3.35 Gb, way less than full DVD capacity...

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TrevorH
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Re: CentOS 5.7 DVD won't boot

Post by TrevorH » 2011/10/03 21:40:39

Yes, you are correct. It was the x86_64 version I was thinking of. Looks like it must be later than I thought :)

alexgd
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Re: CentOS 5.7 DVD won't boot

Post by alexgd » 2011/10/05 00:24:36

wodim -v -isosize -sao -eject speed=16 dev=/dev/scd0 --overburn path to centos-DVD.iso

Deadnight
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Re: CentOS 5.7 DVD won't boot

Post by Deadnight » 2011/10/05 12:10:07

[quote]
alexgd wrote:
wodim -v -isosize -sao -eject speed=16 dev=/dev/scd0 --overburn path to centos-DVD.iso[/quote]

I assume you're talking about some kind of command line option... As I said in the opening thread, I'm little more than a newbie on Linux and I think I should ask you to explain what you just wrote...
However, what if I don't have a Linux box available? Will it work from a live CD? Or is there a way to do the same on a Windows based pc?
Thank you.

pschaff
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CentOS 5.7 DVD won't boot

Post by pschaff » 2011/10/05 21:12:05

If the DVD was properly burned as an image such that you can see the directory structure, then burning again is unlikely to help. Sounds like a hardware/BIOS issue. Can you boot from other DVDs in the same drive?

Deadnight
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Re: CentOS 5.7 DVD won't boot

Post by Deadnight » 2011/10/05 21:32:59

[quote]
pschaff wrote:
If the DVD was properly burned as an image such that you can see the directory structure, then burning again is unlikely to help. Sounds like a hardware/BIOS issue. Can you boot from other DVDs in the same drive?[/quote]

Yes I can, I used that same drive to install a variety of OSes on a netbook, while on this machine I did manage to boot with a Gparted CD and a Windows7 DVD, so I guess the drive is working properly. The machine also successfully boots from a USB pendrive; that should mean the BIOS settings are correct.

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