Burning a Bootable CD

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You will want to use a CD writing program with a 'write to disk' or 'burn image' option. We'll be burning dsl-x.x.x.iso straight to the CD.

This will provide a "full" standard DSL install, and it will be bootable.

Software generally used for this under MSWin is Nero, Roxio, CDR Tools Frontendor any program that will 'burn ISO image'.

SOME COMPUTERS HAVE DIFFICULTY BOOTING FROM A CD-RW DISK

If you have problems, it is suggested that you burn DSL to a CD-R disk instead of a CD-RW disk.

Contents

In Linux

There are many different ways to burn an ISO image, including many GUI frontends for burning ISO images like K3b, GNOME's Nautilus filemanager (using the burn:/// URI)and X-CD Roast, but I will go over the most generic way. For a more in depth HOWTO, try the CD Burning HOWTO.

If you have a 2.4.x kernel (run uname -r to verify what version of kernel you are running), your only option is burning using the SCSI emulation in the kernel, even if you have a regular CD burner. Check the above how to in order to enable SCSI if the below commands do not work for you, otherwise, burn away.

First thing you need to do is figure out the configuration of your drive by running this command:


        # cdrecord -scanbus


If you get an error like: cdrecord: No such file or directory. Cannot open '/dev/pg*'. Cannot open SCSI driver. You do not have SCSI emulation enabled.

If you have a 2.6.x kernel version, you can run cdrecord without SCSI emulation enabled. Use the same command earlier to figure out what your CD configuration is.


        # cdrecord dev=ATAPI -scanbus


If either command is successful, you should get output like:


        Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
        scsibus0:
        0,0,0 0) *
        0,1,0 1) '_NEC ' 'DVD+RW ND-1100A ' '1.NE' Removable CD-ROM
        0,2,0 2) *
        0,3,0 3) *


If you get output similiar to that, but you don't see anything but "*"'s, that means that cdrecord isn't detecting your CD writer properly. Check the CD Burning HOWTO for possible solutions.

After you have figured out the configuration for your CD drive, run cdrecord to burn the CD:


        # cdrecord dev=x,x,x dsl-x.x.x.iso


If you had to run -scanbus with dev=ATAPI in order for it to detect your CD writer, you'll have to run cdrecord like this:


        # cdrecord dev=ATAPI:x,x,x dsl-x.x.x.iso


After all is done and assuming you have properly setup your BIOS to boot from CD, you should be set to boot from your newly burned CD.

In Windows

Open up your CD burning application (if you don't have one, get the excellent freeware app CD Burner XP Pro) and install it.

Some other small freeware CD-burning programs are BurnCDCC and InfraRecorder and BurnAtOnce.

With CD Burner XP Pro

When you first run it, you will get a dialog box with 3 options. Choose the one that says "Create a new data CD or create a CD from an ISO image" or something like that. It should be the first option.

Click the File menu, and select "Write Disk from ISO File...". In the window that is opened, click the "..." button and navigate to your ISO image. Set the write speed to 16x or less, to make sure it will boot on picky computers, and, if you don't plan on adding MyDSL extensions in a second burn session, finalize the disk.

Start the burn, and in a few minutes, you should have your new DSL cd.

Infra Recorder

If you want simple but powerful open source GUI Burner similar to Nero, try Infrarecorder. You'd find it's easy to use - Start InfraExpress, Choose CopyCD Profile, pick a DSL ISO from menu and press OK to burn it.

http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/

Just to add as far as burners go... if you get Power ISO,(just google it) you can burn iso images with like 3 clicks...


works like a charm, even on Vista.

Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 under XP

Click on File and choose Record CD from CD Image. Change the file type to ISO instead of the default CIF. Select the ISO downloaded from DSL (current.iso) Then click the Options button and make sure that Record CD and Disc-at-Once are selected. Click the Start Recording button and you are done.

In OS X

  1. Open Disk Utility.
  2. Select Open from the Tools menu.
  3. Find your ISO image file in the Open Window and click Open.
  4. Disk Utility will read the ISO file and list it as an image in the lower left scroll box of the main window.
  5. Select your image from that list and click Burn in the toolbar.
  6. Click Burn in the popup to confirm you want to burn the CD.
  7. It may take a while to burn the CD. You will get a progress window to see how it is going.
  8. When you are done, Disk Utility will eject your CD.