[TriLUG] Help a Newbie?

[Jeremy P]

On Tue, 23 Jul 2002, Nick Goldwater wrote:

> Hey everyone,
> 
> I am VERY new to Linux and have a very basic question. I have successfully 
> installed SuSE and recently obtained RedHat 7.3 -- When I installed SuSE (on 
> my IBM i Series laptop) I was able to boot directly from the first disc. With 
> Redhat I get 'Boot Failed'. What concerns me is the only drive I have on my 
> laptop is a cd-rom. 
> 
> Any suggestions would be very helpful and greatly appreciated!

The first thing would be to check if you have a bad burn.  If you have 
access to another computer, try booting it there; if it works, type "linux 
mediacheck" at the prompt, and it will check all of the distribution CDs
for you.  (This can be done without installing anything on the other 
computer.)

If the mediacheck passes, reply back and we'll see if people have other 
ideas. :-)  It appears that bad media is one of the biggest causes of 
install problems of this type with Linux these days.

--Jeremy