Me = Linux idiot. I need help. And maybe medication

[UberBlue]

I really want to give this Linux thing a try, but have found out I know very little. This is the story. I wander over to LinuxISO.org and decide on Mandrake 9.0, and download the the following file-"Mandrake90-cd1-inst.i586" and the other two disc. I burn it to cd, restart the computer, set my cd-rom as first boot device, save and exit the bios, I hear the cd-rom make the spinny noises. This next part is where I get stumped.... NON BOOTABLE DISC, PLEASE INSERT BOOT DISC AND YADA YADA YADA. I downloaded all three disc and I'm under the impression the first disc is the install disc. I'm so used to being able to throw in a windows disc and run with it that i'm not even sure how to install linux. What do I need to do to get this installed? I have no idea.

[kevmarks]

Maybe there are some boot disks you can use. Does the CD show up OK in My Computer?

[Titan386]

This is the system in your sig, right? If so, a modern system like that ought to be capable of boot from CD.

While creating the disks, did you tell your burning program to create a cd from an image, or did you just burn the iso to the disk? The latter way will not work, you have to specify that its an image.

[UberBlue]

DOH! thats what I did. I just copied the file to cd. I'm downloading nero right now

[Beast Of Blight]

Don't feel alone, I [ and most linux newbies, like me! :p ] did the same thing. Burning instead of Burning image. ;)

[drunkmonkey]

*chuckle*

Off topic but I just got the Red Hat Linux 7.3 Bible and it is loaded w/ info and looks to be very n00b friendly(I'm half n00b i guess, lol, I an use it to program, read mac disks, and surf da web, dats it:) maybe I'll have my server set up tonight as I instal RedHat7.3)