I bought a computer from a store that specialized in selling computers
for use with the Linux Operating System about two years ago.  The
computer worked fine and I installed Linux several times by booting
from a CD that contained a Linux distribution.
   Now however, when I am trying to boot from a CD to install a new
version of Linux, the PC stops a few seconds after I hit the "reset"
button.  The messages I see are:  "Verifying DMI Pool Data .........."
Followed by:   "Boot from CD : ".  The cursor blinks after the the
last message.
   Nothing I type in will make the computer continue to actually booting the PC.
It has been so long since I booted from a CD that I have completely
forgotten if there is any special step that is required to boot from a
CD.  I know the CD is okay because as a sanity check I tried booting
from the same CD I booted from two years ago to install the Linux that
is now running.
  The motherboard is an AMD processor, model M7VIG 400. The serial
number on the manual that came with the AMD processor is
50-M7VIG4-M-A2
  The computer works fine and runs Fedore Core2 Linux perfectly, but
of course it is booting from the hard disk not the CD.

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Request for Question Clarification by maniac-ga on 07 Nov 2006 18:55 PST

Hello Inquiringmind003,

Hmm. What you describe seems odd, but there are a few ideas I have
that may be able to help you out.

[1] After booting from the hard disk, put in the CD & try to copy it
to disk (or if you don't have enough space, do something like)
  cp /dev/cdrom /dev/null
(or whatever device name that get's used to refer to the CD)

This should run without error. If an error occurs, it could be that
the CD has been corrupted in some way.

[2] On some systems, there were problems using DMA on the IDE CD ROM
drives. You don't mention it, but there should be a prompt (with a
short time delay) early in the boot process. Enter something like
  linux ide=nodma
to attempt a boot with DMA disabled on the CD ROM.

[3] You may want to download a "rescue" disk (a limited Linux system)
or "live" disk (a full distribution) and burn another CD ROM to see if
that works. That may give another indication that the original CD you
are using is damaged in some way.

Hope that helps. Please respond with information on these tests.

  --Maniac

---

Request for Question Clarification by keystroke-ga on 08 Nov 2006 06:50 PST

Hello inquiringmind003,

I know the CD is okay because as a sanity check I tried booting
from the same CD I booted from two years ago to install the Linux that
is now running.

I don't understand what you mean by this; can you be a bit clearer? To
me it seems that you know the current CD you are booting off is ok because
you tried to boot off an old CD that you used 2 years ago. To me that
seems like an invalid assumption.

If you mean the CD drive and not CD then it says to me that the boot
sector on the CD is broken. Try downloading backtrack
http://www.remote-exploit.org/index.php/BackTrack

Write it to CD and see if that boots.

It is a live linux install and it works for me without any config
changes.

--keystroke-ga

Hello inquiringmind003,

Thank you for your question.

"I know the CD is okay because as a sanity check I tried booting
from the same CD I booted from two years ago to install the Linux that
is now running."

I don't understand what you mean by this. To
me it seems that you know the current CD you are booting off is ok because
you tried to boot off an old CD that you used 2 years ago. To me that
seems like an invalid assumption.

If you mean the CD drive and not CD, then it says to me that the boot
sector on the CD is broken. Try downloading Backtrack:

Backtrack
http://www.remote-exploit.org/index.php/BackTrack

Write it to CD and see if that boots.

It is a live Linux install and it works for me without any config
changes.

Download and install the Backtrack Software and write to CD. If the CD
boots, you know it is the CD you are trying that has the fault. If the
CD does not boot, you know it is your CD drive.


Search strategy:
personal knowledge

If you need any additional clarification, let me know and I'll be glad
to assist you.

--keystroke-ga

1> Kindly explain what do u mean by the following.

"I know the CD is okay because as a sanity check I tried booting
from the same CD I booted from two years ago to install the Linux that
is now running."

Do u want to mean that the CDROM drive is O.k. as it allows to boot
from ur 2 year old Fedora Core-2 CD?

2>May be that ur CD is corrupt.

3>You may also try to connect the CDROM Drive as Primary slave or
Secondary master if it is presently connected as secondary slave.

4> Finally connect the CDROM drive with a 40 wire IDE connector
instead of 80 wire Enhanced IDE connector.

5> If the CD is not corrupt then one of suggestion 3> and 4> should work.

Please let me know whether they solved ur problem.

Binary_fusion.

Why did you just say exactly what Keystroke had said a day earlier?

poopy

Sorry poopy, 
I didn't check keystrokes answer before puting forward my suggestion.

But my points 3> and 4> are surely not mentioned by keystroke. Did u try them? 

Actually I have seen AMD motherboards which don't allow to boot from
Secondary Slave. I also have noticed that CD ROM drives sometimes
malfunction with 80 wire flat cables, particularly with bootable
fedora installation CDs.