Chris F Clark wrote:
> I'm trying to upgrade a rh 9 system to centos 4.1.
>
> I burned the part 1 iso image onto a cd using cdrecord.
>
> Given my experience upgrading rh installations, I next tried booting
> from the cd. It fails with the message(s):
>
> ISOLINUX 2.11 2004-08-16 Copyright(C) 1994-2004 H. Peter Anvin
> isolinux: Disk error 80, AX=42CC, drive 9F
>
> Boot failed: press any key to retry.
>
> I have tried booting the cd on a couple of systems and it does the
> same. Moreover, I know that bootable cd's work on the system (laptop)
> in question, as that's how I put rh 9 on the system in the first
> place.
>
> However, I've looked at the cd (under windows) and there are
> directories on the cd, not just an iso file. So, I don't think I
> wrote the cd wrong.
>
> Am I correct in assuming that perhaps there was a write error on the
> cd and the boot image was corrupted?
>
> Is it likely that the cd contains a useful copy of the installation if
> I can just get it booted? (Or is the cd just a coaster and should I
> write another one?)
>
> Is it possible to boot the cd from the linux boot I already have
> installed? The target system is a laptop and I have a choice of a
> floppy or a cd, but not both at the same time.
>

IIRC, isolinux is using its own ATAPI CD driver. If your CD is not
compatible with it, you'll get the results you describe. I can get
the same results with a SCSI -connected CD.

The El Torito disk image seems to be correctly burned, else you'd
not get the isolinux banner.

The El Torito CD booting works by replacing the primary floppy
drive in BIOS temporarily with a disk image on the CD. Isolinux
uses that to get into the processor, but it does not use the
simulated disk for reading the kernel proper.

You should first get the details of the CD drive, and then look
for a boot CD compatible with it.

Another possibility is to use another Linux computer as a server
and use a network boot, if the BIOS supports it.

HTH

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi