Operating system not found - liveCD failure

[Metal Giant]

Hi all,

I wiped an old desktop PC with Darik's Boot and Nuke. It's done a really thorough job, that baby is as clean as a whistle. I now power it on and a few seconds later, she buzzes and declares "Operating System Not Found". That's good, time to install Linux.

So I pop in a liveCD (I've tried Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint, Fedora, and Puppy) and nothing* happens. Straight back to the "Operating System Not Found" screen. I have changed the boot order in the BIOS to look for the CD drive first, so it can't be that.

Interestingly, if I pop in the CD I made with Darik's Boot & Nuke on it, it will read that and is prepared to wipe again, but the LiveCD's (even my old Windows XP CD) won't boot.

What do you reckon I've done? Shall I plant petunias in it or is there any hope?

MG

[Jazzy_Jeff]

If you can't get the live cd to work try downloading the alternate install disk. It is a text based install but easy to install. Here is a link for you http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/down...rors#alternate.

[Metal Giant]

Thanks Jazzy,

I've just downloaded the alternative text-based version of kubuntu and there's no success. I put the CD in the drive, power up and a few seconds later, "Operating System Not Found", which I shall hereto refer to as OSNF!

I notice now that even my simple Darik's Boot&Nuke CD is not being seen on power-up, with that in the drive it's straight to OSNF (do not pass Go). I reset the settings in my BIOS, checked the CD drive was first to be checked (it is), reboot again with B&N and Kubuntu CD's respectively. Nothing.

Hmmmm?

[ST3ALTHPSYCH0]

Double check that you have the proper drive channel selected for your primary. I don't know if this is an option in your BIOS, but in mine you set the boot order on one screen, then, on a totally different screen, you tell the mobo which of each type of drive is primary.
You might also try setting every boot option to CD, or setting all besides the first to None until install is complete (just remember to set it back when the installer reboots!)

[nperry]

If the above seems to not fix the issue, next thing to check is the md5sum to do this;

1. run this command within the dir where the .iso is held. (Change isofile.iso to right name)

md5sum isofile.iso

2.Output should look like.

24ea1163ea6c9f5dae77de8c49ee7c0

3.Compare that against the Hashes table
Found here

Thanks,
Neil Perry

[Metal Giant]

Thanks for pitching in and helping me with this.

@ST3ALTHPSYCHO You might have to elaborate what you mean by "proper drive channel selected for your primary", I mean, I've looked at the four IDE "Drives" on the main page of the pheonixBIOS that pops up when I press F12. I've set the first two to [NONE] and the third to [CD-ROM CCD-48X6S-(SM)] with the last just set to [IDE Drive 4:] (although I go in its settings and choose CD-ROM, when I come out it just says that).

The Boot order sequence is set to: 1, CD-ROM Drive 2, +Hard Drive 3, !+Diskette 4, !Legacy LAN Card.

I accept these settings, boot up. Nothing.

@nperry I can't get a cursor to type in any commands. I just get a black screen with the "OSNF" message and any attempt to type on the keyboard just repeats the message. If I understand correctly, the md5sum is to check if the liveCD has burned correctly (is that right?) and I'm 90% sure it has as all the CD's I've burned work in other machines.

MG

[QLee]

Metal Giant,

Most of what you wrote sounds like the system isn't trying to boot from the CD drive.

For a visual indication, when you boot, does the CD drive light hit first and spin up the CD before the HDD light hits and doesn't find an OS?

[HarrisonNapper]

Also, on your installation disk did you burn it with an image burner or did you copy the iso to the cd?

In other words, where did you get the LiveCD and/or how did you create it? Have you tried it on other PCs?

If the cd just contains suchandsuch.iso, it will be skipped during boot.

[Metal Giant]

@QLee I'm certain that the CD Drive is being checked on powerup. It lights up, the disk spins, everything seems normal before I get the OSNF. Plus, the boot order in the BIOS is set to check the CD-ROM first/

@HarrisonNapper Definitely a good CD. I burned the image with an image burner not just copied the .iso. All the CD's I've tested work on other machines, so that's Linux Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Fedora, Mint, and Windows XP. All disks fail to startUp despite the CD Drive whizzing around first. Then, black screen and "Operating System Not Found".

It's a conundrum isn't it?

[Metal Giant]

I'll also add that even the Darik's Boot & Nuke CD I'd made to wipe the old system clean, that used to work before, now suffers a nil response like the rest. <shrugs>