Is there a file equivalent to WINNT.EXE on the Ubuntu CD?

[MAXXE]

I'm having trouble booting from a CD on an old PC. I've tried changing boot order, selecting CD from boot menu, and even Smart Boot Manager doesn't detect the CD-rom drive, etc. So now I'm trying floppies. With a Win XP CD, you could boot with a floppy and run WINNT.EXE on the CD to enter setup (E:\I386\WINNT.EXE), which btw won't work either and I get an "Interal Setup Error", but I'm guessing this would work under normal circumstances. Is there a similar file to WINNT.EXE on the Ubuntu install CD that could be run from DOS to begin setup?

The installation guides on the Ubuntu site recommend using Smart Boot Manager, but like I said, it won't recognize the drive. In this case, SBM's FAQ suggests inputting the I/O ports for the IDE controller, but I don't know how to find those.

[whoop]

Could it just be that your cd-drive is toast? I come to this conclusion because all you have tried (even the WINNT.exe solution) seems to have failed.

This is has a small chance (as you mentioned it is an old machine) but does it support booting from USB? You can install ubuntu from a usb storage device.

[MAXXE]

Possibly. It can read CDs fine when the OS (currently Windows XP) is loaded, although sometimes the drive won't show up... and the BIOS doesn't support USB booting.

[Mark Phelps]

Possibly. It can read CDs fine when the OS (currently Windows XP) is loaded, although sometimes the drive won't show up... and the BIOS doesn't support USB booting.

I've had situations where, over time, the cable to the CD drive actually worked loose. Given that it only shows up sometimes, it's at least worth checking the cable connection.