Trying to burn to CD, but zip files are messing me up. Help?

[losthighway]

Hi. I installed Ubuntu 8.10 on my laptop already, however I did it with a USB drive.

My friend saw my Ubuntu and wants it on his desktop, but his Dell doesn't have the option to boot from USB. So I am trying to burn Ubuntu onto a disc. But I am having a problem: whenever I download Ubuntu, it saves as a Winzip file. I assume I have to unzip it in order to burn it to CD, but every time I do that, it unzips in a dozen or so different folders, like filesystem and filesystemsquash and casper, etc. Every time I've seen someone burn Ubuntu on a tutorial on youtube, it is always one file...mine unzip all over the place. I'd really like to get Ubuntu on my friend's desktop...how do I fix this? What am I doing wrong?

And yes, I know I'm a noob. :)

[mechro]

You need to download an ISO file.

Can you show me the link where you're downloading from?

Are you doing this in Windows or Ubuntu?

[dvlchd3]

Where are you downloading Ubuntu from? If you are downloading from ubuntu.com, you should be downloading a ISO file. You can then burn it with your favorite CD burning software.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

[losthighway]

Hmm I getting it from http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download and selecting the 8.04 since his Dell is a few years old. Whenever the download option comes up (I'm doing this on Windows) it says Open file using Winzip (default) or save file. Either way, it saves to my computer as a Winzip file. :(

[mechro]

Hmm I getting it from http://www.ubuntu.com/GetUbuntu/download and selecting the 8.04 since his Dell is a few years old. Whenever the download option comes up (I'm doing this on Windows) it says Open file using Winzip (default) or save file. Either way, it saves to my computer as a Winzip file. :(

Hmm, not sure if it's your Windows browser doing that.

Can you go here and tell me if you see iso files?...

http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/releases.ubuntu.com/jaunty/

Don't download just yet.

[losthighway]

LOL. well on my Windows computer whenever I go to that link it says "Sorry, there is a problem accessing this item. It may not exist."

Yet whenever I go to it on my laptop (which is running Ubuntu), I see iso files. I would do this from laptop, but it doesn't have a CD burner...hence why I am using a Windows PC.

I am using Firefox to do this. Maybe that's the problem?

[losthighway]

Well I opened regular Internet Explorer on Windows and went to the Ubuntu download page and when I try to download it still says Type: WinZip File. Grrr....what is wrong with this.

[MelDJ]

maybe windows does not want your friend to change to ubuntu. i see that the file is what you get after ubuntu installed. maybe try another download server?
or is IE and firefox configured to open .iso files with winzip? that might be what makes it open up the .iso file and makes you see the squashfs files? try changing that

[losthighway]

LOL, it would be something Microsoft would do. I can keep trying different download sites I suppose.

[MelDJ]

tried changing what firefox does with files?

[mechro]

LOL. well on my Windows computer whenever I go to that link it says "Sorry, there is a problem accessing this item. It may not exist."

Yet whenever I go to it on my laptop (which is running Ubuntu), I see iso files. I would do this from laptop, but it doesn't have a CD burner...hence why I am using a Windows PC.

I am using Firefox to do this. Maybe that's the problem?

Have you got a flash drive? You could download on your laptop and transfer via that.

[losthighway]

I actually have Ubuntu saved on a flash drive already, but the Dell I'm going to be installing it onto doesn't have an option to boot from a flash drive in the BIOS. So...guess it has to be CD. I think Windows is punishing me.

[mechro]

I actually have Ubuntu saved on a flash drive already, but the Dell I'm going to be installing it onto doesn't have an option to boot from a flash drive in the BIOS. So...guess it has to be CD. I think Windows is punishing me.

No, I meant transfer the ISO file via the flashdrive.

Does your Ubuntu flashdrive installation have space for writing files?

[losthighway]

Actually I believe it does. Thanks, man, I can't believe I didn't think of that. I could just download it on my laptop, save it to the flash drive, and transfer it to the desktop. You're a genius.

[mechro]

Actually I believe it does. Thanks, man, I can't believe I didn't think of that. I could just download it on my laptop, save it to the flash drive, and transfer it to the desktop. You're a genius.

No I'm not. :)

By the way, go for Ubuntu 9.04. There's no advantage to using an older version just because it's an old computer.

Of course you'll still need an ISO burner when you get it on the desktop.

[losthighway]

I suppose I could do 9.04, I'm just a bit concerned since this Dell is like...circa 2002 or 2003. I'm a little worried his graphics card may not be up to date and he won't be able to do all those advanced graphics. But I guess we'll see...

[mechro]

I suppose I could do 9.04, I'm just a bit concerned since this Dell is like...circa 2002 or 2003. I'm a little worried his graphics card may not be up to date and he won't be able to do all those advanced graphics. But I guess we'll see...

Well, it probably won't but you can switch off the fancy stuff. Personally I don't use it and it's disabled on my system.

[losthighway]

Hmm one more quick question: it's downloading to my laptop as an .iso file right now and I can see it, but there are two icons and one says .iso at the end and the other says .iso.part and it looks like a document with a bunch of 1's and 0's (the other icon looks like a disc). I'm assuming I save the one with the disc that ends in .iso and ignore the other?

[MelDJ]

no. thats normal. because the file is not fully downloaded hence, the part file comes, when it finishes, the .part file will dissapear and you will be left with the .iso

[losthighway]

Thanks MelDJ. :)

I hope my friend appreciates me doing all this for him.

[losthighway]

NOOOOOO!! I just plugged the flash drive into the PC and it shows up as a WinZip file on there now, too! Arrrrgh...why is this happening to me.

[MelDJ]

if you plug into your friends laptop, what files comes up? windows might think it should open the .iso with winzip. thats why it does exactly that

[mechro]

NOOOOOO!! I just plugged the flash drive into the PC and it shows up as a WinZip file on there now, too! Arrrrgh...why is this happening to me.

OK. Back to square one. What makes you think it's a WinZip file? Can you see file extensions in this Windows installation?

[losthighway]

Nevermind, I just got it solved, finally. All I did was try burning the zip file with Image Burn anyway, and guess what? It did. I put the CD in after burning, and now it's working fine. How odd.

[mechro]

Nevermind, I just got it solved, finally. All I did was try burning the zip file with Image Burn anyway, and guess what? It did. I put the CD in after burning, and now it's working fine. How odd.

Cool. But I bet it's an iso file rather than a zip file. WinZip can extract iso files so I guess on that computer the file association for iso has been set for WinZip. As far as I remember you can fiddle about with Windows file associations in Folder Options... though it ain't not mattering anyhow now!

[losthighway]

Haha, yeah, I have no desire to go back to my buggy Windows. That thing stalled or crashed more than it worked. Thanks for all your help. Nice to see people take such an interest in lending a hand here.