cant reinstall mint or install ubuntu

[nepalnt21]

hello everyone

this problem has been going on for awhile... i was unable to get the dyne:bolic dock to work, because it would not boot from the cd no matter how many times i told it to.

then i made a disc of mint, and a disc of ubuntu. i put in the ubuntu disc, and it worked! the window popped up, and allowed me to try ubuntu. well, then i wanted to try out mint. this time, i decided to install it (instead of windows 2000), and it worked like a charm. now i want to install ubuntu, but the computer just will not run the disc. nor will it boot from the cd drive. i even made a usb stick, and it wont boot from that, either. i followed the intructrions to the dot on the 'i', and the disc im trying to boot ubuntu from is the same disc that worked yesterday.

really, if i can reinstall mint, that would be cool, too (i screwed around with things i probably shouldnt have screwed around with)

thanks for any help

i should probably add that i will have no idea of what you speak if it has anything to do with computers because im what 15 year olds 5 years ago called a "newb"

[Rubi1200]

You need to decide which distro you want. Since Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu, I don't see the point of installing them both.

My suggestion:

If you want something that works out of the box, has things like Flash and codecs preinstalled etc., then go with Linux Mint.

If this is to be your only operating system, then use the CD to reinstall and try and resist the temptation to fiddle too much once it is all set up (very hard to do I know ;)).

If you need help reinstalling let us know.

[Joe Ker1086]

I think the problem you are having is with the boot order. I would guess at some point it stopped looking to the cd drive first. Check the boot order when the computer is booting up. depending on the computer there might be a key you can press to boot off a selected device or you might have to get into the bios (usually f2 or f8) and move the cdrom above the hard drive.

[nepalnt21]

ive been trying that. right now i think i have it in the order of boot from cd first, then the removable drive (my usb) and then it goes to the hard drive.

so far it tries to boot from cd, and i assume fro the usb also, but it never succeeds.

its a gateway laptop, btw. (and i cant find the manual for it, either... for some reason i dont think the gateway site has it)

could there be something wrong with the booterer thingymabobber?

edit* well i found my manual, and there doesnt seem to be a key to press or hold to get it to boot from cd.

the strangest smell of fish is emanating forth from this issue.

[AllenGG]

Hey Newb ! very small thing, did you "shutdown" the puter first ????
Yes, turn it off, unplug etc. Then, try a reinstall or whatever. Linux Mint 9 is spectacular, and I've been using Ubuntu for 6 years. Reinstalled Mint 9 on my 6 year old (or is it 7?) 64 bit system, scary fast. My newer (1 yr old) dual proc etc, is not as fast with 9.04.
PM if I can help.
Allen