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How to create a bootable CD?

Asked by Jim
Official Answers
On another note, we only support downloads from our list of mirrors that we have on our site. If you downloaded elsewhere we cannot gurantee the CD is any good. If the site you are downloading from wants to become an official mirror that is fine, but we cannot gurantee their files until they are one.
Answered by Nick Hughart

I don't know what "boot files" you expected to find. The CD boots the linux kernel that is inside the casper folder.
Answered by Nick Hughart

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Sean

2008-03-12 06:20:44

Just signed up to add my 2 cents too.

I've had problems with booting the latest version too.. I tried the torrent and the direct download, burnt it a couple of times and no luck.. (Ubuntu and DSL loaded fine off CD on these systems - only gOS failed).

But, I've just tried it in yet another machine and it's worked fine.

Joe

2008-03-06 20:57:37

But Nick...you've had multiple people tell you that this same .iso won't boot when burned to disc. And the location they burned it from was the torrent link that YOU folks listed on the official site, along with all those non-functional mirror sites.

Gee...I wonder why nobody is talking about this OS...maybe because they can't get the thing to work?

Mahjongg

2008-03-03 11:11:50

Read this thread from the start, and you would have seen that this is not new, some computers with an Advance BIOS indeed ignore the gOS 2 CD. One trick to boot gOS 2, is to use another live_cd to boot upto the boot menu, then replace the CD with gOS. Another is to use a boot_floppy that boots a CD.
Replacing "the boot info", might work if we knew what "the boot info" actually is.

Since a week or so there is also gOS rocket "ultimate edition", which is gOS 2.0.0-beta1 with most of the missing parts added (gOS 2-beta is a limited demo version) and some of the unstable components replaced, for example the file browser is replaced by Thunar. This version -might- boot, as it has been "re-mastered".

It is a free download, read more about it here:

http://cafelinux.org/gosforum/index.php/topic,325.0.html

lcm

2008-03-03 04:52:33

I found that the gOS 2.0-beta1 iso is only bootable on some motherboards. I am not sure is the problem caused by the version of isolinux on the iso or not. Anyway, you may try to fixed this problem by replace the boot info on the iso.

Use ISO editing tools to read a boot info from a tested bootable ubuntu CDDVD, and then use it to replace the one on the gOS 2.0-beta1 iso, then burn it and play it.

Mahjongg

2008-02-28 14:09:21

Not booting to the boot menu is a sign of a corrupt .ISO, or CD.

If your .ISO download is corrupt, and that happens, it does not matter if you burn it the right way.

So, If the computer hangs when you try to boot the CD then the CD is "nicht in ordnung"!

What -can- happen is that the CD is ignored, if you have an old BIOS, or you burned it in the wrong way.
But if its detected as bootable, then you -should- get a boot menu, not showing the boot menu when the CD is OK, just is very unlikely.


Adolf Hitler

2008-02-28 13:34:59

I burned the ISO file to a CD and created my bootable CD.

I restarted my Dell Dimension 4300S and waited in anticipation of the live-CD to start.

I got a line of text and then waited - and waited - and waited - and waited and... nothing!

MrMagoo

2008-02-28 02:21:56

Ok...this is actually very very simple. The .iso file that you have downloaded must be burned to a cd as an image...not just an .iso file. Go to http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/?page_id=5 and download the program...it's freeware and I have found no problems with it. Once you have installed the program go to the action tab at the top and choose burn image. Then choose the .iso file you downloaded and burn it to a disc...best to do this at one of the slower speed settings like 24x instead of the full speed...it just burns mor acurate. When you're done put the disc in and the gOS will run all happy and free. Just remember at this point it's just running off the disc and there is an Icon on the desktop that says install....and that will install it to your hard drive :) Good luck to all!

Mahjongg

2008-02-22 13:11:51

All older systems with an Advance BIOS have problems with booting gOS 2.0-beta1

Nobody from the gOS team seems to have worked on the Enlightement based gOS 2 after this demo was released. Probably because of critical comments they got during the Consumer electronics show, or from gOS 2.0-Beta 1 Live_CD users they must have come to the conclusion that E17 was a dead end for a really consumer based gOS, so I think they put all their effort into re-writing gOS 2.0-beta 1 to create gOS v2, a gOS based on the Gnome desktop manager, instead of on E17.

gOS v2 is released this week on the CloudBook which is now for sale on the web-site of wal-mart, and it will also run on the gBook laptop which is also announced on the wal-mart website.

So this wont be "wrapped up already", not by Good OS anyway, but that is the bad news, If you really want to use the E18 based gOS 2, there is someone who made an unofficial "remastering" of gOS 2. Mind you, its an unofficial release, (use at your own discretion) but it could be just what you want.

its a brand new version of the gOS 2 Live_CD with a lot of improvements and extras, he:

* Added gnome-system-tools for easy creation of new users
* Added Audacity 1.2.6
* Added Opera 9.25
* Added Brasero CD/DVD burner
* Added Thunar File Manager
* Added xfce4-terminal
* Added Aria download manager
* Added wvdial for dial-up users
* Added ndiswrapper and Broadcom 4306 chipset drivers (drivers work out of the box)
* Added Wicd wifi manager
* Added several classic console emulators (ROMS are not included)
* Added w32codecs
* Added libdvdcss2
* Added ubuntu-restricted-extras for enhanced out-of-the-box multimedia support
* Added linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic and gcc
* Added Conexant HSF winmodem OEM driver from Dell for HSF modems
* Upgraded Pidgin from 2.2.1 to 2.3.1
* Upgraded GIMP 2.4.0.RC2 to GIMP 2.4.2 (current version is now 2.4.4)

You can get his version here:

http://darthchaosofrspw.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/announcing-gos-rocket-linux-20-ultimate-edition/

it especially might be helpful for some people who need better Wlan support, or want to use a POTS modem.

Of course there is no guarantee it will boot on your laptop, but you can always use the bootflopy trick, or boot up using the Ubuntu-Cd trick.

Curdo

2008-02-22 09:53:08

The weird thing is that this is obviously a problem for many people. And the problem is always the same:

gOS 1.0.1 boots fine
Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu all boot fine
gOS 2.0.0 beta 1 does not boot fine at all.

Why hasn't there been a 2.0.0 beta 2 released with this fix. Its an easy fix, obviously, if gOS is based on Ubuntu, and the Ubuntu boot trick (as described in this document) works for most people.

Lets just get this wrapped up already.

tsarig

2008-01-13 11:55:59

Anoter method for bypassing the Award BIOS CD boot problem is to install Smart Boot Manager on a floppy, boot from it, and boot CD using the option from the boot menu.

http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/3.7/

Jano

2008-01-13 06:34:43

my system's got award softmenu iii, just for the note.

Mahjongg

2008-01-13 00:31:04

I can confirm that the trick using the Ubuntu 7.10 CD works for me too.
Early on I had tried this same trick with the gOS 1.0.1 Disk, but that did not work, so I thought it would not work with Ubuntu either, I was wrong, it does work.

Perhaps another way to boot would be to boot with a "CD boot" floppy disk, but I have not tried, because it is quite a job to create such a floppy.

nathan

2008-01-12 17:21:07

I worked around this problem by booting a Ubuntu 7.10 CD, then at the boot menu ejecting the CD and inserting the gOS CD. After waiting for a moment for the CD to spin up, I selected the "Boot or Install Ubuntu" that was already on the screen. After that it happily started up gOS and got to the desktop.

Just glancing at the CD boot files it looks like it uses the same CD bootstrapping method as Ubuntu, so it must just be some small glitch somewhere that is making some machines (all of mine) not like the CD.

chatan

2008-01-12 15:06:04

For me same problem: downloaded 2.0.0 from official site as torrent. md5 checksum is OK. burnt as an iso with data verification. CD doesn't boot on either of my two machines (both with Award BIOS incidently) During start-up it tries to boot from the CD, but it just continues to boot from HD.

Jano

2008-01-12 13:51:42

Same problem here: downloaded 2.0.0 from official site as torrent. md5 checksum done. burnt with isoburn, checksum matches again. abit mainboard, duron 900 cpu and award (?) bios, cd doesn't boot....

Mahjongg

2008-01-11 14:17:28

Jim, yes, I am now convinced there is something with the combination with an older AWARD BIOS, and booting gOS Rocket. I now remember I have read somewhere in the past some rumours that older BIOS can have some problems with booting some CD's. Perhaps some change was made to the booting process when Good OS re-wrote gOS Rocket whereby this problem no occurs.

I think that some of the confusion was caused by the fact that gOS 1.0.1 CD contains the file "autorun.inf" and other related files, and the Rocket CD does not. But these files seem to be for the benefit of Windows. not Linux.

Just for the record, while testing gOS today, I was amazed that from gOS I could reach FAQLY without any problem, and more-so the answers were displayed without the ugly breaking of words in halve at the ends of sentences I was so accustomed to. So I also tried to reach FAQLY using firefox on windows, with the familiar "server not found" result. I tried it with gOS and Windows several times, and now I am more or less convinced that FAQLY is "cheating", when a Windows system tries to login it sometimes seems to pretend to "be not there", not so when entering using gOS. I can see the logic in doing so, but I am still surprised. Can anyone confirm this? Also, now I am again using Mac OSX safari to browse FAQLY the word breaking problem is back! So for best user experience of FAQLY, use gOS :-) .

Jim

2008-01-11 12:18:51

Interesting! Out of curiosity I tried booting the gOS 2.0.0-beta1 CD on my "ancient" Intel D815EFV system with Celeron 800 and 320 MB of memory. It loaded without exception. I can only conclude that "Rocket" does not like the Award BIOS. On my "new" system EPOX EP-8KDA3J AWARD BIOS AMD Sempron 1600 with 1 GB memory, etc., I tried disconnecting all but the CD drive and tried to boot "Rocket". Only to be greeted by the BOOT DISC FAILURE error message. (The same CD that booted on my ancient system, md5 was OK, etc.)

RE: Rick - Incidentally, my source for the gOS "Rocket" 2.0.0-beta CD was from the bittorrent link on the "official page". I can also add that I have never had a problem booting the Ubuntu Live CD's with my setup (EPOX). This includes the recent Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" beta 3 released yesterday. I was lead to believe that gOS was based on some extent on Ubuntu.
I was perplexed as to why the gOS 1.0.1 booted OK and when I tried the gOS 2.0.2-beta it failed. So I went looking for the reason and discovered the different file layout on the two releases. So what is this "boot files" of which you speak?

Mahjongg

2008-01-11 04:33:22

Well, it finally works, and it looks great!

I tried the same CD that did not boot on my Award BIOS PC, and it booted fine on this more modern P4 PC!

Actually I am using gOS Rocket to write this!

So, the problem really seems to be the BIOS of my old PC!

The fact that there are much fewer files on the CD than on the older rev 1.0.1 version does -not- matter, as Nick Hugart says above.

Still, it might be worthwile for Good OS to look into this BIOS boot problem, as many older systems might be affected, remember, the old rev 1.0.1 version booted fine with the Award BIOS!

Michael

2008-01-10 20:36:02

re: downloads -- of the available links only the bittorrent downloaded successfully for me

re:booting -- I also couldn't get the cd to boot by itself (coincidentally have the same Award bios version or very similar to what someone mentioned) I loaded it through a bootcd that could then recognize the cd and call isolinux
It might be different on a fresh hard-drive.

re:install -- the install to harddrive has often been successful to like 70% ["Creating user directories. Oops. Installation failed."]

But it's pretty :)

Mahjongg

2008-01-10 17:56:28

A small addendum, I came across another download site:

http://www.digglinux.com/software/Ubuntu/gOS/2.0/

Downloaded it there, and it downloaded without a hitch.

But this version too has only the files described below and it also does NOT boot. I tried version 1.0.1 again just to make sure my PC is not to blame, but gOS 1.0.1 booted flawlessly.

I can see my PC trying to boot from the CD, but it only says "boot failed", and continues to boot from HD.

It now seems to me to to be a problem in the distributed built, or it -might- be something to do with the Bios of my PC (Award Modular Bios v4.51PG), but my PC has booted many other live CD's, such as knoppix etc and Ubuntu, even when my BIOS is to blame, it still is a problem that needs to be fixed!

Can anybody confirm that his version of gos-live-2.0.0-beta1.iso -does- boot?

And if it does, does it only have the files on it described below, or does it have many other files, like gOS 1.0.1

Ill try to boot the several CD's I have burned tomorrow on another PC, to see if any of them they -will- boot on other PC's.

Still, it seems to me to be clear that there is something wrong with the .ISO's distributed by these two servers!

Mahjongg

2008-01-10 16:44:48

Well, the fifth attempt (all the others aborted before completing) completed all the way to 536MB, and the "activation" (opening as a "drive" with OS-X, I'm using a Mac) worked, that is, the Mac accepted it as a "mountable" .ISO file.

Unfortunately the CD I burned with this version -still- won't boot, and when I look at the CD there are still only the three 3 files on and 3 directories on it as described by Jim. Maybe that is as it should be, maybe not, I don't know.

I can't do a MD5 checksum, (I no idea how to do that) but my Mac rapport's that the CD has a "CR32" checksum of $C1A27971

I have no idea what went wrong, it almost seems the file served by UnderGround-Server.com is corrupted. I have read some descriptions of gOS linux, so it seems that it -is- possible to download a correct version, but I don't know where else I can try, perhaps the torrent version works. Only mirror 2 (texas) and mirror 5 Kentucky = UnderGround-server.com) are "up", and Mirror 2 does not start to download at all.

I try again tomorrow.

Mahjongg

2008-01-10 14:32:38

Same problem here, I downloaded the .ISO from UnderGround-Server.com, and burned the .ISO to a CD, then tried to boot it, but it did not work (did it before with gOS 1.0.1 so I knew that it should work.
One thing that had puzzled me was how quick the burning took place, that gave me a hint, and after inspecting the CD, and the downloaded .ISO I discovered it had many missing files, just three files, and three subdirectories, while the gOS rev 1.0.1 CD had dozens more.
Then I saw in my download manager that I had only downloaded a 50Mb file!
I did not get any errors, but clearly something had gone wrong as the .ISO should be 536Mb.
I am now trying to download the .ISO again, and all seems to go OK so far.
Ill report here if I succeed this time.
By the way, if you can burn the .ISO to your CD at a speed as low as possible, because I have heard that many boot problems can be solved that way, at lower speed the burning is much more reliable.

Jim

2008-01-10 12:44:41

I downloaded the gOS Live 2.0.0-beta1 and verified the md5sum. When I burn the gos-live-2.0.0-beta1.iso to a CD and try to boot with it the CD it is not read and my computer skips over it. My BIOS is set to boot from the CD as the first boot source. When I look at the structure of the CD I create there does not appear to be any boot files on it. Just three folders: Casper, Isolinux, and preseed and three text files: LiveCD_Version, readme, and md5sum.txt.

I tried the infrarecorder program but no luck. So perhaps I am doing it wrong and may need some specific hand holding to create the CD. I burned the gOS-Live-1.0.1 OK and it boots OK.

madjr

2008-01-10 09:27:19

download the ISO and burn as "image" (not "data")

if you are using windows, you can use the open source program infrarecorder to burn to a CD
http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/

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