Problems running PCLinuxOS LiveCD

[newbietone]

I'm a newbie, although I have tinkered with Unix before today. I have just tried to run a PCLinuxOS v9.3 - big daddy - from my CD on an XP configured machine by simply altering the boot drive sequence. I get the list of boot options as expected and choose LIVECD - default. The PCLinuxOS coloured badge appears and starts the loading process, then I get an error message "ERROR: Unable to mount the livecd" - "dropping you to a limited shell". It then loads /initrd/bin/ash - ending with a message - "cant access tty; job control turned off" and then leaves me with the ash command prompt.

Bearing in mind this whole apparatus works perfectly well with XP at the moment and also that I have a perfectly normal IDE CD read drive unit, this was unexpected.

It looks very serious and basic to me - can anyone shed some light on what the problem might be / where to get help etc.

Many thanks - a newbie.

[Rob Pomeroy]

By far the easiest thing to do is simply try a different distribution.  What do you intend to use this Linux machine for?

Ubuntu, VectorLinux, SuSE and Fedora are all good alternative choices and there are many others.

[newbietone]

Thanks for the opinion Rob. I was coming round to that idea myself as I've made no progress over the past 2 days. The problem is it may be a faulty distribution burn but I cant even check the CD as it wont mount. I will download something fairly simple - as you suggest - and try that first. Probably getting back to some basic Unix type scripting and a basic shell is needed first.

With regards to what do I want to do with the PC - this is my first attempt to create a working desktop Linux based system. I have eventually decided to give Microsoft the heave-ho as their software distributions and VISTA are just a joke - the costs are just not worth it.

Will let you know what happens. Thanks.

[Rob Pomeroy]

In that case, Ubuntu is an obvious choice.  I would prefer the Kubuntu flavour (more of a desktop for power users) or the Xubuntu flavour (for older hardware).

I presume you did md5 sum checks on your downloaded ISOs?

Do keep us posted!

[newbietone]

Rob,

Success, ran the same CD distribution on another machine quickly put together and no problems. Live CD ran but a little slow. I suspect something to do with the sequence of CD access on the first system was at fault - will partially rebuild it and try again.

Thanks.

P.S. Havnt yet needed to try another distro so will persevere with this one for the time being - keep things as simple as possible.

Now have to get to grips with what an ISO image is prior to the installation.

[Rob Pomeroy]

Live CD ran but a little slow.

Try running Windows off a CD!!!

Now have to get to grips with what an ISO image is prior to the installation.

I don't follow you - haven't you've already created a burnt CD from an ISO?

[newbietone]

I bought a distribution CD from Linuxman Rob - so it's all pretty new to me.

[Rob Pomeroy]

Ah, got you.

If you have a fat enough internet pipe, you can download different Linux distributions rapidly.  Once you have the ISO images, use something like DeepBurner (see the software FAQ - link is in my signature) to write to CD.  But I do recommend using >md5summer< prior to burning to verify your downloaded ISOs.

[newbietone]

Thanks for the info Rob - have just returned from holiday.