Can't boot from F13 RC3 x86_64 DVD

Pumpino · #1 19th May 2010, 08:04 AM

I've successfully installed RC3 x86_64 onto my Dell laptop, however I'm unable to get my Core 2 Duo to boot from the same DVD. I've burned several copies (I tried limiting the burning speed to 4x) but the computer refuses to boot from the DVD; it either hangs while trying to read it or goes to the grub menu on my HDD.

I removed my Pioneer 216 drive and tried an old IDE drive, but that made no difference. Other CDs, such as Ubuntu boot fine.

I'm kind of stumped as to what to try, since I've tried burning different copies and tried a different DVD drive. I'm running F12 x86_64 on the same machine, so 64-bit should be fine.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

andrewthomas · #2 19th May 2010, 04:42 PM

For some reason, I had problems once when I had ACPI APIC support disabled in BIOS. Once I enabled it, I could boot from the installation DVD.

Pumpino · #3 19th May 2010, 10:37 PM

Thanks for the suggestion. I had a look in the bios of my Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 motherboard but couldn't find any reference to ACPI/APIC.

I decided to download the i386 ISO and have found that that loads the grub menu on the DVD without any issue. It's almost as though the x86_64 DVD doesn't believe my computer is 64-bit, yet F12 and Ubuntu 10.04 are running the 64-bit versions. Maybe I'll be forced to switched to i386, which seems like a shame.

**AdamW** · #4 20th May 2010, 02:56 AM

No. If that was the problem, it'd display an explicit error message to that effect. It just sounds like the system doesn't like booting that particular disc for some reason. You could try burning it on another drive, or another type of media.

Pumpino · #5 20th May 2010, 03:22 AM

Strange that the i386 DVD works fine on the same Verbatim media and burned with the same DVD drive though.

I've tried different media but will copy the ISO to my laptop and try burning it on that to see if it makes a difference.

Thanks.

CSchwangler · #6 20th May 2010, 06:59 AM

Am I right to assume you verified the checksum of the downloaded iso file?

Pumpino · #7 20th May 2010, 09:43 AM

Yes, the sha256sum was correct and the ISO installed fine on my laptop.

---------- Post added at 06:43 PM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 06:42 PM CDT ----------

I copied the ISO across my LAN from the PC in question to my laptop, checked the sha256sum again and then burned/verified it on the laptop.

Again, attempting to boot the x86_64 ISO on my Intel Core2 E6420 2.13GHz with a Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 board fails, regardless of the DVD drive I use. The DVD drive and HDD LEDs stay on but it fails to boot from either the DVD or the HDD. ie. it hangs. Booting 64-bit F12 or Ubuntu media works correctly.

Booting the zillion F13 DVDs I've burned in the last two days on my laptop launches the F13 setup correctly every time.

My question is, what is it about F13 x86_64 that results in it not booting off the DVD? I'm sure others will report being affected by this, especially if it's not resolved before next Tuesday's release.

**AdamW** · #8 20th May 2010, 06:03 PM

It's something specific to your situation, because we've tested it on many other systems and it's fine. Oddness like this does just sometimes happen, and it can be very hard to diagnose.

bbecker · #9 20th May 2010, 08:38 PM

Have you thought about grabbing the 64bit live cd?

Pumpino · #10 21st May 2010, 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bbecker

Have you thought about grabbing the 64bit live cd?

Great minds think alike. I thought of that just before seeing your post and guess what - it works! It's going to require a bit more work to add and remove programs (ie. I don't usually install Evolution, Cheese, Empathy, etc, but will need OpenOffice) but at least I'll be able to stick with the 64-bit version.

I'm still curious as to why the DVD won't work and would still like to solve the mystery, but as Adam suggested, it might just be one of those things...

---------- Post added at 10:43 AM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 07:30 AM CDT ----------

I've been comparing the DVD installation on my laptop with the live CD and decided that the inability of my other computer to recognise the DVD might be a blessing in disguise.

The only packages that I require from the DVD that aren't on the CD are gimp, thunderbird, k3b, openoffice, system-config-services, system-config-network, system-config-language and policycoreutils-gui.

The advantage is that the CD is only 700MB to download and the DVD is 3.5GB, so in the future, I'll save bandwidth by sticking with the CD and downloading the packages listed above.

Do you guys only use the DVD? Are there any disadvantages to using the CD that I may have missed?

bbecker · #11 21st May 2010, 07:03 AM

The only issues I've had using the cd compared to the dvd is that the install process is a bit more granular than with an install dvd. Very occasionally you'll go to use a utility (gcc in my case) and find it wasn't installed. Nothing a quick yum install can't take care of, but sometimes an annoyance.

I was an avid DVD installer until about F9. The accumulating piles of media and seemingly wasted bandwidth turned me towards the live-cd (live-usb, really) and I haven't looked back.

CSchwangler · #12 21st May 2010, 08:02 AM

I am like bbecker and usually download the liveCD. Download and installation is quicker and any software I need can be easily installed through yum. Another thing is that I always go for Gnome as my desktop environment and therefore have no need for KDE.

**AdamW** · #13 21st May 2010, 08:28 PM

I usually install my systems from the live CD, just for the sake of time.

robatino · #14 22nd May 2010, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pumpino

I've successfully installed RC3 x86_64 onto my Dell laptop, however I'm unable to get my Core 2 Duo to boot from the same DVD. I've burned several copies (I tried limiting the burning speed to 4x) but the computer refuses to boot from the DVD; it either hangs while trying to read it or goes to the grub menu on my HDD.

To make sure that the RC3 x86_64 DVD is readable by the Core 2 Duo, you can either use "checkisomd5 /dev/dvd" while running Fedora, or the mediacheck of the DVD that you can boot (swap in the x86_64 DVD when prompted), to check that the DVD passes.