Can't make iso image work on Mac

Which Mac?

It's a Imac desktop - running with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

The files on the ubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso I downloaded look like windows files.

Did you MD5 test the iSO you downloaded?

No I didn't do a MD5 test.

As it was the only Ubuntu version I could download I thought it must be universal.

There is also Lucid which is available and supported. As you have failed to MD5 test your ISO you have absolutely no way of knowing if the image is consistent or complete. This guide will help. Once we know that the image is good we can continue. If the image is bad then you will need to redownload and retest so you have a good image and it would explain the issues you are having.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

Please can you tell 2 people about MD5 testing and have them tell 2 friends.

Thanks

"and saved it to both a CD"

Sometimes newbies just copy the ISO to a CD. No. You need to "burn" the CD. This is a special operation which will create a booting Linux disk.

Look at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

Thanks for that I'll take a look at the MD5 testing info. I had a quick look how to do it in Terminal, it look kind of straight forward.

I'm certainly a newbie!

Dazed and confused at the mo. Learning curves are good!!

When you put the CD in your mac, you see the iso file recorded in it? Or you see several files and folders in it?

If you see the iso file, you didn't record it correctly.

Federico, when I open the CD I get 14 items. The size of the info on the disc is 726.8 MB.

Did you put the CD and then restarted the computer with the CD still in? Also try hitting the F12 key while booting in order to get the option to boot from the CD.

I'm sorry if you already tried this, but if you did, what was the error message you got?

The CD was in when i restarted the mac - I'm not sure but I think that maybe mac's try to boot from the CD drive first then go to the HD.

I've just tried f12 but nothing seems to happen. All the mac seems to do is boot up as normal (no error messages)

Some of the files on the disc are "exe" could that be the problem?

You have to make the mac boot from CD/DVD unit.

Here it sais pressing C as soon as you reboot makes it:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533

Here it suggests pressing the option key as soon and you reboot.
http://kb.iu.edu/data/ages.html

Check your mac documentation or manual.

I restarted and pressed C on boot up at that seemed to get the mac to boot from the disc. Sadly the disc seems to be the problem as all I got was a black screen with a small white flashing line in the top left hand corner.

"I restarted and pressed C on boot up at that seemed to get the mac to boot from the disc. Sadly the disc seems to be the problem as all I got was a black screen with a small white flashing line in the top left hand corner."

Have you MD5 tested the .iso image used to create the CD yet? If not, now is a good time to do that. If so, did you burn it as slowly as possible? If not, now is a good time to try re-burning it slowly.

Did you ever see an Ubuntu logo, or anything else besides a black screen with a flashing _ at the upper-left corner?

If you saw an Ubuntu logo in the middle of the screen, try immediately pressing Escape when you first see it, so you can see the messages that are "behind" it--if Escape doesn't work, try F2.

If you didn't see that, perhaps you did see a keyboard and person logo at the bottom center of the screen. If so (whether or not you also saw the Ubuntu logo), try booting up and pressing Spacebar immediately when you see those two logos. Then you can select your language, and then select "Check disc for defects". Please let us know if that reveals any problems.

Regardless of your answers to the above questions, when you see the black screen with the blinking _ cursor, what, if anything, happens when you press Alt+F1?

The CD test is good, only a good ISO can make a good CD. You should always check the ISO before. Most new users don't and it's frustrating as it takes extra time to get troubleshooting started.

Eliah,

I haven't tested MD5 as I have no idea how to do so.

Any tips on doing so on a Mac would be greatly appreciated.

I didn't see any logo's or keyboard and person logo, just a black screen with a white cursor flashing - maybe I need to give it more time to boot in?

I tried Alt and F1, sadly nothing seemed to happen.

Thanks to everyone who has had a go at helping me, i am grateful.

Check md5 on a mac
http://osxdaily.com/2009/10/13/check-md5-hash-on-your-mac/

Just googled it. I don't have a mac.

Also here

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM#MD5SUM%20on%20Mac%20OS%20X

There have been posts about how to MD5 sum the .iso image both before and after my post. Please do that, and see if the MD5 sum checks out. If it does, let us know. If it doesn't, redownload the .iso image, MD5 sum the newly download image, and assuming it checks out, burn it as slowly as possible to a new CD and try again.

Many thanks for your patients guys.

Federico thanks for the link, I ran the MD5 and got this result (MD5 (desktop/ubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso) = 59d15a16ce90c8ee97fa7c211b7673a8) Is that ok?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes

You tell us

Thanks for the link actionparsnip, all looks good according the MD5 hash.

I'll re-burn the iso at the slowest speed.

Ok re-burnt iso at slowest speed but still the same result - Black screen with white flashing cursor.

Should I wait a bit longer (maybe something will happen) or is it that ubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso doesn't actually work on mac OSX 10.6.7?

www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-fix-ubuntu-10-04-lts-lucid-blank-screen-at-startup.html

Many thanks for the link actionparsnip, this looks like it might be the problem as I have a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS card installed. None of the solutions seem to work so at this time I seem to have been beaten.

If anyone has any possible fixes to get Ubunta 10.10 to run on a i-mac running OSX 10.6.7 I'd be extremely grateful.

I've had a break through!

I installed VirualBox and that's allowed me to boot into the iso disc.

Thanks so much for everybody's input, much appreciated.

Mike

How did that help?

Or do you mean that you've given up on installing Ubuntu on your computer, and decided to run it in a virtual machine on your computer instead?

Some new intel macs have EFI instead of BIOS, so the boot process does not work. Try entering the BIOS/EFI configuration and disabling EFI.

I'll take a look disabling EFI Federico.

Eliah, I'm going to install in on another machine so I wanted to see what is was like before i commit to spending any money on hardware. I tried SuSE years ago, I didn't get on with it and had to abandon it. I didn't want to get into the predicament.

If you come from Mac, you will like Ubuntu much more than any SuSE. It gives you lots of customization power without sacrificing simplicity.
There are docks to make it look a lot like OS X and version 11.04 to be released later this month has this UI http://theravingrick.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-effort-at-writing-help-for-unity.html

I was really excited when i got SuSE, 5 fantastic disc's to load on and finally an end to using windows. after the 3rd attempt to get SuSE to install I wasn't so excited.

I did manage to get it running in the end but I couldn't seem to get my graphics card to get on with it, which resulted with a portion of the desktop not fitting on my screen. I you guys thought I'm a newbie now I was a million times worst back then!!

Thanks for the link Federico, I'm even more excited about getting to use Ubuntu.