i tried to install mandrake 10 by booting my sys with the 1st cd
at first i see the opening menue and its all good after that
i need to press <ENTER> to install mandrake . there is an error
messege <cant find cdrom>

how can it be???!? btw i using my dvd r as my cdrom could it be that ????

Easy answer on the first count. The bios boots from the cdrom, not Mandrake. Then, at the install flash screen, Mandrake looks for the cdrom to start the installation.

Often these issues can be caused by a faulty burned image. As long as you get the Mandrake splash screen, we know that you burned the cd as an image, not as a data disk with just the iso file on the cdrom disk. So...

What make and model DVD drive is this? If it's a newer model, then the issue could be using too old a version of Mandrake.

This is Mandrake 10, 10.1 or 10.2?

Conversely, if the DVD drive is really old, it may have trouble. Did you burn the disk on the same system? If so, try booting from the cdrw drive instead.

What speed did you burn the iso image at? ISO images must be burned at slow speeds, say 4X or 8X.

Depending on the DVD drive, it may have a problem reading the cdrom disk. Did you use a cdrw disk, or a cd-r disk to burn the image? Using inexpensive cdrom disks can be an issue, as well.

The third possibility is a bad download, especially if you are downloading using dialup. Did you check the md5sum of the disks that you burned?

Giving us some answers to these questions will help track down the issue.

Boot with CD2 then when you get the same message
switch to CD1 and retry.
Mandrake usually handles pnp ok but if you still have
problems installing, turn off pnp in BIOS .
Do you have a cd drive that comes before the dvd drive? (alphabetically)
If so ,you will have to install from that drive. Mandrakes installer looks for the first CD drive it comes to then stops looking.

i have the same problem. my pc is laptop Dell inspiron 6000. My DVD is SONY DVD RW double layer. There is only one DVD drive on my pc. How to install Mandrake 10?

What is the exact problem that you are having?

The DVD does not boot? Is the DVD drive set to boot first in the bios?

Do you get the initial installation screen on boot?

At what speed did you burn the iso image at?

I have the same problem of drormo, "can't find cdrom".

I insert CD 1 into pc, booting ok, but when starting installing, Mandrake say that "can't find cdrom", can't continue.

how can i capture the screen shot?

Which these CDs, i can install on the desktop pc that has the CD drive (my laptop has DVD RW drive).

i have burned at speed 4x (DVD drive)

From what I recall, there was a problem with the Community version's installer that caused this problem.

Did you try booting from the 2nd cdrom disk, then swirch to cd #1, as Mel suggested above?

The other possible problem is needing to turn off PNP OS in the bios.

yeah, i have installed from the hdd, now it is working. but the new problem is: Mandrake don't know intel 915 VGA. I have tried here

Driver for Linux

but not success.

perhaps, i should create a new topic.

I found an article on your system that may be helpful. You are correct, there are some issues with these Dell systems. You probably should consider a newer version of Mandrake, say Mandriva 2006.

Anyway, the cdrom issue and graphics problems are outlined here.

NOTE: This article is for Mandrake 10.1.