Toshiba laptop sees .iso burns as "mixed media".

[Polly the Parrott]

Hello, anyone home? ;-)

New Toshiba laptop L50A running Windows 8.1 Pro x64.

Installed Classic Menu manager to get rid of the rubbish screen.

8 meg ram, 1 TB ATA drive.

Partitioned the hard drive for a new Linux install to run alongside
Windoze (depending what was chosen at boot time), thought I would try
out a distro from a magazine first.

Changed bios to boot from DVD drive.

Failed to boot from the DVD, saw the .iso as "mixed media" and gave
some useless options.

Also tried to boot from an iso burnt to a thumb drive (changed bios
etc) again same issue.

So I downloaded an iso, and burnt it to a dvd using burning software.

Once again, same issue.

Next Ii tried in Windoze "Virtual Clone Drive", again same message.

(Nothing wrong with the .iso burns to dvds, they both worked in an old
laptop running Windoze 7).

What am I missing here? Is there an issue with Windoze 8.1
recognising .iso files? Or is there something else I should be doing?

As usual, thanks for any assistance.

[Zebee Johnstone]

In aus.computers.linux on Thu, 09 Jan 2014 20:46:54 +1100
Polly the Parrott <flatula...@deadspam.com> wrote:
> Hello, anyone home? ;-)

Whaa... what's that noise?

>
> New Toshiba laptop L50A running Windows 8.1 Pro x64.
>
> Installed Classic Menu manager to get rid of the rubbish screen.
>
> 8 meg ram, 1 TB ATA drive.
>
> Partitioned the hard drive for a new Linux install to run alongside
> Windoze (depending what was chosen at boot time), thought I would try
> out a distro from a magazine first.
>
> Changed bios to boot from DVD drive.

I dunno much about modern laptops but I strongly suspect the BIOS is
messing you about.


Sometimes it's UEFI and you have to mess about a bit, see
http://www.rodsbooks.com/linux-uefi/

Not sure it would stop it booting from DVD but it is possible TOshiba
are so in bed with MS that it does...



Zebee

[Polly the Parrott]

On Thu, 9 Jan 2014 10:16:05 +0000 (UTC), Zebee Johnstone
<zeb...@gmail.com> wrote:

>Not sure it would stop it booting from DVD but it is possible TOshiba
>are so in bed with MS that it does...

Following some research, it appears that iso files downloaded from MS
have an embedded exe file and MS have a feature that runs this .exe
file to run the iso.

Of course no exe file in Linux iso files.

Why would Windoze 8.1 say that the iso file is "mixed content"?

More MS skullduggery?

[Zebee Johnstone]

In aus.computers.linux on Thu, 09 Jan 2014 22:41:59 +1100

Polly the Parrott <flatula...@deadspam.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 9 Jan 2014 10:16:05 +0000 (UTC), Zebee Johnstone
><zeb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>Not sure it would stop it booting from DVD but it is possible TOshiba
>>are so in bed with MS that it does...
>
> Following some research, it appears that iso files downloaded from MS
> have an embedded exe file and MS have a feature that runs this .exe
> file to run the iso.
>
> Of course no exe file in Linux iso files.

And even the laptop honours that when you change the boot order?

More reason to only buy laptops guaranteed to run Linux... Pity the
various websites tend to be out of date.

>
> Why would Windoze 8.1 say that the iso file is "mixed content"?
>
> More MS skullduggery?

More likely MS laziness. One error code per item.



Zebee

[atec77]

Normally in MS one would right click and reassign the .iso properties

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[Jack Strangio]

Polly the Parrott <flatula...@deadspam.com> writes:
> Hello, anyone home? ;-)

Nobody here but us chickens, boss.

> (Nothing wrong with the .iso burns to dvds, they both worked in an old
> laptop running Windoze 7).

When you say 'worked', do you mean they burnt properly or do you mean they
boot up properly in the Win 7 machine?

What were the 'options' which were displayed?

Did you turn off 'Secure Boot' in the bios of the Win8 Toshiba?

Jack
--
"It's rather cold." she said bitchily.

[Polly the Parrott]

On Thu, 9 Jan 2014 22:37:17 GMT, jackst...@yahoo.com (Jack
Strangio) wrote:

>Polly the Parrott <flatula...@deadspam.com> writes:
>> Hello, anyone home? ;-)
>
>Nobody here but us chickens, boss.
>
>> (Nothing wrong with the .iso burns to dvds, they both worked in an old
>> laptop running Windoze 7).
>
>When you say 'worked', do you mean they burnt properly or do you mean they
>boot up properly in the Win 7 machine?
>
>What were the 'options' which were displayed?
>
>Did you turn off 'Secure Boot' in the bios of the Win8 Toshiba?

That fixed the issue, but stuffed up the mbr of Windows 8(told me I
didn't have a valid copy and had to get on the phone to MS to get a
list of numbers), and also similar for Norton Security.

What a nightmare!
>
>Jack

[atec77]

Ah dump norton security and try again , you have a virus called norton

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X-No-Archive: Yes

[Polly the Parrott]

On Fri, 10 Jan 2014 11:45:30 +1000, atec77 <"atec77 "@hotmail.com>
wrote:

Not much point if I again stuff up the MBR. Apparently something to
do with a new fangled type of bios.

Mulling dumping Windows altogether.

What do you think?

[Zebee Johnstone]

In aus.computers.linux on Fri, 10 Jan 2014 17:00:50 +1100

Polly the Parrott <flatula...@deadspam.com> wrote:
>

> Mulling dumping Windows altogether.
>
> What do you think?

what are you using a computer for?

If gaming, then you still need GameOS. Try and find Windows 7, pay
lotsa money for it if you can't get it any other way.

If internet stuff then use Windows For Linux otherwise known as
Ubuntu. I think Mint is a better distro if you aren't into the RedHat
ecosystem but Ubuntu has the biggest market share so almost all the
info you will find when googling things will be about Ubuntu. You can
usually map the results onto Mint but better for a novice not to make
the extra work for themselves.

You will probably want to avoid Gnome though as it has disappeared up
its own condescension. I prefer KDE but I'm weird, you'll
probably want Cinnamon or Mate.

If you are using Microsoft Office for almost anything work-related you
will still need Windows. Libre Office is good but there are still
complex macros and things it can't quite manage plus most corporate
environments use microsoft file sharing software and that can have
issues. Plus there's no good substitute for outlook inthe corporate
environment as Evolution is broken.

If you are using webmail rather than your ISP's mail into outlook
you'll be fine. If you are still using outlook then you will have a
hard choice to make as getting your old stuff out of there is damn
near impossible.

Zebee

[Polly the Parrott]

On Fri, 10 Jan 2014 06:44:01 +0000 (UTC), Zebee Johnstone
<zeb...@gmail.com> wrote:

>> Mulling dumping Windows altogether.
>>
>> What do you think?
>
>what are you using a computer for?

(snip)

Email (Thunderbird), browsing, photo manipulation, music, videos,
peer to peer (cough cough) not much office stuff, but soon will have a
web site up hoping to sell online.

Most if not all can be done in Linux, but not so sure if I will need
OutofLuck for the business side of things.

[Zebee Johnstone]

In aus.computers.linux on Fri, 10 Jan 2014 19:52:34 +1100

Polly the Parrott <flatula...@deadspam.com> wrote:

You can send and receive mail perfectly happily in Thunderbird from
Outlook users.

You may want to consider using google apps for your business hooking
it to your business domain. Web mail and will manage what people
throw at it including calendar invites plus one less thing to back up.

(You can use getmail to back up your google account)

Photo manipulation can be iffy if you are an experienced PhotoShop
user as Gimp isn't the same and for some things isn't quite there.

If those are your use cases then seriously consider a Mac. Yeah the
hardware is more expensive but the photo, music, and video
manipulation software available is far better. (Although commercial,
while the linux stuff tends to be open source. A choice you have to
make as part of your business plan.)


Zebee

[atec77]

I think reset the bios first after dumping Nortons and try again just
for giggles and to see

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[Polly the Parrott]

On Fri, 10 Jan 2014 19:20:06 +1000, atec77 <"atec77 "@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>> Mulling dumping Windows altogether.
>>
>> What do you think?
>>
>I think reset the bios first after dumping Nortons and try again just
>for giggles and to see

Maybe need a bit of time for that, if I have to call the Microshaft
drone again!

[atec77]

nah . f8 or what ever key , set to factory and safe mode to remove nortons


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X-No-Archive: Yes

[Jack Strangio]

With a UEFI Win8 machine, you usually *don't* have an MBR. By installing an
MBR (win or grub) on it, you've possibly ruined your GPT partition table.


When installing a UEFI-capable Linux distro, you use/mount the Win8 /uefi
partition as your /boot partition in Linux. Obviously, you do NOT allow
it to be partitioned.

The following is a bit dated now, I kept it for my own assistance in case
I needed to do it again, but it's how I did it about 12 months
back on an Acer XC-100. This may be of assistance to you (and/or others),
possibly not. YMMV:

===============================================================================

It seems it's better installing Mint dual-boot on a newer UEFI Windows 8
machine is by ensuring that the Mint 14 install medium boots ONLY in EFI
mode. I couldn't do that using a DVD drive, as it always insisted on
booting in the old BIOS. Use unetbootin to make a fresh USB key with the
contents of the Mint 14.1 DVD iso-image. Ensure there is an EFI
subdirectory.

Start to boot up Windows8, but hit the DEL key when the Acer logo shows and
a beep is heard (if you're not using an Acer, check what key is needed for
your brand of computer) to reach the BIOS configuration screen. Go to the
Authentication screen, and turn off Secure-Boot. Then proceed to the
Boot-Options screen and turn on CSM so that we can boot using the normal MBR
type of boot-system. On the same screen (on Acer) check the order of boot
devices, we want to give USB keys and/or CD/DVD devices priority over the
hard drive. Also ensure that the boot-menu is enabled, otherwise you won't
be able to select the USB key to boot from and therefore you won't be able
to boot into anything else but Windows. Save and exit.

When you've opened Windows, shrink the C: drive by opening Control-Panel ->
System and Security -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management ->
Storage -> Disk Management. Right-click on the C: drive and select Shrink
Volume. Adjust the shrinkage to suit yourself. If you have a D: drive,
then shrink that at the same time if you want.

[Handy Hint: Because of the way the original hard-drives are produced and
supplied in your OEM machine, it is usually very hard to shrink the C: drive
very much using the Control Panel method on your OEM untouched hard-drive.
But when you use the complete recovery method from your Windows Recovery
Disks which you made after you began using your Windows machine, files are
not scattered all over the partition, but are all compacted better and you
will usually be able to condense the C: partition very easily. So delete
your C: partition (if you're brave enough <grin>) and use your Windows
Recovery Disks to get back to a Factory-Defaults install of the machine. If
you're even braver, you can adjust the Recovery Disk files to partition the
Windows partitions to your desired sizes on recovery.]

At this point I use Gparted Live CD and an external USB hard-drive to
back-up all those Windows partitions as belt-and-braces. You should already
have made your Windows Recovery System disks anyway. These were my original
hard-drive partitions, notice that on a GPT partition system *all*
partitions are *primary* partitions.

original clean Windows 8:


Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 420MB 419MB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag
2 420MB 735MB 315MB fat32 EFI system partition boot
3 735MB 869MB 134MB Microsoft reserved msftres
4 869MB 492GB 491GB ntfs Basic data partition
5 492GB 985GB 492GB ntfs Basic data partition
6 985GB 1000GB 15.6GB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag


I then set up my hard-drive so that I like it:

Partition Table: gpt

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 420MB 419MB ntfs Basic data partition hidden, diag
2 420MB 735MB 315MB fat32 EFI system partition boot
3 735MB 869MB 134MB Microsoft reserved msftres
4 869MB 52.0GB 51.1GB ntfs Basic data partition
5 52.0GB 78.2GB 26.2GB ntfs
6 78.2GB 94.0GB 15.7GB ntfs hidden, diag
7 94.0GB 105GB 10.7GB ext4
8 105GB 115GB 10.7GB ext4
9 115GB 118GB 2097MB linux-swap(v1)
10 118GB 149GB 31.5GB ext4
11 149GB 1000GB 851GB ext4

Fast Summary:

Shrink C: partition to your taste. I cut mine back all the way to just
50Gig. I kept a very small D: partition just as a place-keeper to keep all
the Windows partitions in the same relative positions. I sometimes move
/dev/sda6, but I feel it's easier and simpler to just delete the original D:
(/dev/sda5) and 'One Touch Reset' (/dev/sda6) partitions and make new ones,
restoring the contents of the 'One Touch Reset' partition from the backups.
Then make all your Linux partitions: *two* root partitions in case I want to
experiment with another distro, swap of course, a separate /home so I can
just carry over everything to a new distro if required (not too big a /home
directory, it's just for day-to-day work), then a large separate storage
partition for long-term files/archives.



Then proceed to the Boot-Options screen and turn CSM off again so that we
can't boot using the normal MBR type of boot-system. On the same screen (on
Acer) confirm that the boot-menu is enabled, otherwise you won't be able to
boot into anything else but Windows.


Save and exit. The machine will now reboot using EFI *only* and restricts
you to only booting up Windows and other EFI systems.


At the Acer logo and beep, hit the F12 key, a boot-menu will display. Move
the bar to the entry for the USB key with Mint 14 and which is marked 'UEFI'
and select.


Install normally. When you get to the 'Installation Type' page, select
'something else'. Use the 'Change' button to select your intended
partitions as the root, /home and other mount points for your filesystems.
Be careful not to touch any of the Windows 8 partitions. Leave the 'sda'
entry as the position for the grub boot device. Then click on 'Install Now'


With my install, grub would install to the UEFI boot, but would find only
Mint, so I was unable to boot Windows. Fixing the boot-up is the purpose of
'boot-repair'. So I downloaded the boot-repair package(s) with these
commands:


# sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair


boot-repair will scan for a while. Accept the 'Recommended Repair'.

And that's it. Now you have a dual-boot Windows 8 and Mint 14.1 system

=========================================================================


Hope this helps you in some way.

Regards.

[Jack Strangio]

jackst...@yahoo.com (Jack Strangio) writes:
>
> When installing a UEFI-capable Linux distro, you use/mount the Win8 /uefi
> partition as your /boot partition in Linux. Obviously, you do NOT allow
> it to be partitioned.

^^^^^^^^^^^
Dratted fat fingers/brain!!

EDIT:

When installing a UEFI-capable Linux distro, you use/mount the Win8 /uefi
partition as your /boot partition in Linux. Obviously, you do NOT allow

it to be FORMATTED.

Sorry.

[Polly the Parrott]

On Sat, 11 Jan 2014 01:38:08 GMT, jackst...@yahoo.com (Jack
Strangio) wrote:

>EDIT:
>When installing a UEFI-capable Linux distro, you use/mount the Win8 /uefi
>partition as your /boot partition in Linux. Obviously, you do NOT allow
>it to be FORMATTED.

No worries!

Thanks for your help!

[Ned Latham]

Polly the Parrott wrote:
>
> Hello, anyone home? ;-)
>
> New Toshiba laptop L50A running Windows 8.1 Pro x64.
>
> Installed Classic Menu manager to get rid of the rubbish screen.
>
> 8 meg ram, 1 TB ATA drive.
>
> Partitioned the hard drive for a new Linux install to run alongside
> Windoze (depending what was chosen at boot time), thought I would try
> out a distro from a magazine first.
>
> Changed bios to boot from DVD drive.
>
> Failed to boot from the DVD, saw the .iso as "mixed media" and gave
> some useless options.

Check the BIOS again. My Sony VAIO has a setting for booting in
UEFI mode or "legacy" mode, and it won't boot from a DVD unless
"legacy" node is set (as well as "boot from DVD"). I'm betting
that your Toshiba is similarly crippled.

The Evil Empire (TM) strikes again!

Ned