Burning an ISO of Ubuntu

Notes
Burning the ISO in Windows
Burning the ISO in Mac OS X
When you're done...

Notes

This tutorial uses InfraRecorder as the CD burning program, but if you already have Nero or Roxio, you can use those instead to burn disk images. Here are quick-and-dirty HowTos on burning ISOs (disk images) in Nero and Roxio Easy CD Creator.

Remember: no matter what burning program you use, never burn ISOs as data, and never extract the ISO using a zip-file program or WinRar.

If your computer can boot from USB, then you can save yourself a CD by using UNetBootIn to "burn" the disk image to USB.

Burning the ISO in Windows

Launch InfraRecorder. After you've installed it, InfraRecorder should show up in your menus, but you can also go straight to C:\Program Files\InfraRecorder if it doesn't.

After InfraRecorder starts up, go to Actions and select Burn Image and select the ubuntu-#.##-desktop-i386.iso file.

Most of the default options will suffice, but you should select a slow CD writing speed (4x or 8x, as opposed to 48x). A slower writing speed is less likely to result in a badly burned CD. Badly burned Ubuntu CDs can freeze up in the middle of booting up or installing.

Burning the ISO in Mac OS X

First go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility

Then go to Images > Burn and find your ISO.

When you're done...

If you've followed the above instructions, the Ubuntu CD should appear like this in Windows Explorer.

For both Mac OS X and Windows, if you don't get the Ubuntu icon but just get a regular CD icon, double-click on the CD icon. If all you see is one big file called ubuntu-#.##-desktop-i386.iso instead of a bunch of files and folders, then you didn't burn Ubuntu correctly. You burned the .iso as data instead of as a disk image. Go back and follow the above instructions more carefully.

In Windows, double-clicking on the Ubuntu icon should launch up the autorun-for-Windows application...

... which will ultimately give you this window.

Now your Ubuntu CD is ready for you. Just reboot (from the CD instead of your hard drive), and you should be ready to start using Ubuntu!