Burning the Ubuntu installation CD ISO image into a DVD-R

Burning the Ubuntu installation CD ISO image into a DVD-R, will it work? That was what came to my mind as I was trying to install the latest Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick). It happened that after downloading the the ISO image, I was unable to burn the image into a CD-R. I tried a few CD-Rs and also tried both the Nero software in Windows and k3b in Linux. But each time it will fail with an error message. I was wondering whether it was the burner's problem or the medium's problem. Then I remembered I have just burnt some other files into a DVD-R just a day back. Why not try burning the image into a DVD-R?

Well I tried google searching for people who have done that before, and could only find different people sharing about different results. But the main concern I could gather was that the DVD-R might not be bootable as the ISO image was meant for a CD. It was also mentioned that a number of burning software will outright reject the burning with errors because they expect a CD instead of a DVD. Anyway I just went ahead and tried because I was eager to explore the new features offered in the latest version.

True enough, my initial attempts failed because the burning software would not let me proceed as they were asking for the correct medium to be inserted. This happened both with Nero and k3b. I was about to give up when I noticed there was another burning software called Brasero Disc Burner. I had never used it before, and was not even aware it was a standard software in Ubuntu. So I decided to give it a try and bingo, the burning onto DVD-R went through smoothly without error.

Then the next test would be to make sure the DVD can boot up and kickstart the installation. I even did a check in BIOS setup to make sure the DVD/CD medium precedes the harddrives in the bootup sequence. So I put in the DVD and rebooted the pc. I was filled with relief when I saw the message on the screen saying something along the line of preparing to boot up from CD device. When the Ubuntu screen came up, I knew that I could start exploring the new version that very night. I shall share about some of the new and interesting features of Maverick next time.