I just recently downloaded Ubuntu 8.10 and burned it on to a CD. The CD itself is fine, it verified after burning and seems to be intact. I then booted my MacBook v.10.4.11 from the CD and it worked fine; I was able to use/install Intrepid Ibex with no problems whatsoever.

However, on my home computer, a Mac OS 10.4.11, the computer refuses to boot from the CD drive. Even though I hold "c" while restarting the computer (the same procedure I used to boot the MacBook from the disc drive), it still goes straight to the hard drive and boots the Mac OS.

Could it be problems with the CD? Am I using the wrong keys to boot from the disc drive? The computer itself is somewhat old; I can't remember the exact year but it came with the OS before Tiger. The only other difference is that there is only one user on the MacBook, but 5 users on the home computer. Any advice?

2 likely issues

1) burn the ubuntu CD at the slowest speed you can. I know it seams strange that this would be an issue but I have run into it a number of times.

2) they changed the way the system handles SATA disks. They new drivers may not work for you. You can search around for a way to blacklist the drivers that are blocking the boot process. the ubuntu forums have a few solutions to this. boot up from the CD without the 'quiet' option in grub and write down the point of failure.

good luck

Are both OS X systems using the same CPU architecture? Intel? PPC?