Okay thanks but here's where I need to know what's going on...
3. Since you won't be installing Windows, you don't need to push the "Start Installation" button. Instead, make sure your Linux install disc is in the drive and push the "Restart Mac OS X" button.
...Now do you know exactly where the "Restart Mac OS X button" is? That's the only thing I could think of that would be effecting the CD not showing up.
You got me curious I'm done downloading OpenSuse now and I am going to install it myself, well I'll report back when I'm done. Also for rEFit to work right I remember reading something about turning Journaling off on your Mac partition. I don't know if that is true I'm going to attempt without since it helps with searching and so forth, but If I can't get it to work with out I will be doing so. Wish Me luck, and I will post back with what works.
Okay cool, I think the problem is CD-R's aren't showing up when I boot up while holding 'ALT' or at the rEFIt menu. DVD's show up... I don't know how to fix this.
Ok I'm running OpenSuse As I speak now. Things I've learned, 1 it was a lot easier then the first time I did it, 2 wow colors look different in linux. I didn't install rEFIt, and I didn't turn off Journaling. I did have to do a custom install while I was in the OpenSuse installer, it wanted to overwrite everything but the Windows Bootcamp Partition. And then once installed all the fun linux stuff starts.
Also Important to note about using Apples EFI vs rEFI was that 1. It says Windows instead of Linux at boot time, and 2. I have to hold option everytime I want to boot Linux, even if I just restart from Linux.
Now I'm no linux or Mac expert but here is what I did.
1. Found this Article and was like why doesn't HELP ME : D, just use Virtual Box, as it is a free alternative to Vmware/Parallels. And then I was like Heck yah I want to run linux native along side my Mac Partition too.
2. So I Downloaded OpenSuse.iso, whilst I waited I ran Bootcamp on Mac and setup a 20GB Windows Partition, when it finished I exited the Bootcamp Application saying I would run it later. The I took My OpenSuse.iso that was now finished Downloading and Burned it to a Disk Using Disk Utility.
3. I tuned off My Mac and booted whilst I held Option, it loaded with two Options, my newly mad OpenSuse Disk and My Mac, I of course booted the Disk and walk through the options.
Now what do I think is the problem on your side, 1. rEFIt is messing something up or 2. The bootable files are missing on your Unbuntu disk. I'm leaning more on number 2 but I'm not certain.
So now my questions are 1. Were did you obtain Unbuntu? and 2. If you did end up burning it to disk yourself what was your method?
Alright so my problem is that my CD-R won't show up in the boot options in rEFIt or while holding ALT.
here's what I did to burn my Ubuntu disk;
1. popped in a blank CD-R
2. Downloaded Ubuntu 9.04's .ISO
3. opened a 3rd Party application called 'Burn' and left all the settings alone and put the .ISO on the disk and clicked burn.
4. checked in Finder just to make sure the burn worked correctly (it did).
5. restarted my computer and once it got to rEFIt it only displayed my Mac partitioned hard drive and my "Windows" partitioned hard drive (which is going to be used for Ubuntu).
6. I restarted my computer again and held down ALT same thing... no CD-R.
I'm curious What happens when you click on the WINDOWS partition, what does it do?
Because in my mind it shouldn't show up on the Boot screen without bootable infomation on it.
When I booted my disc it said it was windows too, but for me I could easily distinguish that it was a cd because EFI made the icon of it into a cd, however as I didn't use rEFIt, I don't know what the image(icon) looks like.