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Creating a bootable CD from a .iso file in MacOS Sierra

I have an ISO image of a linux distribution that I would like to burn to a CD. I am using MacOS Sierra.

I see that if I right click on the ISO image, I have the option to burn it, but I am not clear if it will just burn the iso file onto the CD, or actually burn the image and if it will be bootable once burned, or if I need to do something else to make it bootable.

I only have one CDR left, so I really want to get it right the first time and not end up with a CD that contains the .iso file as a single file on the CD, or is not bootable!

MacBook Pro TouchBar and Touch ID, macOS Sierra (10.12.6), USB Superdrive

Posted on Sep 23, 2017 8:39 AM

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Level 9

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Posted on Sep 23, 2017 10:54 AM

I cannot offer any guarantees but the same procedure applied to a .img image file does burn it correctly. I haven’t tried it with an iso file - oh wait I actually did it with a windows 7 iso file and it worked (it’s been a while since I have used physical discs).

Again, no guarantees, but it *should* work.

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Level 9

64,586 points

Sep 23, 2017 10:54 AM in response to uniqueusername123

I cannot offer any guarantees but the same procedure applied to a .img image file does burn it correctly. I haven’t tried it with an iso file - oh wait I actually did it with a windows 7 iso file and it worked (it’s been a while since I have used physical discs).

Again, no guarantees, but it *should* work.

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Sep 23, 2017 10:41 AM in response to uniqueusername123

uniqueusername123 wrote:

The computer that will be booting from the CD does not have the capability to boot from USB (it's too old).

http://www.tutonics.com/2012/07/how-to-create-bootable-live-cddvd.html

A standard 700 MB CD can actually hold about 737 MB of data with error correction,

in comparison DVD can hold 4.7 GB of error-protected data

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Sep 23, 2017 10:49 AM in response to leroydouglas

@leroydouglas :

> http://www.tutonics.com/2012/07/how-to-create-bootable-live-cddvd.html

This link is for older versions of OSX. Since El Capitan (I think) Disk Utility no longer has the burn function.

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Sep 23, 2017 9:23 AM in response to uniqueusername123

https://linuxnewbieguide.org/how-to-put-a-linux-iso-onto-a-usb-stick-and-make-it -bootable-on-a-mac/

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Sep 23, 2017 10:18 AM in response to leroydouglas

The computer that will be booting from the CD does not have the capability to boot from USB (it's too old).

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Level 10

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Sep 23, 2017 10:29 AM in response to uniqueusername123

I agree with Luis's method. However, you can buy a package of CD-R discs for less than $10 in case something goes wrong.

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Sep 23, 2017 10:35 AM in response to uniqueusername123

BTW, how large is the .iso? Most Linux distro .iso's are over 1GB now.

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Sep 23, 2017 10:46 AM in response to dialabrain

The iso is 595Mb - it's the server version of an older distro

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Level 10

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Sep 23, 2017 10:50 AM in response to uniqueusername123

Then you right click on the .iso instead.

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Creating a bootable CD from a .iso file in MacOS Sierra

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