VirtualBox 4.2.16 fails to recognise Ubuntu installation DVD

[oldcelt]

New download and installation of VirtualBox - 2 downloads and two DVDs burned for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 32-bit.

Both Ubuntu DVDs will boot into my main PC with no problem (XP-Pro fully up-to-date).

Why can't VirtualBox recognise either? It reports no bootable media found which is ridiculous!

[Perryg]

Why burn to DVD? Just mount the ISO to the virtual DVD.

[oldcelt]

How please?

[mpack]

Go to the Storage tab of the VM settings, highlight virtual CD/DVD drive in middle panel, select ISO file in right panel.

[oldcelt]

The centre panel shows "Controller: IDE" with a sub-indicator that looks like a DVD but labelled 'Empty'. The right hand column says CD/DVD Drive with an option to select Live CD/DVD. Details show it as IDE Secondary Master with no option to change it (Greyed out).
I can't discover how to load the .iso file into the apparently empty DVD drive!

[mpack]

The right hand column says CD/DVD Drive with an option to select Live CD/DVD.

And to the right of that is a little CD icon. Try clicking it.

[oldcelt]

And to the right of that is a little CD icon. Try clicking it.

Yes, but it only offers me the host physical CD/DVD drive - no virtual CD/DVD drive!

[mpack]

Clicking the CD icon pops up a menu, the very first option on that menu is "Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file...".

[oldcelt]

Clicking the CD icon pops up a menu, the very first option on that menu is "Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file...".

And where do I find such a file? It doesn't offer any choices.

[mpack]

You downloaded the Ubuntu ISO did you not? You referred to two such downloads in your first post, so one of those is what you use. Clicking the option I mentioned opens up a standard Windows file browser dialog, which allows you to navigate to and select the downloaded ISO. I'm afraid that teaching you how to navigate the Windows filesystem to find files which you yourself downloaded... would be beyond the proper role of these forums IMHO.

Given this level of technical competence, I'd be willing to bet that your initial problem was that you copied the Ubuntu ISO as a file to a data CD, instead of burning the ISO image to the CD. In which case I'd be curious to know what you meant in your first post when you said you could "boot into my main PC with no problem (XP-Pro fully up-to-date)" - a statement which I already found odd, since if you booted from an Ubuntu CD then the up-to-dateness of the XP system wouldn't be relevant. Now I'm thinking you have an unusual definition of the word "boot".

[oldcelt]

You totally underestimate me. I've been a software developer with windows and, before it, ms-dos, for over 30 years. Of course I burned the dvd as an .iso image. Also, I know perfectly well how to navigate the windows file system.

Since it was suggested somewhere in this forum that the problem I encountered was possibly a faulty .iso, I downloaded a second version and burned that. I say again, the bootable dvd will boot perfectly well from a cold start into the system and offer to install Ubuntu.

The problems remain. If I choose the downloaded .iso file when selecting from the virtualbox cd/dvd option it reports that virtualbox can't identify the format of the file. If I burn a dvd, virtualbox reports that no bootable medium is found although, as I say above, the freshly burned dvd will boot the machine from a cold start.

[oldcelt]

Looks like nobody can solve the problem so: good-by, VirtualBox!