Well, I have almost finished assembling my new computer: all I need to do is install Ubuntu, download Wine, and I am pretty much done. Turns out the first step is harder than I initially thought, as my the computer cannot identify the Ubuntu Live CD.
There is no problem with which version of Ubuntu I am using, as I have tried both the 32-bit and 64-bit version of Desktop Ubuntu.
It's not the CD, as I have tried booting off of a USB as well as burning multiple CD's.
It's not the optical drive, as I have swapped it out and tried booting Ubuntu from another one.
It's not the boot order thing, as there is no other OS on any of the computer's parts.
It's not that I haven't burned a bootable CD, as the exact same CD succeeds to boot from my older computer (a laptop, mind that)
It's (probably) not the connections between the optical drive and the motherboard, as I have secured them pretty tight and triple-checked to make sure the right wires are plugged into the right slots.
The only possible thing that might cause the problem is that the computer cannot recognize the optical drive(s) for some reason. The proof that makes me suspicious is that when I go to the boot order menu in the BIOS settings, I only get two choices: the completely empty hard drive and a device named "IBA GE Slot 0400". The later might or might not be the firewire port option on my motherboard, though I suspect it is.
Anybody know what to do in this situation? Oh, and I am going to install Ubuntu for sure, as it is the easiest to use of all free OS's, and I neither want to spend a lot of money on Windows nor do I wish to pirate any OS for subtle reasons.
