I'm trying to create a Linux installation drive. I have an empty hard drive (MS-DOS format), and I already dragged the .iso file to the sidebar in the Disk Utility app. However when I press it the "Burn" option is still greyed out. Also, when I double click the .iso file it says "no mountable file systems". Does anyone know the solution to this?
Issue with burning Linux .iso file using Disk Utility
disk-utilityisounix
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It sounds as if you created an empty disk image. To create an ISO/disk image of your disk you have to select the volume (selecting the drive may work too) in the left pane of "Disk Utility" and then click the icon "New Image" or «File» → «New» → «Disk Image from "XYZ your volume name"»
For CD/DVD-ISOs make sure to select "DVD/CD master" as Image Format in the upcoming dialogue and no encryption.
Now your CD or DVD will be saved as an ISO-image with the extension .cdr - you can rename it to .iso if needed.
I'm pretty sure you created the image wrong. When you create the image in Disk Utility, it's very important that you specify the source correctly. I'm not certain I remember exactly right, so you should test this before you trust the results, but here's the process as I remember it:
In Disk Utility's sidebar, select the DVD's entry. IIRC, it'll actually list two entries in the sidebar: the DVD itself, and then indented under that the installer volume ("Mac OS X Install DVD" or something like that. You want the DVD entry, not the volume entry under it.
IIRC older versions of Disk Utility would actually list three entries: the DVD, a session under that, and the volume under that. In this case, I'm pretty sure it's the session (the middle entry) you want.
Under the File menu, choose "New" > "Image from disk2" (or whatever the disk ID is). This tells Disk Utility you want a raw device image, not just image the files contained in the disk.
In the save dialog, set the Image Format to "DVD/CD master"
I think that procedure will work, but to be sure it's best to rename the file from ".cdr" to ".iso", copy it to your Windows computer, burn it to a DVD-R, and actually try booting the Mac from it. Note that if you mount the .iso on Windows you will not see anything like what you expect -- IIRC the 10.5 install DVDs are actually in a hybrid format that contains a Windows-readable driver disk for Boot Camp, and a Mac-readable (& bootable) installer volume. So if you mount it on Windows, you'll see Windows drivers, not a Mac installer. (BTW, this is also true of the original DVD, so try mounting that on your Windows computer to check my memory.)
Best Answer
I don't think Disk Utility will let you "burn" an ISO to a hard drive. It might let you "restore" the content to the drive. Select the ISO image in the right-hand side, then drag and drop the hard drive into the "Destination" field and click "Restore". I don't have a device here to test, but that might work.
Normally people "burn" ISO images to CDs or DVDs, or write them to USB memory sticks. If you have one of them available here are the relevant instructions for Ubuntu (these instructions should work for other Linux distributions too). I've done both countless times and can confirm that they do work.