How to install Linux on an old Toshiba m70 laptop?

[Calum]

It currently has a Spanish language copy of Windows xp on it, and I'd like to install Ubuntu 18 (actually xubuntu since they still release an i386 image, and this laptop has a 32 bit cpu, I think).

However this laptop won't boot from USB according to the bios options, and I have made a dvd-r of the xubuntu iso using another laptop which has Ubuntu 16 on it, and it should work IMHO but the Toshiba won't boot from it, no matter what I select in the bios. And then in xp, it sees the dvd-r but can't access it.

Any ideas? How does one do a net install? The bios weirdly does have a boot from fdd option, however there's no actual fdd in the laptop!

Thanks in advance, though I suspect it has been some time since anyone actually visited these forums except me!

[Void Main]

What did you use to burn the disc? It sounds like it wasn't closed properly at the end of writing. XP should be able to see it, especially if it has no problem reading other DVDs.