ISO boot of latest 8.04

[Nigel Henry]

On Thursday 07 August 2008 20:05, Verde Denim wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 7, 2008 at 1:02 PM, Dave Woyciesjes 
<woyciesjes at sbcglobal.net>wrote:
> > Derek Broughton wrote:
> > > Verde Denim wrote:
> > >> I have the 8.04 i386 desktop iso. I'm currently installing win on the
> >
> > box,
> >
> > >> just to see if it's hardware. This same error has been reported in
> > >> launchpad (and apparently hasn't been dealt with yet, since I read a
> > >> few instances of this). I've the various workarounds (pcmcia=nomsi,
> >
> > ide=nodma,
> >
> > >> remove the splash) but no joy there either. I'll check the md5 of the
> >
> > iso
> >
> > >> file on my other ubu box and see what that brings, although i've
> > >> burned three different downloads from three different mirrors, and
> > >> they all say they have defective files on the cd - using different
> > >> burners. It's beginning to make me wonder about the iso being
> > >> distributed.
> > >
> > > Ta Da!  Really, how can you possibly hope to install from defective
> >
> > media?
> >
> > > In this case, I can practically guarantee that it _is_ your media.  My
> >
> > last
> >
> > > install from my own media left me with three bad CDs before I finally
> >
> > gave
> >
> > > up and wrote the image to a _DVD_.  The iso size pushes the limits of
> > > what's possible with a CD, and cheap media can't handle it.  It's
> > > cheaper for me to use 10% of a DVD to hold the image than to burn 10
> > > CDs in the hope that _one_ of them will work.
> >
> > FYI -I have tried burning the CD image to a DVD, and can read the files,
> > but couldn't boot from it on the various machines I've got....
>
> Ok - so i just yanked 2 copies of Kubuntu 7.04 discs from my work lab which
> was used to install 4 other systems. I ran the integrity check on the first
> - it shows 24 files bad!
> On running the second - 2 files
>
> I'm not sure what this indicates, since the win media installed fine.
>
> > --
> > --- Dave Woyciesjes
> > --- ICQ# 905818
> > --- AIM - woyciesjes

I can't speak for the disk integrity checker on Ubuntu/Kubuntu, but know that 
with one of my Fedora installs I ran the integrity checker for each of the 
cd's (5 in total IIRC). the first was on one make of media, and passed the 
check, and the rest of the cd's were all on a different make of media, and 
according to the integrity checker all failed. Having seen a comment that the 
integrity checker could be unreliable depending on your media, I just went 
ahead and ran the install, and there were no problems whatsoever.

On a new machine that I've recently built, which has an Asus M2N-X Plus mobo, 
and an AMD64 3800+ CPU, and also an ATI based Asus graphics card, I've had 
nothing but problems booting anything, whether install cd's, live cd's, 
whatever.

I had to disable acpi in the BIOS to get them to boot, and even after that, I 
had to append the kernel line, for most of the distros with acpi=off, 
otherwise, and in the case of Kubuntu GG, and HH specifically, when the 
bootup got as far as starting X, the whole machine would just lockup. No 
mouse, no keyboard, no nothing.

The only Distro that did install ok, without appending the kernel line (and 
that is after disabling acpi in the BIOS) was Kubuntu Breezy, which is using 
an early 2.6.12 kernel (pre udev). having all the updates to upgrade to 
Dapper on another drive, I upgraded Breezy to Dapper, which also added a 
2.6.15 kernel. I rebooted using the 2.6.15 kernel, and again when X was 
started everything locked up. I rebooted into recovery mode, or whatever it's 
called for the 2.6.15 kernel, and found myself effectivally in runlevel 1. 
Startx got me into the desktop, no problemo.

As the desktop was accessable, I then booted up, appending the kernel line 
with a 3, and then once booted could look around in the filesystem for any 
problems. Pressed enter, and wonder of wonders, I didn't get runlevel 3, but 
the the KDM login screen, and was able to login to KDE. Don't ask me why 
appending the kernel line with a 3 has resolved the problem in booting into 
Dapper with the 2.6.15 kernel on my new machine, as I've absolutely no idea 
whatsoever.

Based on my experience with this new machine, and installing several different 
distros, sometimes it's all a bit trial, and error. Quite why appending the 
kernel line with acpi=off stops the machine locking up when booting, I've no 
idea.

I'm still getting problems on this new machine when downloading large files 
(iso's), when not using the machine for anything else. During the day I see 
no lockups, but if the downloads are proceeding overnight, oftentimes the 
following morning I find the machine locked up.

I am sort of wondering if the mouse pointer should be moved from time to time, 
and maybe this will stop the lockups. For this I will need a script to move 
the mouse pointer periodically, but will post this on a new thread.

Thursday evening ramblings, and probably not even worth 2¢.

Nigel.