8.10 Installation - Never successful

[compuwiz]

I'm new to LinuxMCE but from what I'm seeing in videos and posts, it sounds like an awesome OS that does everything I need it to do.  I'm having zero progress with the install and here are my steps:

1 - I downloaded the DVD ISO, burned it to DVD, and then loaded it into my PC.
2- I got the splash page of what I'd like to do: Install Kubuntu, verify cd, ..., Install LinuxMCE.
3 - I chose Install LinuxMCE.  I goes through a black screen quickly saying "OK" to all initial items and then brings me to the Install GUI (6 steps)
4 - Step 1 Pick English, Step 2 Pick time zone, Step 3 Pick keyboard layout, Step 4 Disk space to select use entire disk, Step 5 fill out user profile, Step 6 confirm and press Install button.

Partitions Formatting - Creating ext3 file system for / in partiion #1 of SCSI1 (0,0,0) (sda)...
Very slow process, basically hangs at 5%.

Installing System - copying files - 39% dvd drive stops blinking, mouse doesn't work, keyboard doesn't do anything -- system crashed.  forced to do a manual restart, brought back to beginning.

This time I try "Install Kubuntu" at the DVD splash page.
Installing System - Copying files - 55%
Got an error "Installation Failed - The installer encountered an error copying files to the hard disk: errno 5 - input/output error."
>>I burned the DVD at the slowest speed, verified there is no heating issues with my PC
>> When I press the cancel button the system continues to boot which it appears to be booting from the dvd drive. I'm able to see a fully working system and I can see the install window on the desktop. The system is able to recognize my printer that is plugged in even though it is turned off which is kind of cool. It was also able turn a printer on and then print a test page without me having to do anything, this is a major when over windows. When I press the restart button it tells me to eject the dvd which I do. The computer then tries to boot up to the operating system without the dvd but it fails because the operational system does not exist.

When I press "Check CD for defects" - the DVD light doesn't do anything, so I dont think that's being used at all? Keyboard stops working, zero progress bar, system crashes - CTRL ALT DEL doesn't even work.

I even took a DVD drive from another desktop and tried everything from above, still no success.

NOTE: For step 4 disk space - I originally only had 1 HD in there and had the same issues.  I recently loaded a 2nd HD in the machine, turned on my RAID 1 (MIRROR).  The install doesn't see the RAID, but instead sees the two independent drives (sda and sdb) both identical sizes.  I pick installing onto 1 drive, and same errors.

No idea what could be causing all of this.  Incompatible motherboard??

==SYSTEM SPECS==
ASUS K8V SE DELUXE Motherboard
AMD 3200 64-bit
2.5GB RAM 3200
ATI Radeon 9800 All in Wonder //I'm aware that LinuxMCE prefers nVidia cards, but I wouldn't think that this would severely impact the install process?//

[Marper]

I've set up a separate Freenas server with RAID for dvd, pic's and music.  My LMCE Core only has 1 drive for the system.  If you are configuing hybrid I understand.

Have you installed 0710 so that you can get the look and feel of the system ?  If not I would do that first ?  I've stayed away from ATI, just too much config issues.

[Marie.O]

compuwiz, my bet is on broken hardware. If you've got problems installing kubuntu in the first place, there is not much we can do from the LinuxMCE side of things, I am afraid.

[DragonK]

HI,

I would start with replacing the DVD drive.
And use the latest snapshot http://linuxmce.iptp.org/snapshots/

Karel

[evilecho]

Yea, listen to DragonK.... the DVD is more or less broken.... my last install I used snapshot 23642, and it worked great, you will have to modify your /etc/apt/sources.list in order for it to update though. When I installed it I used the kubuntu install, then after updating I downloaded the installer.

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=10901.0
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Installing_0810

[locutus]

may i suggest re-downloading the snapshot also as i have gotten corrupt downloads before

[compuwiz]

I've set up a separate Freenas server with RAID for dvd, pic's and music.  My LMCE Core only has 1 drive for the system.  If you are configuing hybrid I understand.

Have you installed 0710 so that you can get the look and feel of the system ?  If not I would do that first ?  I've stayed away from ATI, just too much config issues.

Yeah, I already have a FreeNAS up and working, freaking awesome! Using 4 disks totalling 1TB on RAID 5.  All of my data is there.  I'm just using the software RAID on FreeNAS though, so I try and backup all my data to an external also - paranoid I guess.

No I have not tried 0710.  From what I read, I understand that 810 is "beta" but isn't that stable and supported now? The snapshots URL doesn't even have 710 listed...

[compuwiz]

I even took a DVD drive from another desktop and tried everything from above, still no success.

I can understand the one original DVD drive to not be working, but not TWO! The 2nd one I used definately works as I use it on my main PC.  Note: both DVD drives are EIDE based, but I dont think that would affect anything? I wouldnt mind getting a SATA Blue Ray DVD-ROM.

I also tried installing the software on a completely different HD, still nothing.

And for the record, I originally downloaded 8.10 build 23161 (I thought the snapshots page is from newest to oldest, not sure why it's the other way - doesn't really make sense, but whatever.  That install didnt work so I figured it was a bad burn and realized I downloaded the older copy and then downloaded the 23642 build (a couple days old).  I find it a little hard to believe that they would release a bad build without proper testing? But cant say weirder things have happened, haha.  I also think the chances of them releasing 2 bad builds and me picking THOSE 2 bad builds, with same errors is small.

The PC uses one of the old AGP types.  I do have an extra ATI X800 laying around that I could try -- but that uses PCI Express.  I think PCI-e cards can still fit the AGP seating but not be utilized to the x16 potential -- right?

Even when I turn OFF my RAID so that its just two normal SATA drives, the install still doesn't work.
Not sure what else to test? Maybe start pulling out RAM one stick at a time (2 mixed brands), but I dont think that would be the reason for this crash.
I think the ultimate thing would be that my motherboard could be weird, but that is really hard to test for this.

Thank you all for the replies!

[DragonK]

I can understand the one original DVD drive to not be working, but not TWO! The 2nd one I used definately works as I use it on my main PC.  Note: both DVD drives are EIDE based, but I dont think that would affect anything? I wouldnt mind getting a SATA Blue Ray DVD-ROM.
I also tried installing the software on a completely different HD, still nothing.

Try instaling on your "main pc" just use a clean HDD with no data on it to loose. That way you could eliminate if the snapshot or dvd drive that ur using is faulty.

Karel

[compuwiz]

Try instaling on your "main pc" just use a clean HDD with no data on it to loose. That way you could eliminate if the snapshot or dvd drive that ur using is faulty.

Karel

Yeah I can try that.  I'll also try the "test dvd" option on the other computer since that never works on this affected PC.

My concern is that my "main pc" has 2 HD's in a RAID-0 configuration.  I think I can hook up an additional HD as normal, boot to DVD, and try install on the single HD, but after the install process, wont the computer by default try to boot to my RAID??

[Beeker]

A couple of suggestions
1. Unplug your RAID I do when doing fresh installs as I have nearly 4Tb of data that I definitely do not want to lose
2. The other option is to make a Linux Boot USB stick drive and save the ISO to it then boot from the USB stick drive if your m/b supports as it far quicker and more reliable then DVD's
3. Use any spare HDD you have lying around then once you get it to boot up you can install mdadm from a terminal window in kubuntu and plug your RAID array in and it should be automatically detected safely

Regards
Beeker

[compuwiz]

Well, I just finished what you guys suggested and still same exact error.  Errno5 at 59%.

I removed 1 of the 2 HDs from my "Red Box" (the one that initially had this problem), used the DVD drive from my "Main Box" and still same error.  I'm completely puzzled.  At first I thought it was a hardware issue on my "Red Box" but now that the same issue happened on a completely different, more up-to-date PC....??

"Main Box" Specs
AMD Athlon II 630 x4
4gb ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260

I dont think I have a USB memory stick that I can use.  Even if I did, my Red Box I dont believe supports USB booting -- it was built in 2004 and has original version 1 of the BIOS.  However, with that last tid-bit of information, I cannot even make a DOS Boot floppy, load the appropriate flashing software, and then the new bios version even if I did want to update it -- because my other computers are all Windows 7 or Vista and the upgrade software isn't compatible with it.

*grrrr*

Thoughts?

PS - removing my existing RAID in my Main Box worked perfectly, I didn't know I could do that - thanks!

[locutus]

may i suggest re-downloading the snapshot also as i have gotten corrupt downloads before

[Beeker]

Are both your DVD drives burners as I was using my HP laptop to burn iso's and another one downstairs and both would corrupt the burn. When you do the burn does it complete without errors, I finally found another burner that worked but that was after trashing 10 x discs so since my m/b supports USB booting all my blank DVD's have gone to the great DVD bin in the Sky......scratched media a thing of the past especially with a 3 year old everything is now on USB and HDD's and soon I will be moving to SSD's

Cheers
Beeker

[purps]

My money is on knackered DVD or knackered drive.

Always burn DVDs on slowest speed. Try redownloading/reburning the DVD first. Failing this, see if you can get hold of a SATA/any modern DVD drive and try that.

Cheers,
Matt.