9.10 install stuck in loop as no net connection...

[mango42]

I haven't come across this bit of 'elitism' before but it seems with this install one MUST have a working net connection. Why is this? How do people without net at all get to install Karmic Koala?

I am using the alternate install from a USB stick (UNetbootin) and I have to use a separate USB WiFi dongle (not the Wifi built into this Thinkpad T43). The installer does not recognise the difference, so consequently it fails to find the dongle and gets stuck in a loop between 'Net access failed' and 'Searching for a local mirror' - I don't understand why it needs a mirror at this stage anyway as I downloaded the correct and complete .iso

Major catch22 for me as I am attempting a fresh install due to the upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10 having totally screwed up my system - no ALSA, App menu gone doo-lally, etc etc - far too much mess to sort out.

On top of that, the trackpoint button has stopped working altogether and no amount of Fn+F8 switching makes any difference. Hmm.

Edit: Trackpoint somehow got disabled in BIOS during above aborted install.

[mango42]

Bump.

Has no-one else hit this catch22?

[mango42]

Just for reference, the problem was caused by Unetbootin disregarding the option not to download an .iso!

Using usb-creator seemed to work better; however, I got almost to the end of installation (UbuntuStudio32 9.10) and once again it could not proceed without a net connection (it installed all the software but then said 'installation failed', ditto Grub)

Hey ho - could you incredible people assembling all this wonderful free software please bear in mind that some of us are not in range of access points unless we use WiFi dongles on the end of long USB cables? That is, please do a more thorough check to see which net interface is truly active?

Alternatively, and perhaps more universally, make sure an installation can go the whole way without any reference to the net whatsoever? This way, we can get started then sort out the active net connection afterwards.

[mutex023]

Completely agree with you, I always unplug the network cable while installing, otherwise it stays at the 'scanning mirror...' or 'getting time from time server.....' screens for a long time.