8.10: won't install from SATA optical drive

[panfist]

I was unable to install 8.10 server 64-bit from my SATA optical drive. I tried burning two disks of the server edition, and also an alternate install CD.

When I booted from the CD and chose the language, the installation would hang indefinitely on "install now" and "check disc for errors."

When I exchanged my SATA drive for an IDE, the installation proceeded, but not without errors. The errors I was getting were I/O errors on device sr0. It would error repeatedly for about a minute, then proceed with the installation.

[MTisza]

I'm having a similar problem but, I don't have an IDE CD-ROM to try as a backup. For Either check CD or Install options it just hangs with a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner of a blank black screen. I have been able to check cd for defects on a different PC.

I'm using the x86 (ie 32-bit) alternate install CD, and I've also tried the desktop x86. The PC is a quad core 2 duo based PC with 8 GB of RAM and 64-bit Ubuntu 8.4 on the HD now.

I've read in another post that disconnecting IDE HDD drives would help but it didn't help.

Thanks,
Miki

[panfist]

I can't really help you with your installation since my method...using an IDE drive...is unavailable to you.

But I am curious, why are you re-installing from scratch instead of doing a dist-upgrade?

[bulldog]

Hmm,I have a sata dvd-rom as well as a sata dvd-burner,and I have installed the desktop ubuntu 3 times.
1x 8.04 64bit,1x 8.10 64bit and 8.10 32bit,and did not had any error at all.
I use a Gigabyte EX38-DS5 motherboard with 8 sata connectors.
If you have one,try a different sata cable,I had some trouble in the past with cheap cables,which I have replaced for better ones.

[gpsmikey]

Something worth checking out - see if there is a newer BIOS for the motherboard - often there are improved features in the newer BIOS's which may address your problems.

mikey

[panfist]

I was using SATA cables which were tried and true in a RAID array which I just disassembled. Also, I was using the most recent BIOS of my motherboard, Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H rev1.

[null_pointer_us]

When I booted from the CD and chose the language, the installation would hang indefinitely on "install now" and "check disc for errors."

When I exchanged my SATA drive for an IDE, the installation proceeded, but not without errors. The errors I was getting were I/O errors on device sr0. It would error repeatedly for about a minute, then proceed with the installation.

That sounds like this issue:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=964289

IOW some optical drives have problems reading the 8.10 CDs.

Solution: Either burn the iso to a DVD or extract the iso to a bootable USB stick, as per the thread (above).

[MTisza]

Thanks all for the suggestions. The reason I'm installing from scratch is just plain habit. Also I wanted to see the Live CD bootup before trying for real.

I tried other media, I tried another CD drive (external USB CD/DVD), I tried many boot options like:
noapic, nolapic, noacpi, clocksource=hpet, elevator=as and many others (most of which I have no clue about but were suggested in other forum posts).

I did realize that I get more info if I remove the command line option of quiet after hitting F6 before installing. After doing this the most consistent symptom (I think listing all would just be noise) is that it hangs immediately after the following appears:

[...] io scheduler cfq registered (default)

and that just above that I see Clocksource tsc unstable (delta = -298870421155 ns)


I don't think this has anything to do with the optical drive being sata.

Any thoughts? I see lots of suggestions related to this cfq thingy, but nothing that works for me.:(

Thanks,
Miki

[null_pointer_us]

MTisza, that sounds like a different issue. Maybe you could start a new thread if you do not get any other responses here. Since I am not familiar with your problem, I can't offer specific advice. If the problem is a kernel or driver bug, people will probably need provide more specific details about your hardware. In the meantime, you could also use memtest86+ to verify that your RAM is stable at its current settings.

http://www.memtest.org/