Not able to finish new 4.8 install on Compaq Alphaserver DS20

[Gavin Hubbard]

Hello

I am new to *BSD and I'm doing a FreeBSD 4.8 installation for the first
time. My target system is my Compaq Alpahserver DS20 (dual 500MHz EV6, 2GB
RAM, 4x4GB RAID 0+1 and 2x9GB RAID 1 on storage works RA230 controller,
CDROM + DDS3 on Symbios UW + ethernet controller, plus some misc I/O
options). My installation media is a 4.8 ISO image I downloaded and burned
to CD-R. The system was formerly running VMS in a development environment
and is known to be fully operational.

After moving the Symbios controller onto another system hose I was able to
get the system to boot into the Sysinstall utility from the local CDROM
drive *using the miniroot disk). I am then able to create the file-systems,
nominate the distribution I require, choose an installation source, and
begin the installation. I have used the auto-layout tool for the 8GB RAID
0+1 array and created a new 9GB /usr filesystem on the RAID 1 array.

The problem I have is that once Sysinstall keeps stopping towards the end of
the installtion with the following message:

"Unable to get packages/INDEX file from selected media."

"This may be because the packages collection is not available on the
distribution media you've chosen, most likely an FTP site without the
packages collection mirrored. Please verify that you media, or your path to
the media, is correct and try again."

The curious thing is that this always happens at the end of the
installation, regardless of the particular distribution I have chosen. If I
switch to the holographic shell on ALT-F4 and run ls on /cdrom I get an
empty directory listing. If I try "mount /cdrom" I get a "cd9660: /dev/cd0c:
Device busy" message. This must be why it can no longer see the installation
path.

Once I hit "Ok" to the warning message I get a message that says "The commit
operation completed with errors. Not updating /etc files." and I am returned
to Sysinstall. Interestingly, if I try to simply recommit the distribution
in the custom installation options menu I get the same warning. However if I
reselect a distribution and then run commit, it will repeat the installation
tasks but stop at exactly the same point (or a different point if I choose
another distribution or choose to install ports).

I have searched on google before posting here and the only reference I found
suggested that it might be a good idea to check the CDROM drive in another
machine or replace it with a new drive. I have tested this drive on another
machine and it seems to be working fine.

Thank-you in advance for your assistance in solving this problem.

Regards,

Gavin Hubbard