Possible CDROM problems with install

[Mike Leman]

Thanks for the advice.  I wiped the drive and successfully installed the 
minimal install.  Since things looked good at that point, I tried to add 
some software packages.  There I ran into trouble.  Almost every package 
errored out.  By pressing ALT-F2, I observerd the following errors:
gzip: stdin: invalid compressed data --CRC error
tar: child returned status 1
tar: error exit delayed from previous errors
pkg-add: tar extract of - failed
pkg-add: unable to extract table of contents file from "-"

Does this sound like a problem reading the CD?

Tonight I tried booting from the CD and installing XWindows.  The 
install stopped almost immediately.  Now I can't boot from the hard 
drive or the CD.  Both ways the boot stops with the line "Mounting root 
from ufs:/dev/ad1s1a.  Looks like I'll be wiping the drive again.

Any suggestions?  Would copying the CD to another hard drive on the same 
machine make installing the software packages easier?

Thanks,
Mike

Lowell Gilbert wrote:

When Greg talked about bad CD-ROMs, he meant CD-ROMs, not CD-ROM
drives.  It is, in fact, most likely a bad install disk.  It could be
a bad drive, but that's far less likely.  

Try an absolute minimum install, then go back afterards and add
additional distribution sets from sysinstall.  That will either work
or will give you more useful clues about the source of the problem.


>Mike Leman <mkleman at mtco.com> writes:
>
>  
>
>>I am trying to install Freebsd 4.8 on a computer and having a great
>>deal of problems.   The first time I tried the install stopped when
>>the doc install was at 100% and would not go on.  I rebooted and it
>>would boot, but I didn't have much.  I tried booting from the CD to
>>finish the install, but that didn't work.  I would get a screen screen
>>dump that just kept scrolling. Since I'm putting this on a second hard
>>drive, I wiped everything off the drive and started over.  When it was
>>loading the BIN to first directory, I noticed I was getting a lot of
>>"/stand/cpio: invalid header: checksum error" messages.  Then on the
>>window with progress bar, I got a message  "write failure on
>>transfer".  I acknowledged the error and received a message asking to
>>try again yes/no.  After retrying and failing a number of times, I
>>selected no and the docs installed OK.  After this every part of the
>>install had the write failure until I stopped the install.   On
>>monitoring side, there were invalid header errors and other errors
>>also.
>>
>>In Greg Lehey's book "The Complete FREEBSD", he notes can be problems
>>with ATAPI CD-ROMs.  I have a Acer 36X CDROM that reports "ATAPI 36X
>>MAXIMUM" when the computer boots.  Could there be problem with the
>>CDROM drive?  Is there something I do for this?  Or do I have a bad
>>install CD?  I just purchased the intall CDs.  Also the Hard drive in
>>fairly new.  I bought it and installed six months ago, but have not
>>used till now.
>>    
>>
>
>When Greg talked about bad CD-ROMs, he meant CD-ROMs, not CD-ROM
>drives.  It is, in fact, most likely a bad install disk.  It could be
>a bad drive, but that's far less likely.  
>
>Try an absolute minimum install, then go back afterards and add
>additional distribution sets from sysinstall.  That will either work
>or will give you more useful clues about the source of the problem.
>
>
>  
>