FC6 install does not recognize the CD/DVD it successfully booted from

[Scott van Looy]

Today Frode Petersen did spake thusly:

> Hello again.
> I asked about this a while back, but thought a bad burn was to blame. Now I'm 
> not so shure and need help in finding a solution to this strange problem.
>
> First, the relevant hardware:
> Asus A8N-SLI Premium mb (socket939, nForce4 SLI), 2GB ram, 2 sata HD sda/sdb, 
> NEC nd-3550a IDE DVD burner (IDE master, ch1)
>
> I have downloaded FC-6-x86_64-boot.iso (CD image for internet install) and 
> FC-6-x86_64-DVD.iso (DVD image for normal install), and burnt them on 
> corresponding media using Brasero. I have also tried GnomeBaker on the DVD.
>
> The procedure:
> 1. Boot from the CD or the DVD. Results are identical for both.
> 2. Type "linux askmethod" or "linux rescue". (Same result)
> 2. Choose language, keyboard and install type 'Local CD-ROM'
> 3. The DVD-player ejects the disk and FC install complains:
> 	"The Fedora Core CD was not found in any of
> 	 your CDROM drives. Please insert the Fedora
> 	 Core CD and press OK to retry."
>
> There is a way around this if there is an image file on an accessible 
> partition:
> 4. Go back one step, choose install from local harddisk, enter directory 
> where the image file is, press OK.
>
> From here the install/rescue works as normal, so the image files themselves 
> are OK.
>
> I have compared the checksums of each file in the FC-6-x86_64-boot.iso to the 
> ones on the CD, like this:
>
> 	mount -t iso9660 <path>FC-6-x86_64-boot.iso /media/test/ -o loop
> 	md5sum {Fedora\ Core,test}/*
> 	md5sum {Fedora\ Core,test}/isolinux/*
>
> The checksums are identical, so the files themselves are OK. I have no reason 
> to think that the result would be different for the dvd, but I haven't 
> checked. The failure is identical, and if I'm correct, the files  common in 
> both isos are the ones that would be needed to get past that point.
>
> I have also tried watching a DVD movie, and that worked. (Mplayer worked, 
> Totem didn't)
>
> Possible causes: (?) (In random order)
>
> - Timeout of media mount during install to short. This would indicate a drive 
> on the brink of collapse. Is there a way to increase such a timeout just to 
> check?
>
> - I have seen someone mentioning that the bios is used for the initial mount 
> (pre entering 'linux' to start install) and that linux later uses it's own 
> driver to mount later. Does this change occur at the point in the procedure 
> where it fails? If so, how do I diagnose whether this is a driver failure?
>
> - Burning the isos resulted in some kind of error in the media metadata (for 
> lack of a better term). Maybe some bit or byte or label unrelated to the 
> files should be set to a certain value, and it wasn't?
>
> I have googled and googled, without coming closer to a solution. I have 
> cleaned the drive's lens. I have seen reports of the exact same failure, but 
> in intel based systems. (AFAIK the solutions were intel specific)
> I tried the option 'all-generic-ide' when booting, but I might have made an 
> error in doing so: What is the correct way of specifying such a boot option? 
> (IIRC I wrote: linux all-generic-ide rescue) Isn't that option intel 
> specific?

I think there's a bug with EIDE on some mobos with NV SATA - I'm seeing 
exactly the same behaviour on a K8N-DL (NForce 4 pro chipset)

-- 
Scott van Looy - email:me at ethosuk.org.uk | web:www.ethosuk.org.uk
site:www.freakcity.net - the in place for outcasts since 2003
PGP Fingerprint: 7180 5543 C6C4 747B 7E74  802C 7CF9 E526 44D9 D4A7
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