Attached is a conversation I had this morning on IM. The names of the participants have been changed to protect the innocent. (Well maybe not innocent.) It provides an interesting insight into the mind of a techno-fiddler.
DP: have you tried RH 8.0 yet?
Jeremy Beker: ::laugh:: nope.
DP: I’m having problems with the CDs…I can’t get them to boot
DP: maybe my iso files are corrupted
Jeremy Beker: they should have MD5 checksums listed somewhere you can compare with
DP: how do I compute the MD5 checksum?
Jeremy Beker: md5sum
DP: ah…seems easy enough..haha
Jeremy Beker: I have also found that when discs are burned at high speed, they will take too long to be recognized by the cdrom drive and not be ready in enough time to allow the machine to boot from them.
DP: ah…I bet that’s it
DP: I think I only burned at 16x though
DP: so do I use: md5sum image.iso …
Jeremy Beker: 16 is very fast. I have had problems with CDs burned at 8x, I usually do 4x if I am having issues
Jeremy Beker: yes, md5sum
DP: hmmm….doesn’t seem to be doing anything
DP: oh well…I’ll try to burn at a lower speed
Jeremy Beker: it will take it a bit to go through 650MB
DP: hmmm…the software I’m using doesn’t go below 8x….so I’ll try that.
Jeremy Beker: ::laugh::
DP: I thinkI burned my 7.3 discs at 12x and didn’t have any problems
Jeremy Beker: did the md5sums match?
DP: its still cranking away
DP: yes…checksums match….must be the burn rate
Jeremy Beker: also if you can set your machine to only boot from CD, you may be able to force it to load.
DP: yeah…this POS model that I have only allows you to set the “first” drive to try
Jeremy Beker: oh
DP: it starts to load, ,but then I get an error
Jeremy Beker: make a boot floppy
DP: something about linux trying to wing it
Jeremy Beker: the images should be on the CD
DP: ….I might have to do that…I don’t think I actually own a floppy
Jeremy Beker: ::laugh::
Jeremy Beker: there is that
DP: I’ll have to go to staples and probably have to buy them in packages of like 150
DP: ah…CD is done…I’ll try this new one
DP: hmmm…same error
Jeremy Beker: kernel error, or redhat error?
DP: isolinux: Loading spec packet failed, trying to wing it…
DP: isolinux: Failed to locate CD-ROM device, boot failed.
DP: but the 7.2 and 7.3 discs I have work just fine…and I made them on the same burner
Jeremy Beker: oh. do you have a funcky cdrom drive?
DP: same drive I used to load 7.2 and 7.3
Jeremy Beker: and you haven’t dorked with the hardware since then
DP: I think that this is RH’s plot to make me replace every piece of this machine one upgrade at a time
DP: I replaced the video card…
Jeremy Beker: that shouldn’t make a difference.
DP: since the new and “improved” drivers didn’t work with my old card….
DP: even though the old drivers worked
Jeremy Beker: that is what you get for upgrading
DP: haha…yes…I suppose so
Jeremy Beker: (which is why I never “upgrade” a working system without a very good reason)
DP: I have a good reason
DP: …I need bluecurve
Jeremy Beker: um. that is the new window manager look, isn’t it?
DP: ximian is getting old
DP: yes
Jeremy Beker: ::sigh:: that is not a good reason
DP: well…when I have to look at it all day…a new desktop is like a vacation for me
Jeremy Beker: uh huh. you just can’t stand to leave something alone without fiddling with it
DP: well….why should I leave it alone when I can make it better, faster, stronger…like the bionic computer
Jeremy Beker: given your current success rate, I think older, plainer, and working might have been a better choice