[Bug 245794] Re: [Errno 5] Input/Output Error during Live CD Installation

[Will Smith]

This problem drove me crazy for 2 weeks on and off. I have finally found
out what the problem is and I registered just to share my conclusion to
help others because this is a very misleading error to a lot of us.

I have 2 laptops and I tried to install BackTrack, BackBox, Ubuntu,
etc.. all failed on one laptop and I couldn't understand why, I was
installing from a live USB and it was still complaining about the CD/DVD
error!! what the hell, it does not make any sense.

I opened up my laptop, I completely removed the CD/DVD and tried again
and it still failed. I opened up my laptop hoping my final resolution
was to just remove a 2GB ram but to my luck, the laptop had just one 4GB
RAM stick, so that trick would not work.

I came to the wrong conclusion that others came to as well and that is
perhaps the linux OS is just not compatible with all hardware out there
and in my mind I started to blame developers even though I am one.

Why this problem is a misleading one? Because :- 1- You can go into your
bios and detect that you have the correct size of ram (4GB) and also
boot windows 7/8 and use it just fine, no problems at all, so why should
linux complain !, also in my case this was a brand new laptop as well.!!

2- There is a large number of us users that are actually experiencing
this problem, so this could lead to the understanding that it is
actually the OS and not our hardware. However, until you restart your
machine and go into “Diagnostics” you won’t know that there is actually
a problem with your ram, Its much quicker than using memtest to detect
if there is indeed an issue.

This leads me to believe that linux is actually so good that it does a
proper test of the CRC of your ram as it tries to install itself and
will fail if there is something wrong with the ram, a bit harsh though.

Having said that, linux developers still need to change the error
message to help the users understand clearly that there is a ram issue
as oppose to a missleading "CD / DVD error" but also there should still
be a way to bypass the error and continue the installation of the OS
because we know that windows can operate just fine on the faulty ram.

I replaced the RAM and it works just fine.

I want to thank this thread anyway because it was the one that lead me
to understand that there might be a ram issue in the equation but when
people in this thread are suggesting to remove 1 ram and got it to work,
they most definatly removed the faulty ram, its not because it was a
trick to remove one and keep the other to fool the OS.

Thanks

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/245794

Title:
  [Errno 5] Input/Output Error during Live CD Installation

Status in “ubiquity” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  I didn't find the exact description here for the bug I noticed, though
  it was discussed on

  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=600126

  very intense. I'v tried to install ubuntu with the Live CD for 8.04 and 8.04.1 (both i386) on my SATA2 drive and I always get the Message:
  -------
  The installer encountered an error copying files to the hard disk:

  [Errno 5] Input/output error

  This particular error is often due to a faulty CD/DVD disk or drive,
  or a faulty hard disk. It may help to clean the CD/DVD, to burn the
  CD/DVD at a lower speed, to clean the CD/DVD drive lens (cleaning kits
  are often available from electronics suppliers), to check whether the
  hard disk is old and in need of replacement, or to move the system to
  a cooler environment.

  I redownloaded the ISO several times, checked the MD5 right after the download and MD5'ed the burned CD (burned at 4x). Everything seemed to be allright, but this message always occured - around 69%-73%.
  -------

  It seems to have no effect wether I choose EXT3, ReiserFS, create swap
  partition yes/no, formating the root partition on console or whatever.

  I managed to install Ubuntu 7.04 (feisty fawn) from an old Live CD -
  no Problem. So my HD must be allright too. As I dig around in forums,
  people seemed to solve this by chance (trying different CDR's etc.). I
  couldn't find a real solution for this.

  My system: Intel Core 2 Duo, MSI P31 Neo-F, 2GB RAM, XpertVision
  Radeon HD 2600XT, Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS.

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