Ubuntu can't install, 'can't download package *'

**insanarchist** · 10-14-2005

Alright, I'm relatively new to linux, but I've messed around with it a bit and, in general, I can fake my way through some stuff. That said, I downloaded the newest Ubuntu iso and, when I try to install the base system (the easy/automatic one), it gets around 10% in and starts throwing errors such as "can't download package zlib1g", and then it goes to a red screen with a "base system installation error". I did a disc integrity check, and the CD checks out fine. I'm not sure if this is a hardware error, or if the iso image was corrupt (it burnt just fine), but I'd like to know what these errors mean and what I can do about them.

On a possibly related note, the machine is hard-wired and dhcp auto-configured correctly. I've never had any hardware problems with the computer.

Thanks in advance

I'm doing this because I'm so tired of windows/DRM crap I could puke.

*edit: I tried googling and searching these and other forums, but I couldn't come up with anything, which is why I would bet this is an individual hardware error of some sort.

**insanarchist** · 10-14-2005

I see a few people have read my post, but none have posted replies thus far! I understand my problem may be too specific for many (or any) people to have had similar experiences, but even a "I've installed debian x times and have never had that problem" response would be welcome!

**budman7** · 10-14-2005

A couple questions for you.
Does this install cd work on another computer?
What speed did you burn at? Personally I like 4x, I know it is not necessary to go that slow, but i have never had a problem with a bad burn.

I do believe 12-15x should be ok though.

Have you been able to install other distros on this machine?

**insanarchist** · 10-14-2005

I burned it at 16x, which has never given me any problems that I've noticed.

As for being able to install any other distros on the machine... come to think of it, I had a couple problems trying to install both slackware and gentoo on it a while back, but I chalked it up to bad cd's (many of my cd's have started deteriorating, giving me 'cyclic redundancy' errors, so I figured it was something similar).

I'll try the cd on a different computer. Thanks for the response

**Terrycymru** · 10-30-2005

I've got the same install problem. Has anyone found a solution/explanation? Has anyone who had a problem with the iso download burnt CD found that it worked OK with an official Ubuntu CD?

If you have an answer please post here. A lot of us want to know!

**insanarchist** · 10-30-2005

I figured it out! It was a bad iso image. I'm not sure how it happened, but although it burnt 'successfully', it was missing some very important/necessary data. As a solution, I re-downloaded the image, checked to make sure the size was what it was supposed to be, then burnt it at 4x (an old trick to make sure the CD burns 100% correctly for important things like operating systems or picture backups).

Yay!

**Terrycymru** · 10-30-2005

insanarchist : thanks for posting your solution.

I burned my CD at 4X and checked the checksum so I assumed it was OK. I may wait until I get the Ubuntu CD by mail before I try again. Did the rest of the install go OK? Are you up and running Ubuntu?

**kamik-aze** · 03-08-2006

I had the same problem, after burning the iso again at the same speed (10x on the same CD-RW medium even by using the same iso file) under windows the installation problem disapeared. :o

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