Troubles with netinstall

[Frenchyp]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to install Debian Sarge on a old Latitude Dell Laptop using the netinstall method. My network interface is a PCMCIA Ethernet card 3com model 3C589D
I've downloaded and burnt the 180Mb minimal cd and checked its integrity.
The laptop boots normally on the cd and start loading the kernel in memory.
It passes the detecting hardware to find cd-rom drives test and the scanning cd-rom test, but fails on "load installer components from cd":
"There was a problem reading data from the CDROM. Please make sure it is in the drive. If retrying does not work, you should check the integrity of your CDROM.
Failed to copy file from CDROM. Retry?
yes/no"

Of course "retry" leads to the same results, and the integrity check fails. However the same integrity test is ok on my other computer.

Then I tried the floppy disks method. This time the installation starts too but fails finding my network interface driver. It shows me a list with a bunch of drivers but not mine.

I cant do the USBKey method because i dont have any other linux working for the moment.



What do you think? Should I give up the NetInstall and download/burn the first CD? Is this CD going to work?
Should I try another solution?

Thanks for reading all that and for your help

[socrazy143]

Probably you should try downloading the ISO again. I know, blah blah, it worked fine, integrity is passing on my computer but just try it again. I had a similar problem on a Smoothwall I just setup and when I downloaded and burned again it worked fine.

You might try cleaning the CD-ROM as well. Those dastardly specs of dust!

[TheBigPhish]

sounds like the CD rom drive you have does not like burnt discs 1) on that color medium, 2) in that format/speed, or 3) at all...If you have another CD drive that you can replace in that system, i would...or i would try another maker of CD medium @ burn at a lower speed...suprisingly some older laptops don't play nicely in the sandbox w/ high speed burnt CDs or CDs in some colors (my gateway solo will not even accept a "Black" memorex CD, but has no trouble w/ blue or green CD blanks.

[dark_lord_kodd]

I second that.

It is probably the case that the cdrom drive cannot read all of the disk...it may just be too old.

If you can, swap the drive for another (newer) model...

or try for a hard disk based install? Although im not sure how that is done, but Im sure you could find out!

[Frenchyp]

Well you guys were right, it was a CD problem:
I burnt another CD at a lower speed and it still didnt work, so I got tired and tried with another old distro that I have had in my CD case for a while and it went fine.
Conclusion: Old Dell's CD player cant read Sony CD-R, whatever speed you burn them.

Thanks for your help