Download of DVD distribution error

[knolan]

Hi,

I'm new to Linux and to this forum.

I'm attempting to download the DVD Install ISO for Scientific Linux (Red Hat with some additions for science) to my PC-Laptop external USB Hard Disk, but the download keeps failing near the end.

My PC-Laptop is running Vista 32bit, and the external HD is a 500GB wallet sized Buffalo HD with 400 GB free. I'm no PC sys admin - but the Scientific Linux file is over 4GB in size and I wonder if this might be a problem if the HD is formatted as a FAT32 rather than an NTFS disk (if that's the correct terminology)?

The Windows Vista download window says that I've run out of space on the HD, even though I haven't.

I'd be grateful for any pointers.


Note that I can't think I can download this as multiple CD's rather than a single DVD distribution - because I'm trying to install this Scientific Linux in Oracle(former Sun) Virtual Box and I'm having difficulties understanding what it wants and was advised by someone to download Scientific Linux as a single iso to burn to a DVD (in the hope that Virtual box will see it for installation in the DVD drive) - but as said I'm unable to even download the DVD installation file.

I cannot find a help line / contact on the Scientific Linux web site (this forum is blocking me post its URL) - hence this post here.

Any pointers / guidance on what's going on and how to download tis distribution would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Kevin.

[oz]

I'm no PC sys admin - but the Scientific Linux file is over 4GB in size and I wonder if this might be a problem if the HD is formatted as a FAT32 rather than an NTFS disk (if that's the correct terminology)?

Hello and welcome to the forums!

Yes, there is a 4GB filesize limit for FAT32. You should be able to download it to NTFS or ext3/4 without any issues, though. Otherwise, you could look around to see if anyone has it on several CDs that you could download.

[knolan]

Hi Oz -

Thanks for your reply - it was helpful. I have looked for an earlier version ( 4.8 ) which is under 4GB and it downloaded OK.

I have another question however and wonder if you might be able to help?

My aim here is to install Scineitific Linux (Red Hat) from a single DVD, and the web site says to download the 3.5 GB DVD image compressed file I've now successfully downloaded:

SL.48.072909.i386.DVD.iso

Upon downloading it and having to expand it using rar, (into a directory I call SL_DVD4.8 ), the contents (see attachment) are seen. Now, I want to use Nero to make a DVD I can install Scinetific Linux from (from within Virtual Machine), and wonder - do I just tell Nero to go into the directory SL_DVD4.8 and burn all of those contents shown in the attachment directly to the DVD. Does this make it an iso image, bootable and installable from (again a lot of this process and terminology is very new to me).

Again the documentation and help on the Scientific Linux web site is virtually non existent (I think they assume you are already familiar with installing Linux before using their release as their guidance to beginneers is essentially non-existent), hence my posts here.

Thanks once again for your time on this.

Best regards,
Kevin.

[oz]

Upon downloading it and having to expand it using rar, (into a directory I call SL_DVD4.8 ), the contents (see attachment) are seen. Now, I want to use Nero to make a DVD I can install Scinetific Linux from (from within Virtual Machine), and wonder - do I just tell Nero to go into the directory SL_DVD4.8 and burn all of those contents shown in the attachment directly to the DVD. Does this make it an iso image, bootable and installable from (again a lot of this process and terminology is very new to me).

Don't extract the contents of the ISO file and don't make the disk bootable yourself because the ISO image burning process takes care of all that for you. You can check this HowTo for making sure you properly download the ISO file and then burn it to disk as an image:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/ins...ll-cd-dvd.html

[knolan]

Hi Ozar -

Kevin nolan here. Just a quick reply to say thanks for the extra pointer (i was away for the past few days) - that was a real issue - so very much appreciated.

Cheer,
Kevin.