Bad DVD? Is this a common problem?

[N5SBP]

I purchased an 11.0 DVD from linuxcd.org and went through the install process. Very near the end when the progress bars were at 100% on “RESTORING USER PREFERENCES” and “DEPLOYING IMAGES”, it hung with the DVD drive light on solid. I ran the “verify medium” (or something like that) function and it reported an “error on sector 2214946” and “this DVD is broken”. I fell back and reinstalled SuSE 7.3 and it’s working fine.

Do you guys generally trust discs from companys like linuxcd.org?
Do they occasionally produce bad distros?
Do you trust the findings of the “verify medium” function?
(IE: should I believe it’s report of a bad DVD and go back to the people that sold it to me?)

Thanks in advance for you opinion.
Nice forum.

[bigtomrodney]

I've never had any problems from buying online, though I haven't done it in several years.

You can always get the md5 sums from the original site of the distro. I'd check that way before even starting the install. It can save a lot of hair pulling.

Welcome to the forum too

[gogalthorp]

Anyone can have a bad CD/DVD or a bad burn. I'd see If I could get a replacement.

[N5SBP]

Thanks, guys. I read the fine print on this fine French distributor's web site and they say all their products are sold as is and no refunds. I emailed them with the messages I received about the DVD and they did not even respond.

I placed another order with another company today. At about $10 a pop, pretty soon I'll be able to buy a boxed distro from Novell or Best Buy, etc. Oh well.

There's one company who proudly proclaims "The cheepest place to buy free software" on their web site - funny.

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

I've purchased bad CD/DVD disks from vendors before, but it doesn't happen all that often. My vendor replaced the bad disk free of charge. Sorry to hear your purchase was "as is".

[N5SBP]

What is a "live CD"? Are they complete distributions or just a bootable kernal etc? They go for $2 so I figured I needed to buy a DVD to get the whole thing.

[oz]

A liveCD is a disk with a distribution on it that runs entirely from the CD/DVD drive. You don't even have to have any other OS or hard drive installed. Some liveCDs can also be installed to the hard drive if you so choose.

[lhuser]

Usually, few LiveCDs have no option to install it on the drive. The only one I remember, is Elive.

As for bad media, it's very possible. These DVDs are being produced by tons, so a glitch is very possible in a batch. If I may ask, why haven't you burned one by yourself? It's better off like that, and also for futuristic usage.

[N5SBP]

CDs baffle me and DVDs are way beyond what my pea brain can comprehend. If god had meant for men to burn DVDs he would have included a burner on every PC. Mine he did not.

I did download an iso image of a live cd just now and burned it onto a CD (I think). Will try booting off it tonight and hopefully it will work.

Thanks for all the feedback!

Nice forum.
jim

[gogalthorp]

It is important that you burn as an ISO image not just a file copy. Your burning software should have that option.