base-installer should give better errors about bad install media

Bug #21773 reported by Joseph Donahue
22
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
base-installer (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

During the installation process, a bad CD can cause any number of
things to fail. Unpacking the kernel (bug 37290), running debootstrap,
etc.

Lots of bugs are filed about software breaking when it is a faulty CD
or faulty drive. We figure these out when people send us dmesg output,
but they can't troubleshoot this themselves.

So having error messages that tell people that base-installer can't read
the CD cleanly would be a very good thing.

Revision history for this message
Matt Zimmerman (mdz) wrote :

Sounds like a bad CD. Run an integrity check by selecting "go back" from the
language selection screen.

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Check /target/debootstrap/debootstrap.log instead.

Revision history for this message
Will Taygan (william-taygan) wrote :

(In reply to comment #0)
> I downloaded ubuntu-5.10-preview-install-i386.iso and burned a CD using Roxio
> Easy CD Creator v5. Then booted a test box from the CD, partitioned the IDE
> drive and selected a Server install. The installer proceeded to load files into
> / and failed some time later with a "Base system installation error" pop-up.
> The message reads:
>
> "The debootstrap program exited with an error (Return value 1).
> Check /target/var/log/bootstrap.log for details."
>
> I then selected "continue" a couple of times to get back to the install menu
> where I selected the shell and changed directory to /target/var/log and ran ls.
> The directory appeared to be empty.
>
> When I removed the CDROM from the drive and rebooted I got the grub command line.
>
> Computer:
>
> Dell Dimension XPS B667r.

I have this problem with Breezy Final, downloaded, good md5sum, multiple CDs burned.

ase System Installation error The debootstrap program exited with an error
(return value 1). Check /target/var/log/bootstrap.log for details.

I've tried installing about a dozen times. (MD5Sum on ISO image is fine, burned
two different install CDs) Usually it fails about 33% through the base install,
although I have gotten it to base-install twice.

After reboot it always fails before everyting installs with nearly the same error:
(this is from my notes so it may not be exactly right)

ata1: translated ata stat/err 0x35/00 to scsi k/asc/ascq 0x4-/00/00
buffer i/o error on device sda, logical block (and the blocks change each time)

it seems to be having a read/write failure on my SATA hard drive. I reinstalled
Warty, everything works, hoary was working (but I don't have a hoary install CD)

I've run full drive diagnostics, drive checks out okay. Memory checks out.
Hardware seems fine.

Many other folks are having this error on USB or DVD drives. Looks like there's
a bunch of us that are failing on the HDD. Are these all SATA drives?

(ASUS A7V600-X motherboard, Hitachi SATA drive, Plextor CD-RW.)

I'm going to try reinstalling hoary, then upgrading to Breezy while keeping an
old kernel to see if that could be the problem.

Bugs 16901 and 17497 seem related.

Revision history for this message
Garrette (jawad-kahlon) wrote :

I've having the same error while installing breezy even after trying two cds. I think that's because of bad cd. ubuntu should fix their error as soon as possible before distributing further cds.

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Believe me, if the CD images were defective to that degree we'd know about it, and they aren't. The problem lies elsewhere.

Simon Law (sfllaw)
description: updated
Changed in debootstrap:
status: Unconfirmed → Confirmed
Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in base-installer:
assignee: kamion → nobody
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