FC3 mediacheck

Jim Cornette fc-cornette at insight.rr.com
Sat Nov 13 14:02:45 UTC 2004


Erik Hemdal wrote:
>>>>md5sum -c MD5SUM
>>>>
>>>>I've already indicated this once. After successful MD5SUM check - boot
>>>>with 'linux ide=nodma' and then do the MediaCheck.)
> 
> 
> I think this comment was from Satish about ide=nodma.  Why is that
> necessary?  I've encountered the mediacheck failures similarly for the
> first time ever.  If the drive operates normally, why do we need nodma
> in order to check only disk2 and disk3 of the CD set?  
> 
> I'm not intending this as disrespectful to anyone; I'm truly curious
> about it.  Out of the four install images, all four pass the MD5
> checksum test, and two out of four pass the mediacheck.  On my CD
> writer, cdrecord reports that the buffer was always adequately filled
> and burnfree protection was never needed.  So assuming the integrity of
> the media is OK (seems to be, since cdrecord reports no errors and the
> CD is readable), I'd suspect a problem with the original ISO image. 
> Whether you use DMA or not on your drive doesn't seem to have any
> bearing on things....else other I/O would have trouble too.
> 
> Am I missing something?  
> 
> Erik

Check the fedora-test-list for discussions regarding the mediacheck 
failure. Padding the discs with at least 150 kb was suggested, loading 
the ide-scsi or using the 2.4 kernel was suggested. I guess there is 
some breakage which happened with the change to the 2.6 kernel.

I'm glad that adding ide=nodma to the installer before a mediacheck 
works to verify the discs successfully. This also probably helps ensure 
more reliable installs with systems that show the mediacheck false 
result during verifying.

I feared a mass explosion of coasters because of this problem and no 
reference to the problem within the release notes. For those reading 
this list, the coaster collection is probably lower.
For installers not on the list and attempting an install, the mirrors, 
reburning discs multiple times and giving up on the release might be at 
higher levels.

Jim




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