CentOS5 mediacheck failing

[Lloyd Kvam]

On Sun, 2007-07-15 at 14:19 -0400, Ted Roche wrote:
> Trying to install CentOS5 from CD on a new server, Dell SC430, Pentium-D
> 2.8 GHz, 1 Gb RAM, 2-250 Gb SATA drives. I had previously installed FC7
> from the LiveCD and run it though some basic functionality tests, SMART
> drive long tests, etc. Everything appeared to work fine.
> 
> Booting the CentOS5 CD #1 (no DVD drive), I ran the mediacheck, since I
> hadn't tried this set of disks before. Test zipped right through 1%, 2,
> 3, 4,... until about 91% then it got really slow. The CD would stop
> spinning, and just start fitfully every minute or two, and finally
> report FAILED. Testing on two other machines, the same CD reported PASS.
>  Same problem with CD2, fail on this machine, worked on two others.
> 
> A similar thread running on BLU suggests the newest Knoppix use the new
> libata drive and might have trouble with 'legacy' ATAPI drives.
> 
> I've read the CentOS release notes and attempted to Google for clues.
> There's nothing in the installation logs to indicate an error condition.
> 
> Can anyone suggest what to look at next?

Does the centos install support network installations?  When dealing
with computers that lack a DVD drive, I usually use the network install
and refer back to my laptop.  Two useful hints:
        use the IP address to reference the source computer (http://192.168.0.10/fc7)
        mount -o loop fc7-dvd.iso /var/www/html/fc7

If you only have CD.iso images, I assume you can mount them in a
directory, but might need some documentation to get the proper names to
identify the individual CD's, though the error messages might provide a
good clue.

-- 
Lloyd Kvam
Venix Corp