[conspire] Re: RHL 9 Install problems

[Rick Moen]

I hope you won't mind my cc'ing "conspire", again.  Except where there's
a need for privacy, I'd prefer that these discussions benefit the
community, if possible.  (If you had a specific reason to remain in
private mail, then my apologies.)

Quoting Greg Dougherty (gregd at molecularsoftware.com):

> I tried telling it to check for Bad Blocks.  It claimed to find them, and
> refused to install (I though formatters were supposed to mark off bad blocks,
> not fail).

Yes, that's what should have happened.  But please note that Linux
installers invariably default to no bad-block checking, because of the
amount of time it takes.

If you're in doubt about the condition of a hard drive, using the
manufacturer's pseudo-low-level formatting utility for that model will
sometimes make it behave properly, by re-establishing the timing tracks
-- and the same utilities will often also do hardware diagnostics.
Please see my list of links:
http://linuxmafia.com/pub/hardware/hdutils

> I downloaded the iso's from a red hat mirror, so they should be good.

Just in case you might not have noticed, the RH installer offers, on its
first screen, a "media check" (or words to that effect).  It's a good
idea, and constitutes an integrity check of the CD-ROM media's contents, 
recalculating the ISO's md5sum value and confirming it against the
stored value.  Worthwhile.

> I'll try downloading the LNX-BBC iso, and see what I can do with that.

It's handy to have, anyway -- and I like having it (as well) because
(to me) it's a known quantity:  Whenever there's funny stuff going on
and I want reliable diagnostic tools to reduce the number of diagnostic
variables, its contents are useful for doing so.

-- 
Cheers,                    "Send a policeman, and have it arrested."
Rick Moen                     -- Otto von Bismarck, when asked what he 
rick at linuxmafia.com               would do if the British Army landed.