Unable to install package xxx

[poet]

Hi!

I installed FC4 soon as it came out, dld'd 4xcd images, burnt and installed fine.
Added more memory to PC so decided to redo partitions for better swap set up.

Partition set up:
hda1 - 16GB FAT32 - W98 - pri
hda2 - 4GB NTFS - XP - extended

hdb1 - 60GB FAT32 - storage - pri
hdb2 - 6.5GB EXT3 - Fedora Core4 - pri
hdb5 - 12GB EXT3 - Debian Sarge - extended
hdb6 - 1.5GB - Swap - extended

which is only slightly different from previous working setup, just bigger swap at hdb6 and smaller deb at hdb5 and more space for Fedora at hdb2 (was 4.2Gb before).

I try to reinstall, and every time during package install it fails, usually on different packages (though often libgcj or perl) with error:
"Anaconda was unable to install package xxx - this could be an installation media failure or hard disk error"
- talk about ambiguous error messages, which is it? How much more like Redmund are we getting here? O_o

Using original 4 cd's which sha1'd ok and passed media check.
Also tried using dvd iso dld'd and burnt (again sha1 and media check ok)
Also tried using magazine cover disk borrowed from a friend.

All versions give same error, though usually at different points.

I've tried both with and without formatting the swap at hdb6, and tried ext2 and ext3 for Fedora partition.
I've tried installing minimal package set, as well as Desktop and Custom configs.

Don't get it, been using Fedora since Core1 in an almost identical hdd setup, and never had 1 problem installing.

Getting on for trying an obscene amount of time now ...

All ideas/suggestions/help very welcome.
Thanks in advance.

[Cruzader]

My media did this to me when I tried out SuSE 9.3 (big mistake on my part...). All 5 discs sha1summ'ed fine. I have 1 CDRW drive and 1 DVD-ROM drive. For some reason, every once in a while the DVD-ROM couldn't read a package, but when I tried it in the CDRW it worked fine. Maybe the same thing is affecting you? I think it mostly resulted from fingerprints or other smudges on the CDR... If you can, try installing from a different drive (even if you have to swap out).

[DukeNukem]

Originally Posted by poet

Hi!

I installed FC4 soon as it came out, dld'd 4xcd images, burnt and installed fine.
Added more memory to PC so decided to redo partitions for better swap set up.

Is your memory working fine?

Try memtest.
http://www.memtest.org/

[poet]

#2 :/ Been suspecting that myself, got DVDR as IDE2 Master and CDRW as Slave, swapping them over is gonna be a pain, but definitely worth a shot. Though don't get why it installed ok before.

#3 Had no other problems in any other OS's up to now, but off to give it a check.

Forgot to mention that Anaconda keeps mounting Fedora on hdb2 as /1 or /12 when I select: Mount as "/", I guess due to the already existing / for debian at hdb5. Should this have any bearing?

[Cruzader]

No, don't manually swap if you have 2 drives installed, just start the install in one and if it fails toss the disc in the other drive and hit retry. If there's no retry option, just install from the other drive.

There shouldn't be any manual swapping necessary.

Edit: The /12 stuff is normal, as not all the root partitions can have label /. I think my FC3 partition has label=/123 now, even though I paved over the other *nix's. Wonder how I change that, since I tried editing grub.conf and fstab and that caused kernel panics.

Moral of the story: Don't mess with stuff that works, even if it doesn't have a pretty label.

[poet]

#4 There's no "retry" option? Just "Press ok to reboot"
And if I try to "upgrade" the existing part it detects, it goes through setup again up to package installation, stalls on whichever package caused the problem and after a few seconds gives me a "Success, you may now boot your new OS... etc" message.
But upon trying to boot, get ravaged by very expected errors.

[Cruzader]

Can you just install from the other drive, not the one thats giving you troubles?

[poet]

Hi guys, thx for the replies.

Ok, first tried setting CDRW as boot device (for some reason was under the impression that BIOS was auto setting Master to only boot device on each IDE, a bit more digging soon proved me wrong).
Same error.

Tested memory, couple of minor errors, swapped back to old memory which memtest reported as being much healthier (in service 2+ years 0 errors) and STILL gettig "failed to install package".

Getting close to giving up here. Quite annoyed/upset too as aiming at a RHCA/E within the year and Fedora seemed too important an OS to ignore.

Any other ideas?

[Cruzader]

sorry, I'm tapped... can't think of anything besides redownloading (preferably torrent, has error checking) and reburning.

[poet]

Np, thx guys for the pointer on the Memory. Hadnt experienced any probs up to now, but memtest showed it pretty shredded, so taking back to the shop today.
And for getting me to check my BIOS boot options properly.

Checked my old Memory thoroughly and 0 errors. (384DDR266 down from 768)
Checked both install cd's and dvd and all still checking out ok and passing media check.
Tried booting from dvd, and from cd's in CDRW as well as DVDR and still getting the same damned message.

What did Fedora do to Core 4? Is it using some new compression/format on the disks? Odd I've had no problems installing any previous versions.

It would help if the error message made it a bit clearer whether it was install media or hdd it was having problems with.

Is it worth getting the FC3 disks and upgrading through yum?

Thanks for all help so far.

[Cruzader]

Upgrading off of a clean FC3 install would seem to pose few problems... I'm not sure if Fedora changed anything, I installed FC4 a few times without any hitch, as I said my experience with media problems came from SuSE.

Upgrading with the minimum possible system would seem to leave fewer avenues open to trouble. Just installing the default options, minus things you won't need, at least until FC4?

[remi_038]

hi, could you give more infos on your config ?
I have exactly the same issue....so maybe having same hardware part could help explaining what's happen....
my config is a notebook fsc amilo A7600 with
ATI IGP320 w/64Mb shared mem
Athlon XP-M cpu
512Mb RAM
(full detail here : http://koti.mbnet.fi/~keiky/misc/lin...ilo_specs.html)
any common hardware ?

[beerfilledschu]

I had this very same problem trying to install FC4 and SuSE. The Media test passed every time and I ran memtest86 for 8 hours with no errors. What finally fixed it for me was manually setting up the RAM in the Bios. For some reason the Auto setting had the ram overclocked to 2.5-3-3-8 when it should of been 2-3-3-8. Fixing that solved all my problems.

Note: I also have an older computer (Athlon 1.4 2x256 mg crucial ram) that has a problem with the ram overheating. This can also cause fc to give media errors.

[n8s28]

I am also having similar problems, first it was the downloads weren't good. Now however, I get through the first cd and I continually get the error libgcj or perl) with error:
"Anaconda was unable to install package xxx - this could be an installation media failure or hard disk error"
It happens on different packages..
I have verified that the cds are good by running the sha1sum. Anyone have any ideas.

[hubs]

This topic describes the same problem I have described in this topic http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/...ad.php?t=60341
This is not a media problem, because I did all my install tries with the FTP method, so there was no CDROM or hard drive involved.
The only installation CD that worked is Fedora Core 2 (in my case). Perhaps we should try to install with a custom CD which embedds the anaconda for Fedora Core 4 and the kernel from the Fedora Core 2 CD. This supposes the problem resides in the new kernels.
What do you think of my idea? any volunteer?