Fedora Core 3 DVD Image not found?

[ZiaTioN]

Hey guys, long time no see.

I recently downloaded FC3 (DVD ISO). Now this is the first time I have tried a dvd install, in the past I have always gone with the cd images because at the time my only dvd burner was on my G4 iMac and I did not really ever desire downloading the dvd image. Anyway I recently purchased an external dual layer USB 2.0 dvd burner and now I have the dvd image and I verified the checksum and the md5 matches perfectly so I know the image is complete and not corrupt.

My problem is I can boot from the dvd just fine and start the graphical upgrade process (still running RH9). The first few seconds of the install proceeds fine but then after launching the loader (/sbin/loader/) app it asks me to designate where by image is located and gives options such as "cd-rom, hard disk, ftp. http, etc." so of course I choose "cd-rom" but then after a few seconds the loader app returns an error stating that it could not find the image on the disk. I tried 5 or 6 times with no luck. Any idea on what the deal is?

I have read qiet a few threads on the net about people not being able to boot from the dvd image but this is not my issue and I have found nothing related to what I am experiencing. Also after some reading I think I have just decided to upgrade to FC2 for now (I already have the cd's) due to many of the issues with FC3 I have already seen.

Anyway I would still like to know why my system is not finding the loadable image on the disk it obvoisly has no issues booting from.

[Void Main]

I have booted and installed/upgraded from the DVD with no problems, but in all cases my DVD drives have been IDE drives, not USB. I'm sure being a USB drive is part of the problem. I have run into similar problems in the past though on various distros where it will boot just fine but when it needs to access the CD for the actual installation it doesn't seem to have the proper drivers. Installing from CD and booting from CD (or DVD) are actually two different stages. If your system supports booting from CD then any bootable CD regardless of OS should boot. The problem is once the kernel is loaded in order for the OS to access the CD it must have the proper driver to be able to mount and access the files on the CD.

I know it seems like if you can boot you should be able to read the files on the CD but it just doesn't work that way. If it were me I would attempt a text base install and when it gets to the point of asking you where you want to install from flip over to one of the other virtual terminals (ALT+F2, ALT+F3, ALT+F4, etc). You will likely see where it tried to mount the CD but couldn't and there may be an error message associated with it. Sometimes you can pass kernel params. It would appear that you are not the only one that has this problem with a USB DVD:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... did=263297

It might be possible to log into one of the other virtual terminals and load a usb module if it isn't loaded. The easiest thing to do might be selecting one of the other installation types though. If you have the ISOs on your hard drive you can just do a "Hard Disk Installation" type. These instructions should still apply:

http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linu ... ll-hd.html

Basically you would boot your DVD and when it can't actually find your DVD and prompts you for the installation method select Hard Drive installation and point it to the partition/location of your DVD ISO.

[ZiaTioN]

Well the dvd reader I am using in my Linux box is an internal IDE device. The external USB burner is just a burner I have on my Win XP box and is not used in the process of loading FC3 onto my Linux Box. My first post was a bit confusing on this and for that I apologize.

I will have to try and do a text based install and look for error messages. I did however try your other suggestion already before posting this here. I tried doing a hard disk install and pointing to my dvd rom device as a location on the hard disk but this did not work either. This was probably user error on my part though because I was not really sure what the system had designated my dvd drive to be yet so I may have pointed it in the wrong direction.

[Void Main]

I did however try your other suggestion already before posting this here. I tried doing a hard disk install and pointing to my dvd rom device as a location on the hard disk but this did not work either.

That's actually not what I meant. For a hard disk install you point to the partition on your hard drive where your ISO image resides (the one you burned to the CD/DVD). If the ISO is in the root directory on that partition I think the hard disk install should just find it. If it's not in the root directory then you have to also include the directory where the ISO image resides. It's explained in the link I posted.

Now, I think when I have had that problem I would just pass "ide=nodma" as a kernel boot parameter when booting the CD as it sounds more like the problem you are having now that I know it's not the USB drive you are installing from.