SL-6 Install dvds fail to complete package install repeatedly using multiple disks, and drives

I have SL-6 installed on a virtual machine on one of my servers for testing, which is Xen paravirtualized so I had to use the install target from the web, while using virt-manager.

No DVD installation on a real system completes successfully, due to some arbitrary file not being found. (However the file is always there, when you mount the same media in the same dvd writer, in an already installed system. I used a live cd to test this, with a second dvd drive connected to the system.)

What can be done about this problem?

I have also been unable to get SL6 to install from DVD media. After multiple downloads of the ISOs, multiple hash and anaconda "test media" verification runs, as well as multiple DVD burns, the installation either fails with a fatal error, or installs but does not run properly. This means that either there is a problem with SL6, my hardware is not compatible with SL6 (previous Centos releases have installed and ran perfectly), or my DVD burner / reader is intermittently acting up. Having little control over the first two problems, I ordered a new DVD drive this past weekend and will be able to retry an install in a couple of days.

Is the error you are seeing similar to the following? This is the message that was displayed about half way through the installation during my last attempt.

"A fatal error occurred when installing the libvtempler package. This could indicate errors when reading the installation media. Installation cannot continue."

I believe that those are media errors....I have installed from DVD without problems. Infrarecorder is good if you're burning from Windows (just in case).

I must be missing something here. I can not find any info on "libvtempler". I tried yum info/yum provides and it is not in any repo I have. I even tried google and nothing. Maybe a typo, so I tried with wildcards and nothing. ??

PS> I checked a x86_64 install DVD and its not there either. ??

I haven't installed from that iso, but does it pass the iso /dvd check when you boot from it?

Also if you have the bandwidth does the install work from this iso SL-60-x86_64-2011-03-07-LiveDVD.iso?

[i]

I must be missing something here. I can not find any info on "libvtempler". I tried yum info/yum provides and it is not in any repo I have. I even tried google and nothing. Maybe a typo, so I tried with wildcards and nothing. ??

PS> I checked a x86_64 install DVD and its not there either. ??

Sorry about that; I quickly scribbled the error message on a piece of paper and mispelled the package name. The correct package is libutempter. See my post below for more details.

And yes, on both DVD's, I did an immediate verify as part of the burn process, did a sha1sum check, a sha256sum check, and install program iso/dvd checks before using them; that procedure is something that I do whith any software that I download, since the little extra time it takes is well worth not wasting throubleshooting time later on. Oh yes, and for added measure, I even did a bit by bit verify of the integrity of the hard drive that I am installing it on. However, these checks mean nothing if my DVD drive hardware itself is hiccuping while reading the disks during the install, even though the disks themselves are OK. That is why I am replacing the DVD drive (They are cheap enough)....it should be arriving later today, so I will see.

While waiting for the new drive, I downloaded yet a third set of ISO's (Full file instead of using bittorrent), burned them using a different computer, different burn software, different model DVD burner, different operating system and different browser.

If that does not work, I will try to install SL6 on a completely different computer with completely different hardware. If that does not work, then I am done !

At least I am not the only one experiencing problems. Well, replaced the DVD burner and I am getting the same exact error. Either there is a problem with SL6, the ISO image or the TUV. I suspect if I modified my software package selections during the install in some way that I could bypass this error.

1) Here is the detailed error message:

Error Installing Package

"A fatal error occurred when installing the libutempter package. This could indicate errors when reading the installation media. Installation cannot continue."

The only option is to press the "Exit Installer" button.


2) Here is the file being processed:

Installing libutempter-1.1.5-4.1.el6.x86_64 (39kb)
A privileged helper for utmp/wtmp updates.

3) I see no other errors on the various console display screens.

4) I see from the yum.log file that libutempter is listed as an install for kdelibs-4.3.4-11.el6_0.2.x86_64

After searching the internet, I found the solution on the Scientific_linux_Users mailing list in the following reply that was given to someone with the exact same problem (Although their fatal error occurred on a different file, DBUS):

Hi Larry,
> More information is needed about how you were installing.
> Particularly, did you select any extra repositories in the screen where
you
> can?
> There is a known bug/feature that when doing an install from the Everyt
hing
> set of DVD's, you cannot select any extra repositories. That is why th
ere
> is an Install DVD, which doesn't have this bug/feature.

So, by not selecting any extra repositories (Just the default "Scientific Linux" repository (which is the DVD), everything installs just fine. Even though I read the README file for the ISO's, I missed the fine print that stated "Do NOT pick any repo's such as Updates or Fastbugs". Oh well ! Now if I can just get it to boot up consistently without pausing multiple times, all would be good.

Time for a sticky!

Same experience here. I learned by trial-and-error that selecting any extra distro during install from the DVD always resulted in the install failing. The funny thing is that, once installed, the SL repos I wanted were available. Go figure.

For the next DVD ISO, I suggest that, at a minimum, the ability to select extra distros during install be disabled.

I was thinking the exact same thing after my last post. This definitely deserves a sticky, as it is something that is very easy to miss. And yes, same thing here....The extra repositories that I wanted (Just basic SL 64 bit and security) were installed anyway.

I recall reading about it on the SL devel-mailinglist.
When installing from DVD, you need to ONLY use the default repo.

Topic stickied

I recall reading about it on the SL devel-mailinglist.
When installing from DVD, you need to ONLY use the default repo.

Topic stickied

Thanks Redman.

another +1 for network based installs. So far most of the network installs I've specified actually accepts updates without too much red tape

The advantage of a network install (especially if you have a local server with a mirror!) is significant compaired to a DVD installation.

Just adding another log to the fire:
I too burned the DVDs and can not install.

Tried burning on 3 different computers, with different burners, and different media
Installing with 3 different drives, 1 USB, 2SATA.
Verified the burns on the computers creating, and in the installer.
ALWAYS showed as good, no faults.

ALWAYS fails on first or second package install.
If one chooses different options,, then this package is different.
I too tried adding repos, then did with no repos added.
Tried with default install, no options
et cetera.

Can this be installed from a thumb drive or an external hard disk?

If so, is there an instruction somewhere?

QUOTE (AndrewSerk @ May 16 2011, 05:14 PM)

QUOTE (pjc123 @ May 16 2011, 11:35 AM) Is the error you are seeing similar to the following?  This is the message that was displayed about half way through the installation during my last attempt. "A fatal error occurred when installing the libvtempler package.  This could indicate errors when reading the installation media.  Installation cannot continue." I must be missing something here. I can not find any info on "libvtempler". I tried yum info/yum provides and it is not in any repo I have. I even tried google and nothing. Maybe a typo, so I tried with wildcards and nothing. ?? PS> I checked a x86_64 install DVD and its not there either. ??

marteswigg, what system are you trying to install on? Seems the new AMD CPU chipset designers have taken a shortcut so a mkdir "Romeo" command is required in the boot disc, not there yet so far as I am aware. Just had a failure with a CCL "off the shelf" system so they did a custom build for me with an AMD A6 3670K 2.7 GHz Quad Core and I got the same thing again. The CentOS developers are aware of both the problem and the solution, but it won't be available until the 6.3 release. I was hoping SL would be a bit quicker off the mark. No such luck thus far.

The following files from the following sources were repeatedly downloaded and attempted install, with the identical drive used to burn DVD, and burn was bit verified.

In each instance of "Install... basic video", each burned image failed the "Media Check" stage of installation, and did so at the same point (14% and 8%, respectively). Disregarding the media check error, at the "Welcome" screen, the cursor moves but the Next function cannot be executed with either the cursor, the "N" key, f12, the tab key, the space key, or the return key.

In each instance of "Install... existing system", media check failed with identical verbose display of fatal errors on blue screen, and welcome screen was never reached.

Please advise how to realize functioning install files.

Install computer:
Lenovo X61 Tablet (Intel Core 2 Duo L7500 processor, 64-bit instruction set)

Files:
SL-64-x86_64-2013-03-21-Everything-DVD1.iso
SL-64-x86_64-2013-03-21-Everything-DVD2.iso

Sources:
ftp1.scientificlinux.org
mirrors.200p-sf.sonic.net/scientific

First you should check if the downloaded ISOs are alright by checking their checksum.
Open the terminal, "cd" to the directory they are in and give the following command:
"sha256sum SL*.iso". This should have the following result:

CODE

94a8d37c47e2fa1e7a69721f6491ea672dfcdaa8dc4c935e1e7aba1a911e6498  SL-64-x86_64-2013-03-21-Everything-DVD1.iso da8f4c95eb4f7371fbcca0e07f31d2cb92fc6b4130c405661ccec15c351ecafb  SL-64-x86_64-2013-03-21-Everything-DVD2.iso

(source)

Are they correct?

redman, thank you very much.
Yes, the checksums are correct. Following are the checksums for .iso files made from the burned DVDs:

Checksums for: Burned_SL 6.4 x86_64 D[1].iso
MD5: a695f8b2b72c0ad12d1f8ecc1dddbe5c
SHA-1: 57e5bfcaea73280bc3d6d826437eb95cdf08213f
SHA-256: 94a8d37c47e2fa1e7a69721f6491ea672dfcdaa8dc4c935e1e7aba1a911e6498

Checksums for: Burned_SL 6.4 x86_64 D[2].iso
MD5: e6fa8a4e9146907478f81b8d93bbf937
SHA-1: c802c4058fdf8b731da95e6e6a168da6aa587649
SHA-256: da8f4c95eb4f7371fbcca0e07f31d2cb92fc6b4130c405661ccec15c351ecafb

Reported by Btser, under Windows Server 2003.

I am attempting a clean install, not an upgrade.

Are there any unusual BIOS settings which would adversely effect the "Media Check?"

QUOTE (vishvamata @ Apr 15 2013, 11:37 PM)

Are there any unusual BIOS settings which would adversely effect the "Media Check?"

As far as I know BIOS shouldn't affect this.

To be honest, when I burn an OS I always let the burning application check/verify.
If that doesn't show any difference/errors, I go ahead and install.
Can't remember last time I used the "build-in" check.

The checksum of the downloaded files were correct. Naturally, the DVD writer bit-verified the accuracy, as I described in my first post. The .iso retreived from the DVDs also produced the correct checksum -- verifying that the DVDs are correct. Windows does not have a built-in checksum, so I used Bitser.

I also downloaded SL-64-x86_64-2013-03-18-Install-DVD.iso and verified the checksum of an .iso created from the burned DVD. Upon install attempt, that file-set also fails to pass its own "Media Check."

Continuing anyway for basic video install, the system crashes before reaching the welcome screen.

The ftp files seem problematic, since the SL installer cannot even pass its own "Media Check", when the checksum is correct.

As previously requested, can anybody:

Please advise how to obtain functioning install files.