8.10 alpha4 / Kernel gives I/O error on CD(?)

Bug #259901 reported by Yotam Medini
14
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: base-installer

Upon trying to install Xubuntu-Intrepid-8.10 alpha-4 via CD,
I am getting messages like [sorry I could not cut&paste):

Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block nnnnnn
end request: I/O error, dev sr0 sector mmmmmmm

I successfully burned that ubuntu-8.10 alpha4 CD
on my 'main' PC. Currently I am running there
Ubuntu 8.04 which I have updated from 7.10
but I have to use the older 2.6.22-14-generic kernel.
Otherwise - I have problems having my partition
recognized.

I successfully used this CD to install the OS,
on another PC. Also I can read the content of the CD
on the 'main' PC using running my good old Ubuntu
where I burned them.
So I am convinced that CD is fine,

I believe the same problem - of the installation-kernel
complaining about my CD, started with versions -2.6.24-
or before.

I will attach some files describing my system.
Please let me know if more data is needed.

Revision history for this message
Yotam Medini (yotam-medini-gmail) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Yotam Medini (yotam-medini-gmail) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Yotam Medini (yotam-medini-gmail) wrote :

I retried installing this Live-CD. This time I managed to save
(via mount in busybox)
the output of teh attached 'dmesg'

Revision history for this message
Yotam Medini (yotam-medini-gmail) wrote :

Using the suggestion in
 http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5633091&postcount=7
solved my Live-CD problem.
Namly adding:
   all_generic_ide
to the boot parameters (F6) before the double-dash (--).

Attached is the output of dmesg of this LiveCD successful session.
It still contains lots of error messages:
  ...
  end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 1166552
  Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 145819
  ,,,
But with this 'all_generic_ide' option, the LIveCD system overcomes
these problems.

How popular are such CD-drives that are exposed to this problem?
I wonder whether this 'all_generic_ide' should be the default,
at least for LIveCDs.

Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

Seems like a driver-specific kernel problem. I don't think it should be the default across the board; it is likely to make other hardware behave worse.

Revision history for this message
Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara) wrote :

Hi Yotam,

Care to quickly confirm if this is still an issue with the latest Alpha6 release that just came out yesterday - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing . The reason I ask is that Alpha4 contained a 2.6.26 kernel whereas Alpha6 has a much newer 2.6.27 based kernel. Please let us know your results. Thanks.

Changed in linux:
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Yotam Medini (yotam-medini-gmail) wrote : Re: [Bug 259901] Re: 8.10 alpha4 / Kernel gives I/O error on CD(?)

Hello Leann,

Sorry I cannot confirm this exactly, since I am now using the box
in which I encountered the problem, for 'real work'.
As I mentioned, I overcame the installation problem by adding the magic
'all_generic_ide' option to the boot line.

But yesterday, I did try installing the fresh Xubuntu-8.10-alpha-6
on a machine (of some kid I teach in school) that was brought to my home.
I got similar problems, on two burned images.
They were burned by the following commands:

  cdrecord dev=/dev/scd0 -v -data intrepid-desktop-i386.iso
  wodim -v speed=8 -data intrepid-desktop-i386.iso

(The downloaded iso-images are fine, I verified the md5sum)

But this time, even the magic 'all_generic_ide' did not help,
and I could not get to neither the live-session, nor pass the CD-verification step.
I ended up, installing the good-old Xubuntu-7.10.

My (:male:) intuition tells me, that - with recent Ubuntu installation
kernels, there are problems when using old CD/DVD drives, or other
dependent firmware in the box. Hence my advice is to get some old
Pentium-3 board, and old CD/DVD drive that is normally working fine,
and run installation tests on such combination hardware.

regards -- yotam

On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:35:13 -0000
Leann Ogasawara <email address hidden> wrote:

> Hi Yotam,
>
> Care to quickly confirm if this is still an issue with the latest Alpha6
> release that just came out yesterday - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing .
> The reason I ask is that Alpha4 contained a 2.6.26 kernel whereas Alpha6
> has a much newer 2.6.27 based kernel. Please let us know your results.
> Thanks.

Revision history for this message
Joao Clemente (jpcl) wrote :

Hi.
Same issue with Ubuntu 8.10 AMD64 Alpha6. I tried the desktop and the server variant, both show the same symptom.
Following Yotam's tip I added the 'all_generic_ide' parameter to the boot line but with no success.
I get stopped with several lines of
"
end_request: I/O error, dev sr0, sector yyyyyyy
Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block xxxxx
"
when trying to install or run the live CD.
The same hardware behaves fine with 8.04.1 installer.

This is a AMD 4850e in a 780g motherboard (Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H), one SATA HD and one IDE DVD-RW drive. All pretty recent hardware that works fine with 8.04.1, so I am afraid this is some 2.6.27 kernel related issue.

Revision history for this message
Éric Hoffman (ehoffman-videotron) wrote :

I had the same problem.

I ended-up 'fixing' it by replacing my DVD cable (40-pin) with an 80-pin cable.

It could have problem detecting/using ATA33 mode. In my case, changing the cable let the driver run properly in ATA66 mode (bug#275335).

Changed in linux:
status: Incomplete → New
Revision history for this message
Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the final release of Intrepid Ibex 8.10. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Can you try with latest Ubuntu release? Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

Changed in linux:
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Joao Clemente (jpcl) wrote :

Hi.
I have retested with the final releases of 8.10 and the booting was now sucessfull.
At least for me the issue is non-existant on the final release and the bug can be closed.
Thank you!

Revision history for this message
Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek) wrote :

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, I am closing it because the bug has been fixed in the latest version of Ubuntu - the Intrepid Ibex 8.10.

Changed in linux:
status: Incomplete → Fix Released
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