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Ubuntu Server 10.04 on a Dell PowerEdge 2450

We have a Dell PowerEdge 2450 laying around doing nothing, and my friend asked to set up a server for him so he has a dedicated system to do some Drupal work. I said, no problem….. Boy was I in for it.

I downloaded the Server ISO and burned it. After upgrading the RAM from 1GB to 2GB and setting up the 3 x 18GB 10k rpm SCSI disks in a RAID 5, I booted from the fresh disc and the Ubuntu installer came up and when it dropped into the Debian base installation and tried to load components from CD, it would get stuck about 17% of the way through saying it could not read the CD-ROM any longer. So, I tried burning another copy…. Same thing.

OK, this system is pretty old, so I swap out the older CD-ROM for a tray-load DVD-ROM. Same thing, but at 21%. Grrr.

I try a THIRD CD burn in a different burner and still halts at 21%. I pop into the psuedo-shell in the Installer and try to do a ls on the /cdrom directory. I get some Input/Output error lines for docs, isolinux and some other items, but do get some output lines from that directory….

OK, now I’m wondering if my ISO didn’t perhaps get corrupted in the initial download. Unfortunately, Ubuntu does NOT provide MD5 checsums on their ISO images at least not directly on their website where you download it.

Let’s ask the Google. Apparently others have had the same issue since at least the 7.0 series. The Minimal CD works, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to install into the Server version from that.

I finally find a post (see link below) where success was had by using a SECOND copy of the Installer in a USB connected CD-ROM drive. The system boots off the internal CD but pulls all the material off the CD on the USB drive.

It is finishing the install as I type this.

Wow, what a Rabbit-hole!

Just another example of: “Linux is Free if you’re time is worth nothing”

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