Troubleshooting CD Read Errors
The Live-CD is the install CD. Sometimes this same problem shows up when running a regular install CD from any Linux distro.
If you get error messages when using a burned CD, there are a few possible causes:
1. If you burned a CD using a different CD drive, the drives may be out of alignment with each other. This can cause read errors.
Or a particular CD could have a poorly burned spot, especially if it was burned on an inexpensive computer running MS-Windows.
Also if the CD media is inexpensive it may not reflect the laser beam very well. Lesser quality CD media appears more transparent when you try to look through it. This can also make a burned CD difficult to read, especially with older drives. Often burning a new CD at a lower speed will improve the quality of the burn and can reduce alignment problems as well.
Mitsui and Taiyo Yuden are the best brands of CDs. Both are of archival quality. In bulk, Taiyo Yuden can be found at bargain prices. FYI, T-D invented CD recording technology.
If you don't have any problems reading CDs burned for other pruposes, then this is probably not the problem.
2. A CD can become dirty or scratched even if it was freshly burned. In this case inspection of the bottom surface of the CD should reveal any such problem.
3. Any Linux Live-CD or installation CD uses a ramdisk to simulate a hard drive. This makes heavy use of ALL of the RAM in the system. This will most likely show up during the boot of the Live-CD, it is unlikely to be the problem if read error occur during the installation process.
If you have a flaky RAM chip or aggressive timing of the RAM subsystem on your motherboard, you may have trouble booting a Linux CD. And it's very possible that the trouble might be reported as disk read errors, although it would really be RAM buffer errors.
Obviously a flaky RAM chip would need to be replaced. RAM timing might be adjustable in the system BIOS to reduce or eliminate a RAM problem.
4. There can be other timimg issues in a computer that do not show up when running MS-Windows but that do show up when running Linux. When a system is behaving in an erratic manner, it's a good idea to turn off any performance enhancements in the BIOS, and try Linux again. Or one could try to reboot Linux with hard drive dma turned off using the 'ide=nodma' option.
