Jason Gunthorpe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Tue, 28 Apr 1998, Hamish Moffatt wrote: > > > The sensitivity to good disks is, as I understand it, caused by poor > > BIOS floppy drivers and is independent of the Linux kernel, let alone > > which distribution you are running. > > Actually, as I understood it, the problem was poor linux floppy > drivers. You'll note that when most errors occure is when reading the base > image or rescue disks, I have very rarely had the boot disk fail.
Between my initial rex installation, and bo and hamm testing, I have installed (or attempted to install) debian from floppies close to 100 times. I have rarely seen a base image disk fail, but have seen quite a few boot disks fail, and many rescue disks fail. I am convinced that the failures are truly random, and are not, in most cases, caused by the disks themselves. In one experiment, during the bo testing, I made one set of disks using brand new 3M disks, and another set from recycled AOL disks. I attempted the installation at least 20 times with each set, and recorded the results, including the number of dots displayed when it failed. I consider the number of dots to be a reasonable measure of the point within the image where failure occurred. Unfortunately, I lost my record of these tests when I trashed a partition last year, and Dale's recent hardware catastrophe undoubtedly destroyed his copy of my test report giving the figures. There were slightly more failures with the virgin disks than with the recycled ones, and the number of dots at failure was completely random. In one instance, I observed half a dozen consecutive failures, followed half a dozen successful installations with the same floppies. My experience leads me to believe that the failures are random, and primarily occur when disks are being read by the bios. I have long maintained that we place too much emphasis on making new disks with new floppies, re-downloading the files, etc., and not enough emphasis on simply repeating the installation many times. I have no cure to offer for the problem, just what may be a better insight into where to look for a cure. Bob -- _ |_) _ |_ Robert D. Hilliard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> |_) (_) |_) Palm City, FL USA PGP Key ID: A8E40EB9 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]