Are corrupt downloads widespread in the Linux community? I've had many incidences of livecds and HD installations which went bad in some way (mostly the former), and I wonder how many of them were due to a fault in the download. The latest case is my Knoppix disc which absolutely refuses to let me access its cheatcodes.txt file in either Linux or Windows. I find no explanation for that other than that the file is corrupt.

Hmm, I suppose it could also have been a bad CD burn...does anyone have frequent trouble with that, too?

Before you say it, I have *already* ordered a premade Knoppix CD. I did it yesterday.

bad burns are a result of either poor hardware or high write speed. i have a decent cd writer, and when i burn data-sensitive things (ie isos) i lower the write speed to ensure proper writes.

corrupted downloaded files are rare, at least for me.

I can't remember ever getting a corrupt download. I do get bad burns somtimes - about as many in Linux as in Windows.

My CD drive is 52x32x52x, so it could be the write speed, then. I haven't played with the write speed, so it has been writing at whatever is the default speed.

It is a good idea to burn ISOs at a lower speed. I always use about 8x. At this speed, it takes longer but you get less chance of a corrupt burn.

--Ian

bad downloads are rare. I used to check md5sums but have stopped because i never found a problem. I also burn at lower speed in order to insure a proper write. I just set it up to burn and let it run while i go eat or something

I think that you can check the MD5Sum of the CD as well: Insert the CD, and try "md5sum /dev/hdx" where hdx is your cd drive (mine is hda, yours is probably hdc). There may be a better way, but this may prevent you from trying to install from a dead CD.

I hope this helps
--Ian