I'm loading up a live copy of Mint Linux of a box through the CD, but I'm getting a

[ 124.705275] buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 174724
...and a bunch more

What does this mean? Bad hard ware? I ran a mem scan, and it was fine after running 19 full test.

I did a Google search on the phrase "buffer I/O error on device sr0" and the responses all seem to point to a problem with reading the CD/DVD. See, for example, this thread where x_terminat_or_3 says:


I would also suggest (if possible) verifying the md5s (sha1, signature, or whatever is available) of your downloaded iso image as well as verifying the md5s of the files on the CD itself (after burning a new one). For the second, many CD will have a boot option for that (it may say something like "verify integrity" instead of mentioning MD5). As far as my fist suggestion, I don't know if an error in the iso image can cause this error, but (IMHO) vefifying the downloaded image is always a good idea.

I had that issue when I tried to boot from an ubuntu disk I'd burnt with Windows/Nero. I assumed a bad burn and tried to burn it a couple of times more to new blanks with the same result. Burning the exact same image file to disk with cdrecord on linux ( I didn't redownload) I didn't have a problem.

Interestingly, I've never had any issues burning slackware disks, or any others for that matter with nero before, it seemed to be something specific to that ubuntu image that it didn't like. I've no idea why.

On my el' cheapo Ebay USB-CDROM I get the same error-then I ran a CD Cleaner through it and everything was fine-I have to clean it often too.
That's probably not your problem-just my experience with that error.

Ok, I just tried a freshly downloaded Ubuntu ISO burned from my mac, and I still get these errors. Could this be the CD drive on the pc that is loading the CD? When I burned the ISO with Toast on my mac, and if I verify it, it will come out 100% ok! ?

It could be. That's the problem -- trying to isolate the fault. If mint provicdes a "verfication" option (at boot), try that. If you have some other running system on that computer, you might be able to use that other system to verify the md5 sums of the the indivual files (to check whether the CD drive is reading the files accurately).

Hello,
One more tip on burning often suggested is to burn your .iso disk slowly..
Fast burning can cause errors..
jolphil

I have had it b4. It means bad dvd.. Burn it again at sloow speed.

Ok, did it again but this time with an Ubuntu CD, and I still get the same prob. Would the next step be to run the verification step, and if it passes then, what do I do then?

I am beginning to think it is a hardware problem. And I may be getting above my pay grade. What do others here think?

====="Ok, did it again but this time with an Ubuntu CD, and I still get the same prob. Would the next step be to run the verification step, and if it passes then, what do I do then?"====

SuperDude123:

If you run verification step and it gives a "passing grade" to your media by all means proceed to install using the same media. If the same issue reappears then this time "we are certain that the issue is no longer caused by the dvd" right? At least you have isolated the problem from that possibility.

blackhole54 may be right that the problem arose from the hardware.

By the way, under what hardware environment did you install Mint? Please post it here so that we can give you specific suggestions.

Usually Mint installs a kernel with SMP support, which often needs some switching when installing over an aged hardware. But we could not say any further here since we do not know what hardware you were using.

Goodluck, hope this helps.

I just installed Mint 19.2 over my 18.3 to upgrade. So far, significant improvements, minor problems. It's strange, but a similar error to this post is recorded in the error logs you see with the command 'inxi -F && dmesg | grep -i error'. I have a blu-ray player, and there has not been anything in drive since yesterday. Yet the error report shows:
[ 3307.410847] print_req_error: I/O error, dev sr0, sector 0 flags 0
[ 3307.410854] Buffer I/O error on dev sr0, logical block 0, async page read
....and this is repeated with different sectors and blocks several times.
I'm wondering why this is occurring with nothing in the drive. Quite insignificant, yes, but this never occurred previously. An error list appears on the screen when the PC comes out of sleep, and this BluRay problem seems to be the cause. Strange driver issue perhaps? I wait with anticipation for the next kernel update. I'm running the latest (5.0.0-25-generic as of this writing.)

Please open a new thread for a new problem.
No necrobumping.