installing Slackware 12.0 and installpkg incorrectly report corrupted tar archive
 

I'm installing Slackware 12.0 on a new computer. I've performed all the required steps in setup and now installing software. When installing the "a" group, installpkg reports that aaa_elflibs... package is corrupted. I take the CD to a Mepis 6.0 computer and tar tzvf the aaa_elflibs... file with no problems. Mounting the same CD on the new machine - and going through the install process again - I stop the software install step. From the command line I enter tar tzvf aaa_elflibs... and get an error about magic number (I forgot exact msg). I then copied the .tgz file to the local disk and tried installpkg again - it failed the same way.

I have tried this installation about 4-5 times with a dvd iso from two different mirrors and currently trying a set of cd isos. Each time installpkg seemingly successfully installs about 80-90% of the packages and fails on the others. It seems to be the same packages that it fails on each time.

Any ideas why the .tgz file looks fine on Mepis and fails on the Slackware install? If it is an old tar or installpkg software, how do I update it?

Thanks...Randy

same problem
 

I had the same problem, but can't test it again right now because I'm out of DVDs.... I'm downloading the regular CD install to see if that fixes the problem

Maybe the optical drive is dying. I had similar "random" failures trying to extract packages on on install. Everything worked perfectly when I used a different drive.

Cheers.

Thank you both for your feedback. I downloaded one of the packages that failed and copied it to a usb stick - it, unfortunately, failed again. Tar did complain about the crc failing instead of the magic number. I'm not sure this is an improvement?!

Hi,

If you are having crc problems then I would select another mirror.

For your cdrom/dvd downloads you need to check the md5sums for the iso you download. You should also check the burnt cd/dvd rom md5 with the original iso md5.

From the cli;

This will check the download iso with the known md5sum that you should get with the iso.

You could have a bad burn, to check the cd/dvd with the original iso md5, use this CdromMd5sumsAfterBurning.

A little work on your part to check the cd/dvd to original iso but worth the effort.

You could lower the rate for the burn to see if that is the problem.

Thanks for your ideas Gary.

I used a different mirror for each of the two dvd iso downloads I tried and still another for the 6 cd iso files. I always try to remember to check the md5sums for the downloads - I did check these downloads - they all matched.

I'm going to try the md5sums for the cd vs the iso image on disk - good idea. I'll post what I find.

Sometimes you need to slow down the burn speed when creating your CD's.