I've tried everything I can, and I'm on my last ropes here.

Debian seems to be pretty ultimate with this server thing so I really want to have it.

Here are the steps I took.

#1: Donwloaded the Debian Sarge Netinstall cd.

#2: Verified the md5 hash, and burnt 5 cd's of the netinstall iso.

#3: I made sure in the machine that Debian was supposed to be installed on was ok. It's had no problems recentley, Cd rom drive is fine, Ram is fine etc..

Here is the error I get.

./dists/sarge/main/binary-i386/packages is corrupt, or the md5 hash is not valid.

I verified the md5 hash! I downloaded the iso again and verified the hash, and I got the same error!

This is really annoying.

What can I do now. I've googled for this string ./dists/sarge/main/binary-i386/packages but I didn't get anything useful.

Any tips, cause i'm at the end of the line here.

Try burning at a lower speed

I forgot to say in my post that I burn at 4x.

And my cd rom drive firmware is updated to the latest

I suppose if you have to have Sarge, that's your business. My suggestion would be that you download the Etch NetInstall .iso, less than 150 MB, and you get the rest via internet.

Etch is very close to becoming Stable, and you're better off to do a fresh install now than to try the upgrade later.

Ok I'll download that and try that and post my results.


Thanks

If you have problems with the netinstall image, be sure to give the businesscard image a shot.

There was a version if the Sarge netinstaller which produced exactly this error message. It got fixed later, but maybe you have the wrong version somehow.

jlinkels

I chose the current installation of Sarge, so I don't see how I got that mixed up.

Regardless, Etch looks like it will work so I'm pretty happy with that.

Sarge is quite old now. I'm very happy with Etch RC1. Did you get it to work?

"Stupid Debian", eh?

Makes you really want to help doesn't it.

in the words of Nick Burns, Your companies Computer guy...
"Oh, so it's the Computer thats stupid, not you ?"

Yeah a friendlier request for assistance from the OP would go a long way

No need to bash the OS whatever it is.. (Linux, Win, OSX)

Another option might be to do a network install using the floppies. I just have done one of those and I think they work great. I was geting an error due to the CDROM drive being on the same IDE controler as one of my RAID drive adn htis cured everything. Is a bit slow but overall was fine. I found it to be as easy as installing from tne netinstall CD.

Heh-heh. Agreed, that's a silly comment. No matter how frustrated I get I always frame my requests for tech support in a civil manner.
Flaming the OS is not appropriate, imho.

Yea yea I get it.

I was just frusturated for a sec, cause I was trying everything possible and it still wouldn't work.

It wouldn't even detect my HD.

Whatever i'll make sure not to do it again anyway.

But etch seems great. Happy with that.