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Does the machine that I want to install 14.04 on need to have the HDD partitioned and formatted in any specific way to fix this error?

The live USB will boot up 14.04 in the "Try Ubuntu without installation" choice, but "erase and install to HDD" choice, fails at the same point every time and memtest returns error message "cannot load ramdisk with an old kernel image"

Note: the several different downloaded ISO files I have created live USB thumb drive with using unebootin will boot Ubuntu and run 14.04 perfectly yet none of the ISO files passed the MD5sum hash check.

Every file from every source for every version I have downloaded fails this hash comparison. But they all created Live USB that will boot Ubuntu from the "try Ubuntu without installing" option Please help this relative newbie.

Dreamwalker
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Nordishman
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    OP told us that "bad RAM" was the cause. – guntbert Jan 25 '17 at 17:40
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    @guntbert Your comment is completely correct, however I am voting to keep this question open anyway because the solution verifies something that I have long known to be true - that a bad RAM stick can cause file corruption in many different ways, as in the question or even when performing a simple task like copying files. – karel Jan 26 '17 at 08:49

2 Answers2

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It turns out that the working laptop used to download ISO files and create the Live USB thumb drives has bad ram. This more than likely has been the cause of all ISO files failing MD5sum checks and subsequent live USB failing to install to HDD. Thank you to everyone that helped me with this issue.

Nordishman
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Possible duplicate of "errno 5 - input/output error" when trying to install.

You're getting an Input/Output error and so you probably just have some bad sectors on your HDD. I recommend you take a look at How to install Ubuntu on a hard drive with bad blocks?

If you don't mind deleting all data on the HDD, you could try using gparted to partition your whole drive into one EXT4 filesystem and then run fsck -cc /dev/sdx1 where x is the drive letter for your HDD.

Longer explanation of how to do that:

Boot Ubuntu from a Live Ubuntu (DVD or USB) using "Try Ubuntu".

Open a terminal by pressing Ctrl-Alt-t and type sudo gparted and press enter, a window like this should show up.

DON'T FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS UNLESS YOU WANT TO DELETE EVERYTHING ON YOUR HDD.

Use the Drive Selector to select your HDD, it should be easy to distinguish it from a flash drive by its size.

Right-click each partition and click "delete", if that option is greyed out, click "Unmount" first.

Once all the partitions are deleted, there should be one entry marked "unallocated", right-click that and click "new". Make sure the "Free space preceding" and "Free space following" are as low as possible. (sometimes it doesn't allow you to make them 0, but it shouldn't force you to have more than 1 or 2 MiB of space that you can't use)

Make sure "File system" is set to "ext4" and set the Label to whatever you want, or leave it blank. Click "Add". https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62318117/gparted_new.png

Now press the green check mark and then click "Apply" in the window that appears.

Now note the partition location, it should look like /dev/sda1.

Now you can check the filesystem for bad sectors by opening another terminal and typing sudo fsck -cc /dev/sdx1 replacing /dev/sdx1 with your partition location and then press enter.

Once that is done, you might be able to install Ubuntu by selecting "Something Else" in the boot menu and then setting the partition you made as / and installing Grub to /dev/sda (providing you are using Legacy boot mode instead of UEFI.

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ILoveGit
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  • That menu does not appear unless I go to BIOS and change boot to UEFI from CSM and reboot. If I do that there is no memtest option . I will try it. Thanks. – Nordishman Oct 08 '14 at 19:49
  • Those changes in boot mode give me the options check disk, OEM install, Try Ubuntu without installing, and Install Ubuntu but no something else option. I believe I saw that option in the Zorin 9.1 live usb. I will try that. Do you know what to do in that menu choice? – Nordishman Oct 08 '14 at 19:55
  • @Nordishman Yes, I always use "something else" because I do a lot of dual-boot installs with Windows. – ILoveGit Oct 08 '14 at 20:05
  • Never mind my previous two responses, that "do something else" option comes after you select the install option. So I will try that, not sure what to specifically do there. If you know please clue me in. Thanks in advance. – Nordishman Oct 08 '14 at 20:06
  • OK, no chance of dual boot at this point since the Win8 that is/was on the HDD is messed up from a failed UBUNTU install and will not boot. Do I need to do some thing specific ie partitions and formatting bootloaders etc.. to get an install that will boot from the HDD? – Nordishman Oct 08 '14 at 20:10
  • @Nordishman You could "Try Ubuntu" and then try the Ubuntu installer on the desktop, that might work. – ILoveGit Oct 08 '14 at 20:17
  • @Nordishman Are you using UEFI or Legacy boot mode? (in the settings in your BIOS) if you can set it to "Legacy" or "MBR" boot type then that will make getting GRUB to work a lot easier. – ILoveGit Oct 08 '14 at 20:20
  • Still getting errno5 error at same point in installation no matter from where or how I attempt to install to HDD. – Nordishman Oct 08 '14 at 20:28
  • I have tried both with the same results. Errno5 error at same point during install. – Nordishman Oct 08 '14 at 20:29
  • My choices are UEFI or CSM which is the legacy mode. Both have resulted in Errno5 error. – Nordishman Oct 08 '14 at 20:31
  • Sorry this is getting so complicated, bad sectors can be quite problematic. – ILoveGit Oct 08 '14 at 21:29