Error: Cannot Unite Read-Only Media and Initial Ramdisk!

**Harry Kuhman** · 09-19-2005, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by jackstl

The md5sum checked out as incomplete (1 file missing or damaged). Thanks for all of your help.

I'm not clear on what md5 program you used or what you really checled. Look insode the md5 file with a text editor, it will be normal ascii and there should be only one file that a checksum is calculated for, the ISO itself. So it's pretty much an all or nothing thing, the ISO is right or it isn't, rather than being incomplete.

There is also an md5 file burried within the ISO. It does have multiple checksums for multiple files. That is used for the testcd feature at the knoppix boot prompt, it's not what we are talking about here (but doing the testcd would be a good idea too).

Did you download by BitTorrent or from a mirror? My BitTorrent downloads have always been good, but before Knoppix became available by BitTorrent and I used the mirrors I had about 50% bad downloads of Knoppix ISOs (even though I'm hard pressed to identify any other FTP or HTTP file download that has ever been bad for me). What is the exact size in bytes of the ISO? I found that when I had corrupt downloads the files were larger than they should have been.

**jackstl** · 09-19-2005, 09:14 PM

I checked the md5sum (this time hopefully the correct way) using Graphical MD5Sum program listed in the Downloading FAQ. The md5sum of my download did not match the md5sum listed on the mirror site that I originally downloaded from. Also, the byte size is higher on disk than on file (729,010,176-on disk vs. 729,008,864-on file)

**Harry Kuhman** · 09-19-2005, 10:42 PM

Yup, you're seeing the same ISO corruption that I saw often before I started using BitTorrent. At least we understand the nature of your error messages now.

**jackstl** · 09-19-2005, 10:58 PM

Thanks for all of your help with this issue. I'm going to download from a BitTorrent site and keep my fingers crossed. At least I know what to look for now. Thanks for all of your patience. I'll keep you informed.

**jackstl** · 09-19-2005, 11:53 PM

It worked! I burned a copy using BitTorrent and I am typing this post using Knoppix 3.9. My advice to anyone else who had the same problem: is to read the Downloading FAQ closely, and to download using BitTorrent and burn at 4X if possible. Thanks to everyone who helped!