installer encountered error copying to hard disk

[ag123]

hi all,

need help
while installing kubuntu 18.10 cosmic from the iso written to a usb flash drive

i get this error installer encountered error copying to hard disk
this happens while i see a message on the status bar copying files and around 17%


and in addition in dmesg and syslog the following messages appear

[  957.091911] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
[  957.091916] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x9e1d10c
[  957.091918] SQUASHFS error: Unable to read fragment cache entry [9e1d10c]
[  957.091920] SQUASHFS error: Unable to read page, block 9e1d10c, size 7c2a

i did a md5sum comparing the flash image and the iso file downloaded apparently they match. hence it isn't likely due to a corrupted image on the flash drive. i.e. it is identical to the downloaded iso. and the fact that 17% is copied means that there isn't a problem reading other files

any idea how to resolve this?

thanks in advance

[Snowhog]

"...or a faulty hard disk."

How old is the PC (and it's HDD) you are trying to install to? Have you checked the HDD for errors?

See https://www.fosslinux.com/1297/check...linux-mint.htm

[ag123]

it doesn't seem like a problem with the hard drive, as the messages

[  957.091911] SQUASHFS error: zlib decompression failed, data probably corrupt
[  957.091916] SQUASHFS error: squashfs_read_data failed to read block 0x9e1d10c
[  957.091918] SQUASHFS error: Unable to read fragment cache entry [9e1d10c]
[  957.091920] SQUASHFS error: Unable to read page, block 9e1d10c, size 7c2a

apparently seemed to be that the installer is trying to read some files from the cdrom - in this case the usb flash drive
but it is unable to read from the usb flash drive. note that i've checked the md5sum hash and that they are identical to the original iso file the whole image. hence it isn't an error on the usb flash drive. and neither does it have any issues reading from or writing to the hard drive. the squashfs error repeats every time it reads 17% from the usb flash drive this further shows that it is a problem reading the files from the kubuntu iso image

[Snowhog]

Then, I would go and find the download and see if there is a newer one and try again. It is 'possible' that the downloaded iso is faulty itself, md5sum aside.

[claydoh]

Also, what tool did you use to create the bootable flash drive? Some are more reliable than others. The download may be fine, but the software might be corrupting the writing to the USB drive, or the drive itself may be the problem. Have you tried a different stick?

[ag123]

Also, what tool did you use to create the bootable flash drive? Some are more reliable than others. The download may be fine, but the software might be corrupting the writing to the USB drive, or the drive itself may be the problem. Have you tried a different stick?

it is

dd if=kubuntu-18.10-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdx bs=512

it works pretty well ok (as you can see in the gui screen print)
except when copying files to the harddrive at 17% the squashfs error occurs

[ag123]

i downloaded and flashed kubuntu-18.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso into the same usb flash drive,

dd if=kubuntu-18.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdx bs=512

flash went well, md5sum sha256sum matches
start the install everything went well completed install in under 5 minutes!

i'm a little disappointed that i'm not running the more recent 18.10 but 18.04 works well so far

[ag123]

if anyone else can reproduce the same error i reported here earlier for 18.10, i'd log a bug report
otherwise it'd probably remain a mystery. it seemed strange as if the distributed iso image has an error many people would have encountered the same issue