built-in DVD mediacheck is gone

[Andre Robatino]

Al Dunsmuir <al.dunsmuir <at> sympatico.ca> writes:

> > Hell, we could make it the default and have a 'nocheck' parameter?
> 
> Sounds  painful  on  DVD  media - more minutes of my life that I'm not
> going to get back.
> 
> You  are  forgetting the scenario where one creates install media, and
> uses  it  on multiple installs.   Once once has verified a media once,
> is there really justification to re-check on every subsequent install?

Actually, yes. Optical drives on different machines can easily be different
enough that a disc that's readable on one (such as the one it was burned on) may
not be readable on another. I've seen this on two of my machines, and always
verify on each machine immediately prior to installing. The disc itself could
also degrade after some months, though I haven't seen this in years since using
a certain brand of CDs (mediacheck failed on one after 15 hours (!), though it
passed right after burning). The only time I skip it is if an install fails for
some other reason and I need to immediately repeat it on the same box. Even then
I'd normally repeat the mediacheck once just to make sure that wasn't the reason
for the failure.

For media other than optical, the mediacheck is usually much faster, so an
automatic check wouldn't be much of an issue.

> Please make it optional, and not the default.

"Default" implies "optional".