Media Writer produces USB stick with FAIL media check

[eshfield]

This is a copy of my post to thread on Fedora Project Discussion:
https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/failed-media-on-startup-made-with-fedora-media-writer/83867

I have encountered a problem trying to install Fedora 39 created with Fedora Media Writer 5.0.6 on Windows 11 with my Lenovo IdeaPad 5 14ARE05 81YM00CFRK notebook. Media check fails with the same 004.8% of progress passed. Media Writer have worked without errors — it did media check successfully after downloading and writing the Fedora image to my USB stick.

I have tried two different USB sticks without luck. I am ready to add any additional information to nail that bug.

I have USB 3.2 type A port on my computer and Kingstone DTSE9 16 GB USB 2.0 stick.

[eshfield]

Here is an another mention of that problem, posted 8 months ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/11r7gi8/fedora_media_check_fails_at_48_every_time_during/

Fun fact — if I choose a non-default option to run Fedora Live without media check then it does run successfully.

[eshfield]

I verified the ISO file downloaded by Media Writer with this commands in my WSL2:

curl -O https://fedoraproject.org/fedora.gpg
gpgv --keyring ./fedora.gpg Fedora-Workstation-39-1.5-x86_64-CHECKSUM
sha256sum -c Fedora-Workstation-39-1.5-x86_64-CHECKSUM

The output says:

Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-39-1.5.iso: OK
sha256sum: WARNING: 19 lines are improperly formatted

Could these improperly formatted lines be the problem?

EDITED: The answer is no — manually downloaded with Google Chrome ISO from the official site has the same 19 improperly formatted lines.

[bwenrich]

I am also getting the same failure in the media check after booting the USB made with Fedora Media Writer. The failure happens at the same point as you mentioned - 4.8%

My environment:

• Windows 10 Pro (x64, 22H2)
• Fedora Media Writer 5.0.6
• generic 16GB USB 2.0 drive
• ISO Fedora-Silverblue-ostree-x86_64-39-1.5.iso
• ISO sha256sum confirmed OK

Similar reports of the issue:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/11r7gi8/fedora_media_check_fails_at_48_every_time_during/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/zlzxhs/fedora_always_fails_at_0048_on_test_image_and/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/1xgdkh/fedora_media_verification_fails_at_48/
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1282244
  There are some suggestions that the OS (Windows or macOS) performing file indexing is modifying the drive contents in a way that disrupts the media check.

[eshfield]

A workaround I used is to download an ISO file manually and use Rufus to create a bootable USB stick.

[Espionage724]

I've had a failed media check when using the 5.0.9 win64 release with either F38 or F39 workstation (downloaded through Firefox). It was the only time I tried that release and its possible my media check failure could have happened from something unrelated, but I've used and continue using the latest dev/pre-release version (Oct 25, 2023) without issue and haven't seen any failed checks, including a few hours ago today with F39 Workstation. I recently replaced bad RAM and can't rule that out as a reason for the bad media write.

I flash downloaded images from Firefox or aria2c with MediaWriter on Windows 10 LTSC 21H2 to a 1TB external HDD and Indexing disabled (removed the whole Search service). I never tried downloading an image from MediaWriter itself.

Update: I've been using Etcher for a while now on Windows and have had zero bad media checks with many F40 image writes; it's what I use for everything needing a dd'd image on Windows now.

[farchord]

Right mine's also failing, but only using the Windows version (Latest)

[farchord]

Backlink to the fedora bug (Proposed as a release blocker): https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2269373

[Buggem]

Mine also failed on 4.8% exactly... I also got the same "failed to start" message. I just download the ISO and used dd to copy it to my USB Stick.

[kparal]

This sometimes happens even outside of Windows, but might be seen the most there. A common issue description is here:
https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/install-media-sometimes-fail-media-check-at-4-8/108478