Q I've been trying to install Mandriva. It loaded and it runs but I cannot add the updates disc. I've tried to load it in via the Mandriva Control Center and RPM. When it scans the disc it reports errors and gives the following message: 'Unable to add medium, errors reported: ...copying failed'.
A What's happening is that the updates disc is failing to load the GPG key for the updates packages. All packages are signed with a GPG key so you can verify that they're genuine. The error occurs because the file containing the key is not where the Mandriva Software Manager expects it to be. Despite the message, the updates CD has been added. If you go into the Mandriva Software Installer (click on the box icon with the green plus symbol) and select All Packages, By Update Availability. You will see that the updates are indeed available for installation. However, when you try to install any of them, you'll get a warning that their signatures cannot be verified, because of the missing GPG key. Just this once, it is safe to install them: the packages on the CD are indeed the official ones. The GPG key is on the updates CD, so to do to get rid of this error you can mount the updates CD, open a terminal and type
su <root password> rpm --import /mnt/cdrom/main_updates/media_info/pubkey
You should be returned to a command prompt after typing the rpm command. If you get an error message, it will probably be because the updates CD is not mounted on /mnt/cdrom. Make sure you can view the contents of the CD before running this command. Once the update CD and signature are set up, you can install the updates themselves from the Software Installer, as described above. You need the section marked Look At Installable Software... to get the updates from the CD - the section marked Look At Available Updates... is for online updates.