There's about half a dozen or more solutions to this problem and I've tried every single one with no success.
I have a Macbook Pro that currently has Ubuntu loaded. I downloaded 64 Bit Kali Linux 2018.1 and when I try to install from a USB I get, "There was a problem reading data from the CD-ROM. Please make sure it is in the drive. If retrying does not work, you should check the integrity of your CD-ROM. - Failed to copy file from CD-ROM. Retry?
Attempt: https://superuser.com/questions/962926/cant-install-kali-linux-from-usb-fails-to-find-cd-rom-drive
Run the installer.
Open a shell (ALT + F2).
Can't open the shell that way for some reason. Tried ALT+F2 and ALT+Fn+F2. I had to go to the menu to execute the shell.
Create the directory cdrom directly on the root of the file system:
mkdir /cdrom
"Can't create the directory '/cdrom' : File exists
Note :
If you got problems making the directory /cdrom, disable the CD-rom player in BIOS or disconnect the cable
Mount the USB as if it is a CD-ROM:
mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /cdrom
"mount: mounting /dev/sdb1 on /cdrom failed: No such file or directory
Where sdb1 is your USB device.
You could carry on installation now
Source :
ubuntu and
debian
Another
layman solution was :
when the Window shows CDROM couldn't be mounted ,
- Unplug your USB from system and re insert it
- wait for mount/ detection (usb LED glow)
Hit Continue
I tried this with no luck. I saw another solution that said leave the USB out for 30 seconds. That still didn't work.
There was another site that suggested using a different USB port. Tried that.
Another site suggested the file may have been corrupted. So I re-downloaded the .iso, no luck.
I am using Rufus to make the USB (I am NOT using the DD mode) and booting into the Live Kali Linux works fine, it just won't let me install.
Thank you in advance for any help.
EDIT 1:
I'm a little embarrassed. Everything I know about computers, programming and electronic circuits is self-taught via Google. I pride myself in being self sufficient and not asking for help a lot. Alas in this instance, I saw many "solutions" that specifically said to make the bootable USB in ISO mode and NOT DD Image. In waiting for a reply I looked at the topic that was replied to immediately after I posted my topic and noted the individual said he used DD Image because he was using Rufus and would get the CD-ROM error otherwise. Of course I tried this and it started working. I went back to the solutions I looked at and ran a search for "DD" and found a comment in one of them talking about this very issue. I apologize for this and hope at the very least someone with the same issue reads this topic and finds the information more easily than I did. Thank you.
EDIT 2:
I read in a few places to make sure you make the bootable USB as ISO and NOT with DD Image but missed a side comment specifically pertaining to Rufus which stated that DD Image is required or the CD-ROM failure happens. Tried that and it worked like a charm. Sorry about that.