Re: [CentOS] trouble booting install CD on old machine
On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 09:57:54PM -0700, Keith Keller wrote: > Hi all, > > I'm having a bit of an issue booting the full 5.7 install CD on an older > machine. I downloaded the ISOs earlier today, checked the sha1sums, and > burned the CDs with no reported errors. But when I try to boot, the > isolinux banner comes up quickly, but then instead of the boot prompt, I > get a completely blank screen. After 30-60 seconds, I get a message in > purple, the exact wording I don't recall, but something like "can't > boot, please restart". > > Many years ago I put CentOS 4 on this machine, so I know it can boot CD > media, and earlier today I booted an older UBCD, so I know that it can > successfully boot from CD at the present time. (I didn't have time to > test the CD I burned in another box; I will do that next time I have the > CD.) > > What other options do I have for getting 5.7 on this box? I have a few > ideas: > > --do some troubleshooting with the 5.7 CD. I don't really know how to > go about this, and there's no guarantee it'll end up with being able to > boot in the end. > --perhaps an older CentOS 5 ISO will work better? Testing this will be > fairly quick but is not sure to work. > --remove the system disk, put it into another system that is known to > boot the 5.7 CD, install there, then put the disk back. This could be > somewhat time consuming (the machine is in a rack, and the system drive > is buried in the chassis, not hot-swappable), but is pretty sure to work. > --try to boot from USB. As I said, it's an old box, so I'm not sure it > supports booting over USB media. There were no "boot from USB" options > in the BIOS; I could try to flash the firmware, but that seems excessive > for this sort of issue. > > Other thoughts/suggestions? Any ideas why I'd be seeing this particular > boot behavior? It's not something I've seen before; either booting > fails before even reaching isolinux, or the kernel panics on finding some > exotic and/or broken piece of hardware. > > --keith > > -- > kkel...@wombat.san-francisco.ca.us > Keith, I don't see that you identify what sort of old machine you're trying to use. You should be aware that current versions of Centos/RHEL REQUIRE some flavor of i686-class processor at minimum. that means Pentium Pro/Pentium II or later. Of course, you may also be hitting some situation where there's some really obsolete hardware in the machine for which newer systems don't have the driver built in. or a bad image burn, too, since you say you haven't yet tested it. Good luck! -- Fred Smith -- fre...@fcshome.stoneham.ma.us - "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." -- Matthew 7:21 (niv) - ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] trouble booting install CD on old machine
This is just a random idea, but could you have burned the cd at a speed higher than the optical drive can read? I burn all my software at 4x because i know it will then work in any and every machine. - Christopher Hawker On 9/15/11, Keith Keller wrote: > Hi all, > > I'm having a bit of an issue booting the full 5.7 install CD on an older > machine. I downloaded the ISOs earlier today, checked the sha1sums, and > burned the CDs with no reported errors. But when I try to boot, the > isolinux banner comes up quickly, but then instead of the boot prompt, I > get a completely blank screen. After 30-60 seconds, I get a message in > purple, the exact wording I don't recall, but something like "can't > boot, please restart". > > Many years ago I put CentOS 4 on this machine, so I know it can boot CD > media, and earlier today I booted an older UBCD, so I know that it can > successfully boot from CD at the present time. (I didn't have time to > test the CD I burned in another box; I will do that next time I have the > CD.) > > What other options do I have for getting 5.7 on this box? I have a few > ideas: > > --do some troubleshooting with the 5.7 CD. I don't really know how to > go about this, and there's no guarantee it'll end up with being able to > boot in the end. > --perhaps an older CentOS 5 ISO will work better? Testing this will be > fairly quick but is not sure to work. > --remove the system disk, put it into another system that is known to > boot the 5.7 CD, install there, then put the disk back. This could be > somewhat time consuming (the machine is in a rack, and the system drive > is buried in the chassis, not hot-swappable), but is pretty sure to work. > --try to boot from USB. As I said, it's an old box, so I'm not sure it > supports booting over USB media. There were no "boot from USB" options > in the BIOS; I could try to flash the firmware, but that seems excessive > for this sort of issue. > > Other thoughts/suggestions? Any ideas why I'd be seeing this particular > boot behavior? It's not something I've seen before; either booting > fails before even reaching isolinux, or the kernel panics on finding some > exotic and/or broken piece of hardware. > > --keith > > -- > kkel...@wombat.san-francisco.ca.us > > -- If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me on +61 478 241 896. Regards, Christopher Hawker ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] trouble booting install CD on old machine
On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 09:46:44AM -0400, fred smith wrote: > > Keith, I don't see that you identify what sort of old machine you're > trying to use. Ah, sorry: it's a beige box dual-core x86_64. So I am guessing that... > You should be aware that current versions of Centos/RHEL REQUIRE some > flavor of i686-class processor at minimum. that means Pentium Pro/Pentium II > or later. ...this doesn't apply; there were no such changes in the 64 bit branch, were there? I couldn't find anything in my searching yesterday. On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 01:06:01AM +1000, Christopher Hawker wrote: > This is just a random idea, but could you have burned the cd at a > speed higher than the optical drive can read? I burn all my software > at 4x because i know it will then work in any and every machine. That's a definite possibility! The machine I used for burning is also older, but its burner is definitely better than the drive on the target, which can't even read DVDs (as I found out when I tried to boot a CentOS 5 DVD I already had). I will try a new CD at a slower speed and see if it helps--it's a very quick operation, so even if it fails it's not much wasted time. --keith -- kkel...@wombat.san-francisco.ca.us pgpjaoCJMMk3N.pgp Description: PGP signature ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Re: [CentOS] trouble booting install CD on old machine
On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 09:46:44AM -0400, fred smith wrote: > > or a bad image burn, too, since you say you haven't yet tested it. This was indeed the issue. Sorry to bother everyone, and thanks for all the responses! (I didn't suspect a bad burn initially, as it was able to get to the ISOLINUX splash text. But the CD had practically the same symptoms on the machine where I did the burn.) --keith -- kkel...@wombat.san-francisco.ca.us pgphrrglO36K3.pgp Description: PGP signature ___ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
