[CentOS] Kernel 2.6.32-358.14.1.el6 boot fail

[Kwan Lowe]

On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 10:19 PM, Mike McCarthy <sysop at w1nr.net> wrote:
> Aha! non-CentOS drivers? Are these from the OEM? Theyprobably need to be
> rebuilt to the new kernel.
> Have you tried booting into "safe" mode or with video drivers disabled?
> Just how you do that with CentOS I don't know but there should be
> instructions somewhere on the WEB.

Mike, thanks for your reply.

These are the latest NVidia drivers (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-319.32.run).
I'm not quite sure it is the problem, however, after running some more
tests.

I tried rebuilding the NVidia drivers for the latest installed kernel
using the '-k KERNEL_NAME' option to the installer script. These built
successfully while the older kernel was running.  On reboot into the
new kernel, I got the same error (hard freeze, unable to reboot the
system without a BIOS flash). I then uninstalled the NVidia
proprietary drivers completely (--uninstall from the script).  I
received (expected) X related errors and dropped into a shell on the
old kernel. Trying on the new kernel resulted in the same freeze.
I.e.:

On grub menu, I choose the newest kernel
(kernel-2.6.32-358.14.1.el6.centos.plus.x86_64).In the top left I see
the underline cursor blink for a few seconds and then stop. There's no
other output. The HD and Power light on the system unit is solid at
this point.

If I try to reboot now I see the system fans spin up at low speed.
About four seconds later the fans momentarily switch to high speed
then the system powers down. Even if I unplug everything, drain the
PSU, the system won't power back up until I reset the BIOS via jumper
blocks.

The hardware itself seems fine. I am actually typing this now on the
system in question, but in the previous kernel.

 I just ran a quick package list by Vendor (queryformat %{vendor} )
and found some Dag Apt packages. I'll uninstall these and retest.

Also checked my BIOS which is:

        Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
        Version: 1302
        Release Date: 11/15/2012

If there's an update available I'll flash it.

This one has me stumped :)