Hi folks.
I maintain a bunch of centos based machines that are built using a somewhat stripped down (limited number but mainly stock rpms) centos distro. The installation process is plain anaconda stuff with a kickstart file on the root of the DVD/iso. The current hardware and media i'm using is DVD based.
On machines that have internal DVD drives (all IDE CD/DVD drives), everything is fine. However, I'm having a problem that started in 4.6 and continues in 4.7 on machines that don't have an internal DVD drive and therefore i must use a USB DVD drive. On these machines, everything goes ok in the beginning. The DVD is "seen" by the machine and boots fine, the isolinux screen comes up and i let the timeout go or i hit return to continue. Then, almost immediately thereafter, (when i should see the blue screen with text about loading drivers) i see the blue screen with the prompt for language. This is supposed to be a kickstart install, so at this point i know i'm hosed.
If I use alt-f3 or alt-f4 (can't remember which one), i can see an error message saying that the usb-storage driver is loaded, but it cannot find any USB storage devices to read from.
If i alt-f1 back to the main blue screen with the language prompt, i can go through the prompts for language, keyboard, however when i get to "install type", and select "usb cdrom" (i can't remember the text exactly...the machines are in the server room, and i'm at my desk ATM), it fails again. I can alt-f3 back to see that the same error about loading the usb-storage driver was successful but it can't find any attached usb storage device. Unfortunately, at this point, there's no shell yet available in alt-f2, so i can't poke around much).
It seems like somehow, something is happening like the USB bus is being reset and it's "loosing" the usb devices and they can't be found anymore.
Note that the original boot occurred of the DVD drive (i got past the isolinux screen), so it's at least working in the beginning to get that far.
I had seen this problem occur a handful of times in the past in my same distro based on CentOS-4.5, however it was sporadic and was usually solved by changing the manufacturer of DVD drive (i thought it was a hardware vendor not implementing the USB spec properly since most devices worked...only a handful didn't). However, since moving to 4.6 and also in 4.7, this problem is completely repeatable with all USB DVD drives i have (granted it's only 3 different vendors/models, but they all don't work, whereas all 3 of these used to work in the 4.5 based distro).
Also, as i stated earlier, on machines with internal DVD drives (IDE based), everything works fine.
Has anyone seen anything like this? Do you have any suggestions to try?
One thing i'm going to try is downloading the stock 4.7 DVD ISO and see if it fails. The download is taking a while, so i won't be able to report back on that test until tomorrow.
Oh yeah, the machines i'm using that are having this problem are a Dell R200, Supermicro PDSMi, and Supermicro P4SC8. I don't have the DVD drive mfg and model numbers handy, i'll get those as well.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
...alex...
Alex Tang wrote: ...
Note that the original boot occurred of the DVD drive (i got past the isolinux screen), so it's at least working in the beginning to get that far.
The first reading of the DVD is done by the bios, not the linux kernel.
Can't you do a PXE based install?
Mogens
Mogens Kjaer wrote:
Alex Tang wrote: ...
Note that the original boot occurred of the DVD drive (i got past the isolinux screen), so it's at least working in the beginning to get that far.
The first reading of the DVD is done by the bios, not the linux kernel.
OK, i didn't know that.
Can't you do a PXE based install?
Unfortunately, no. i can't. I sometimes have to do this at places where i don't have the network infrastructure to do a pxe boot.
Thanks Mogens. Any other ideas. :)
...alex...
-----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces@centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces@centos.org] On Behalf Of Alex Tang Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 3:28 AM To: centos@centos.org Subject: [CentOS] USB DVD drive disappearing during kickstart install.
Hi folks.
I maintain a bunch of centos based machines that are built using a somewhat stripped down (limited number but mainly stock rpms) centos distro. The installation process is plain anaconda stuff with a kickstart file on the root of the DVD/iso. The current hardware and media i'm using is DVD based.
On machines that have internal DVD drives (all IDE CD/DVD drives), everything is fine. However, I'm having a problem that started in 4.6 and continues in 4.7 on machines that don't have an internal DVD drive and therefore i must use a USB DVD drive. On these machines, everything goes ok in the beginning. The DVD is "seen" by the machine and boots fine, the isolinux screen comes up and i let the timeout go or i hit return to continue. Then, almost immediately thereafter, (when i should see the blue screen with text about loading drivers) i see the blue screen with the prompt for language. This is supposed to be a kickstart install, so at this point i know i'm hosed.
If I use alt-f3 or alt-f4 (can't remember which one), i can see an error message saying that the usb-storage driver is loaded, but it cannot find any USB storage devices to read from.
If i alt-f1 back to the main blue screen with the language prompt, i can go through the prompts for language, keyboard, however when i get to "install type", and select "usb cdrom" (i can't remember the text exactly...the machines are in the server room, and i'm at my desk ATM), it fails again. I can alt-f3 back to see that the same error about loading the usb-storage driver was successful but it can't find any attached usb storage device. Unfortunately, at this point, there's no shell yet available in alt-f2, so i can't poke around much).
It seems like somehow, something is happening like the USB bus is being reset and it's "loosing" the usb devices and they can't be found anymore.
Note that the original boot occurred of the DVD drive (i got past the isolinux screen), so it's at least working in the beginning to get that far.
I had seen this problem occur a handful of times in the past in my same distro based on CentOS-4.5, however it was sporadic and was usually solved by changing the manufacturer of DVD drive (i thought it was a hardware vendor not implementing the USB spec properly since most devices worked...only a handful didn't). However, since moving to 4.6 and also in 4.7, this problem is completely repeatable with all USB DVD drives i have (granted it's only 3 different vendors/models, but they all don't work, whereas all 3 of these used to work in the 4.5 based distro).
Also, as i stated earlier, on machines with internal DVD drives (IDE based), everything works fine.
<snip>
<snip/>
Thanks.
...alex... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------
JohnStanley Wrote:
Alex, have you tried setting the USB Option in the BIOS to Autodetect between USB 1.0 and 2.0? That is if your machines BIOS supports that option. Plugable USB drives are nice additions but my opinion is there not so good at OS Installation, but don't get me wrong they are nice to boot a running centos install to repair an install on a broken machine.. What about doing a network install or VNC install from your desk?
Good Luck, JohnStanley
Thanks John.
I'll check the BIOS on these machines. Unfortunately, i need the DVD based setup to work because sometimes i have to do this at odd places where i don't have the network infrastructure to do PXE boots.
What i'm confused about is that i didn't have these problems (well, mostly) in the the 4.5 based distro (and a 3.x based distro from a while back...but that was using CDs instead of DVDs). It's only since moving to 4.6 and 4.7 that i'm seeing this consistently.
Any other ideas?
Thanks again.
...alex...
John wrote:
JohnStanley Wrote:
Alex, have you tried setting the USB Option in the BIOS to Autodetect between USB 1.0 and 2.0? That is if your machines BIOS supports that option. Plugable USB drives are nice additions but my opinion is there not so good at OS Installation, but don't get me wrong they are nice to boot a running centos install to repair an install on a broken machine.. What about doing a network install or VNC install from your desk?
Good Luck, JohnStanley
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 10:24 AM, Alex Tang altitude@funkware.com wrote:
Thanks John.
I'll check the BIOS on these machines. Unfortunately, i need the DVD based setup to work because sometimes i have to do this at odd places where i don't have the network infrastructure to do PXE boots. What i'm confused about is that i didn't have these problems (well, mostly) in the the 4.5 based distro (and a 3.x based distro from a while back...but that was using CDs instead of DVDs). It's only since moving to 4.6 and 4.7 that i'm seeing this consistently. Any other ideas?
Maybe this is a bad idea, but can you at this point in the kickstart, unplug/replug the USB DVD drive or cycle power to the USB DVD drive to maybe 'force' the kernel to detect it?
On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 10:35:14AM -0400, Bob Beers wrote:
On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 10:24 AM, Alex Tang altitude@funkware.com wrote:
Thanks John.
I'll check the BIOS on these machines. Unfortunately, i need the DVD based setup to work because sometimes i have to do this at odd places where i don't have the network infrastructure to do PXE boots. What i'm confused about is that i didn't have these problems (well, mostly) in the the 4.5 based distro (and a 3.x based distro from a while back...but that was using CDs instead of DVDs). It's only since moving to 4.6 and 4.7 that i'm seeing this consistently. Any other ideas?
Maybe this is a bad idea, but can you at this point in the kickstart, unplug/replug the USB DVD drive or cycle power to the USB DVD drive to maybe 'force' the kernel to detect it?
http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=2155 could be related (usb plug/unplug).
Tru
On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 12:28 AM, Alex Tang altitude@funkware.com wrote:
It seems like somehow, something is happening like the USB bus is being reset and it's "loosing" the usb devices and they can't be found anymore.
While, strictly speaking, this may be true, I'm pretty sure it's not what you meant, and I've seen this enough times that I just have to say:
"loose" [looss] - a condition opposite that of "tight;" improperly fastened or closed; unattached (and, in this sense, potentially correct).
"lose" [looz] - to misplace <something> so as not to be able to find it, as in, 'it's "losing" the usb devices and they can't be found any more.'
There - got that off my chest!
And, now, back to our regularly scheduled emails....
mhr
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Alex Tang -
Bob Beers -
John -
MHR -
Mogens Kjaer -
Tru Huynh