[CentOS] Cannot get CentOS to install

Sat Mar 14 17:42:23 UTC 2009
Michael Peterson <mpeterson at mail.charlesfurniture.com>

Scott Silva wrote:
> on 3-11-2009 1:44 PM Michael Peterson spake the following:
>   
>> William L. Maltby wrote:
>>     
>>> On Tue, 2009-03-10 at 16:37 -0500, Michael Peterson wrote:
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> I used google but did not come up with anything current to solve my problem.
>>>> I have not tried any other search engines yet.
>>>> There is not a search for the CentOS list so I am creating a new post.
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> See below - it's really hard to find.
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> I have tested the CentOS 5.2 and RHEL 5.3 CD's and they passed.
>>>> I had to use linux mediacheck ide=nodma to get them to pass.
>>>> The newest releases seem to most times fail with just linux mediacheck.
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> Try making the media after padding the iso image with about 300k of
>>> zeros. When you search the archives (there is a search - I'll mention
>>> below) there are a couple of threads about this.
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> I have tried linux ide=nodma and
>>>> linux text ide=nodma after trying
>>>> linux and
>>>> linux text
>>>>
>>>> Anaconda fails on both CentOS 5.2 and RHEL 5.3 in all cases.
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> With only 512MB or ram you will have to use text mode only, IIRC. Also
>>> in the archives. There's also some threads that mention noacpi, acpi=no
>>> and some other stuff I can't recall.
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> The system I am trying to install on is running CentOS 3.x.
>>>>
>>>> The hardware is P4 2.8 CPU, 512 MB RAM, 120GB 3ware IDE/PATA RAID HD, 
>>>> ATI Video, CDRW CD, Dual Nic, Floppy and IDE/PATA Tape drive.
>>>>
>>>> Please provide any options to the kernel that I should try besides the 
>>>> ones mentioned above that fail.
>>>> <snip>
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> For your google searches, go to the advanced section and specify
>>> centos.org. That gets what's in the archives. To search directly from
>>> CentOS site, click "Search" on http://centos.org/
>>>
>>> HTH,
>>>   
>>>       
>> The system I am trying to install on boot with out problems or errors on 
>> the 5.2 Live CD.
>> Gui works
>> Firefox and Network work
>>
>> I tried the options mentioned and more and get the same errors.
>> They are:
>>
>> Starting graphical installation ...
>> Traceback (most recent call last):
>> File "/usr/bin/anaconda", line 900, in ? iutil.makeDriveDeviceNodes()
>> File "/usr/lib/anaconda/iutil.py". line 264, in makeDriveDeviceNodes
>> isys.makeDevinode(device, "dev /%s" % (device,))
>> File "/usr/lib/anaconda.isys.py", line 422, inmakeDevInode 
>> _isys.mkdevinode(name,fn)
>> SystemError: (2, 'No such file or directory')
>> install exited abnormally [1/1]
>> sending termination signals ... done
>>
>>
>> The RHEL 5.3 boot disk is the same as above except the line 900 is 924.
>>
>> I have tried text and GUI and ide=nodma pci=noacpi with both.
>>     
> Can you see and write to the hard disks with the Live CD?
>
>
>
>   
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>   

The Live CD can see and access the 3ware RAID connected drives.
It is using the swap partition.
I was able to switch to root and remount a file system read-write and 
copy files from one mount point to another.
I then deleted the files with no problem.

I will try to boot CentOS 5.1 CD 1 on Monday and see what results I get.