Just like everyone else posting in here, I am a complete and total newbie to Linux. Here is the issue I am having that I hope the forum can help me on...

I have an older server (Dell PowerEdge R210) that currently has RHEL 5 installed and running. I want to install CentOS 7 and wipe the drives during the install process. I created a bootable DVD and was able to test it on 2 different machines. I put this disk in the drive and at the beginning of the POST, I hit F11 and choose to boot from the disk drive, this does work because I did a backup using Clonezilla before taking on this venture. I choose the CD/DVD drive to boot from and then it waits and starts to boot right into RHEL 5.

To me it seems that the OS is locked to boot only to the installed OS, but then again i am not sure or if that is even possible. If there is a set of commands that I can run to unlock or enable this function, please let me know what I need to type because I am still learning commands. Thank you all in advance for your help!

Hi...

Welcome to the forum

If the CD/DVD of CentOS worked fine in the two other systems you tested it in, my guess that there is possibly something wrong with the CD/DVD-ROM drive in your Dell or that it can't read the disk for some other reason. A few questions to rule out the more obvious...

1. Did you burn CentOS to a DVD but your drive is actually only a CD-ROM drive without the ability to read DVD's?

2. When you first boot the system and select the CD/DVD-ROM drive, does the drive spin up and the light blink, showing that it's trying to read the CD/DVD? Does it take a little bit or does it immediately boot to RHEL without seemingly any attempt to read?

3. Is your drive recognized in the BIOS?

4. Can the drive read other burned CD/DVD's without a problem?

Regards...

2 members found this post helpful.

did you clean the DVD/CD before trying it?
the DVD reader itself maybe malfunctioning.

did you let it boot up in the installed Linux, then open a file manager and check to see if you can access the DVD/CD from there? (to ensure that the DVD/CD Reader is at least reading the DVD/CD)

is their a situation that you cannot use a USB Stick?

1 members found this post helpful.

It always helps to post a link to the gear , don't you think?

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-r210-2/pd

1 members found this post helpful.

Yes it does, my apologies. I am still trying to learn proper forum usage. Thank you for posting the link for us!

The DVD ware freshly burned on my desktop and tested there. Took the DVD to this box and when it did not work, I tested it in a different box and it worked again. DVD is clean and free of scratches.

I attempted to use a USB stick first with no luck. I put the ISO file on and tried that first and when that didn't work I made the USB stick a bootable one with the ISO unpackaged on it. Again, no luck and that's is why I decided to use a DVD for install.

Thank you for the welcome!
1) It is a DVD from the drive label, tech specs from Dell, and I have been able to have RHEL 5 file manager read the disk and navigate through it.

2) the light does light up, but quickly goes out. I can not hear if the spindle is rev-ing up because of all the other noise in the Central Office.

3) the Drive is recognized because I use this same method to back up the system using a bootable Clonezilla disk.

4) The drive can read other burned disks because Clonezilla is a burned disk.


Thank you all for the questions and responding to my issue. I hope the answers I have provided will help!

how did you create your USB Stick?

try this as root or sudo

get the correct device address to your USB Stick,
this is the tricky part for most people, leave off the number

using a terminal go into the directory of your iso then
no boot flag needed. Plug it in your USB Port. Then when you're booting up get to your BIOS and select USB hdd or USB Stick or what ever it is that your BIOS calls your USB Port to boot off of. Then use that

2 members found this post helpful.

Thank you for your answers.

My guess is that for some reason the drive just doesn't like the CentOS DVD. You could try burning a copy using the Dell, if possible, and see if that works. Or you can see if booting/installing from USB works using BW-userx's instructions above.

Regards...

1 members found this post helpful.

I created the USB from a Windows prog... Sorry, still a slave to "da man". That could be the issue, but I will give your commands a go tomorrow at work. It's Friday and we try an not do anything that could be service affecting in the Telco world... So this is a prefect Friday trial!

That is it very possible, I am going to give the USB a try and will post my results as I go. Thank you all for the help!

You're welcome, hopefully we can get this worked out.

Regards...

1 members found this post helpful.

It is possible to install, and there are some Dell PowerEdge R210 running Suse, RedHat and Ubuntu.

Above, Ardvark71 and BW-userx have already given wholesome advice. So, allow me to add only these little things before I forget:
1. Please md5sum check the sum hash of the ISO as given on the source site before burning it into the medium.
2. See that no interfering hardware problem, by isolating every possibility.
3. Check this site for a good Dell PowerEdge R210 story for one installing Gnu/Linux on it.

By the way, your gear is also Ubuntu certified server machine. So, that is assuring us you are on to win.

Hope that helps. Good luck and enjoy.

m.m.

1 members found this post helpful.

I want to thank you all for your advice and questions to help point me in the right direction. malekmustaq, Thank you for sharing the link you did. I read it and look between the lines.

What it all ended up being is I updated the system BIOS version from 1.0 to 1.10. When the system rebooted it recognized the DVD and kicked right into wanting to install CentOS. I was able to wipe the drives and get Cent installed. It is always the simple easy things that get overlooked but upgrading the BIOS firmware was the problem. Thanks again everyone for the help!

You're welcome, glad you got it working!

Regards...