I am brand new to LinuxQuestions.org, but not new to Linux or computing (started at IBM in 1962, with Unix in the 1980s, linux later).

Although I am now retired, I am working on something which requires CentOS, a RedHat-derived linux. I copied the X86-64 (mine is a 64-bit machine), and after burning the CD, tried to boot. It churned for a while, filling the screen with a lot of characteristic data, but could not complete.

Then I tried the current Slackware -- similar experience. Then Ubuntu -- ditto. Finally I tried the gNewSense from the fsf. ditto.

Upon coming onto your site and reading your instructions, I tried Knoppix before making this posting. To my astonishment, Knoppix booted and works!
While I cannot use Knoppix for this effort, that it boots ok is encouraging.

Previously I have successfully used slackware a number of years ago, but neither then nor now have I studied the boot options. Could someone suggest boot options for CentOs (Red Hat), or even slackware.

A second but related issue involves how to record the image of the failed boot screen. The best that I can imagine is to take a digital photo of it, but it isn't static, and I will inevitably lose some of it. Can it be written to a USB or floppy while being produced so I can send it to the CentOS developers?

Thank you.

Daniel B. Davis

You have told us that you were trying to install 64bit Centos but not what specific version. Centos 5.3 is current and has added a lot of hardware support since the initial 5.0 release.

Are there any differences in the way you got the Centos & Knoppix DVDs?
Did you burn them both on the same drive?
Did you try running the MD5 checksum over them before use?

I had a dodgy CD/DVD drive once: even just for reading it was inconsistent, sometimes it wouldn't install, sometimes it would but the OS wouldn't boot / run.
Eventually got a new DVD drive: everything was fine. There was nothing wrong showing when I checksummed the DVD on the old drive...

This is unusual, so there is probably an underlying cause. One distro maybe, but the majority of them...

You say a q6600, but not the mobo or chipset; a couple of possibilities come to mind.

Firstly, if its an nVidia chipset with embedded video (or you have an nVidia or ATI card), you might be getting into difficulties with the driver for that card. Fighting with the drivers for the higher performance 3d video solutions seems to be a common, if slightly futile, hobby...

I think more plausible, however, is if your mobo has 'add-on' controllers (beyond that provided by the basic chipset), the need to detect and instantiate extra drivers may not be proceeding to plan. There is a case, therefore, for being very acreful about whether you are using, eg, disk controllers provided by the basic chipset, or 'add-ons'.

That does seem to suggest that it can be made to work, if you only find out what magic knoppix is doing.

Usually, things like noapic are suggested as possibilities for older, more idiosyncratic, chipsets, but, your chipset probably isn't that old; your cpu isn't, so I don't know what say.

When I built my q6600 system over 18 months ago, the issue wasn't the chip, but the motherboard. In my case the jmicron controller wasn't supported.
I would think by now most distros would have that support - RHEL (and hence Centos) might be exceptions given how "back-level" they tend to be compared to desktop distros.