rhel v 5.xx is on crack?
 

One of our linux boxes is sitting a the commnd line (bash..blah blah blah) and doesn't appear to see the kernel. Complete newbie that I am, I spent two day researching on google, ways to fix this. There were tons of command strings (None of which worked.) as well as a suggestion or 10 to try to repair the installation using the install discs or rescue disc.

Okay..so, the human who did the install no longer is employed here, having chosen to move along to so-called greener pastures and did not make any rescue discs for ANY of the umpteen bazillion linux boxes here.

My next best option was to try and repair the boot loader by starting the install and choose the option to create a new boot loader. (Once again, I point out my total noobishness.)

So, I popped the install disc in the cd rom drive (Rhel 5.1) and the system saw it, offered the option to start an install and then said there is NO RHEL disc in the drive.

Now, I know the disc is good. I works in my desktop linux box with no problem, so I thought perhaps the drive is on the fritz. I then grabbed my copy of ultimate bootCD which came up just fine, and allowed me to access the linux partitions, and view the directories on them.

This, of course verified the drives are not toast and that the cd rom may not be the problem. I then popped the linux cd back in the drive and got the same error message I got last time. I tried the disc in a different box of the sae exact make, and it worked.

Popping the ultimate boot cd back in to see if it is an intermittent problem with the drive proved only that the drive still reads the boot cd w/o problem.

This went round another 3 or four times before I gave up. The boot cd and the linux disc are from the same spindle which would rule out a firmware issue with the drive...but I admit I'm really stuck here.

Any ideas here would be most helpful and appreciated. Really...I don't have much hair left to pull out.

Thanks.

Are you receiving an error message? If so, what is it exactly?

if you have a command line that starts with "bash" it sounds like it is booted and running. If it starts with "grub" thats another issue.

Can you ping the machine's IP or ssh to it? if so it has completed most or all of the boot sequence.

Did you have to log in to see the "bash" prompt?

Is this a production machine and related services are down?
(which leads to...)
Can you reboot and watch the boot process and let us know what happens last?

Do you have hot swappable cd-roms or dvd-roms? perhaps the one in this machine is a problem.