LinuxQuestions.org
Review your favorite Linux distribution.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Server
User Name
Password
Linux - Server This forum is for the discussion of Linux Software used in a server related context.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 09-22-2009, 10:37 AM   #1
leepic
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Sep 2009
Posts: 10

Rep: Reputation: 0
Dell 2950 w/ RHEL 5u3, "Missing Operating System" after OS load


Greetings All! This is my first post to this forum! :-)
I have Dell Poweredge 2950s w/ the following specs:
- 3.00Ghz Quad Cores
- hda 6x300gb
- 16gb mem
- Perc 6/i FW Pckg 6.1.1-0047
- Bios 2.5.0
Every time I try to load RHEL 5u3 (using graphical or text mode), after the load completes and it tries to boot I get a "Missing Operating System" error. I've checked the dvd by loading it on 2950s w/ different specs and it loads/boots fine. I've also tried loaded different OS versions on the servers in question and that works as well. I've tried an 'out of the box' install and also have rebuilt the internal raid (Raid 5) as well.
Anyone else have an issue like this?
Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Getting frustrated...

TIA,
-lee
 
Old 09-22-2009, 11:06 AM   #2
MensaWater
LQ Guru
 
Registered: May 2005
Location: Atlanta Georgia USA
Distribution: Redhat (RHEL), CentOS, Fedora, CoreOS, Debian, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Solaris, SCO
Posts: 7,831
Blog Entries: 15

Rep: Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669
Did you verify hard drive (RAID set) is bootable in BIOS settings?

Did you verify you don't have anything in any of the other boot priority items (e.g. CD/DVD, usb) that have higher priority than the disk/RAID set?

We've installed RHEL5 on several 2950s and 1950s (on the PERC RAID devices) with no issues.
 
Old 09-22-2009, 11:07 AM   #3
TB0ne
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Jul 2003
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Distribution: SuSE, RedHat, Slack,CentOS
Posts: 26,553

Rep: Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946
Quote:
Originally Posted by leepic View Post
Greetings All! This is my first post to this forum! :-)
I have Dell Poweredge 2950s w/ the following specs:
- 3.00Ghz Quad Cores
- hda 6x300gb
- 16gb mem
- Perc 6/i FW Pckg 6.1.1-0047
- Bios 2.5.0
Every time I try to load RHEL 5u3 (using graphical or text mode), after the load completes and it tries to boot I get a "Missing Operating System" error. I've checked the dvd by loading it on 2950s w/ different specs and it loads/boots fine. I've also tried loaded different OS versions on the servers in question and that works as well. I've tried an 'out of the box' install and also have rebuilt the internal raid (Raid 5) as well.
Anyone else have an issue like this?
Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Getting frustrated...

TIA,
-lee
I've seen something like this before, although not on that specific hardware. When I've seen it, it usually has to do with the module(s) for the RAID controller, not being in the initrd file. The MBR knows it's got an OS, but the disk doesn't 'appear', so it sits there.

I've gotten around it by booting from CD/DVD, into 'rescue' mode, then loading the drivers manually with the "modprobe <module name>" command. Of course, you'll have to know which modules to load.. There are usually a limited number of them, though, for SCSI/RAID controllers, if you've got to try them one at a time...

After you get the system booted, you can use the mkinitrd command to build an initrd file with the right modules in it, and you should be OK from there on. RHEL support can give you a hand, too...
 
Old 09-22-2009, 11:20 AM   #4
leepic
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Sep 2009
Posts: 10

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Quote:
Originally Posted by jlightner View Post
Did you verify hard drive (RAID set) is bootable in BIOS settings?

Did you verify you don't have anything in any of the other boot priority items (e.g. CD/DVD, usb) that have higher priority than the disk/RAID set?

We've installed RHEL5 on several 2950s and 1950s (on the PERC RAID devices) with no issues.
I've loaded 4u6 on them w/o touching the Bios and they boot normally. As soon as I complete loading 5u3, I get the error message.

The only device set w/ higher boot priority is cd/dvd, which I obviously remove prior to post-load reboot.

Like I said, I tried it on other 2950s w/ different spec and it loads/boots fine...
 
Old 09-22-2009, 11:51 AM   #5
MensaWater
LQ Guru
 
Registered: May 2005
Location: Atlanta Georgia USA
Distribution: Redhat (RHEL), CentOS, Fedora, CoreOS, Debian, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Solaris, SCO
Posts: 7,831
Blog Entries: 15

Rep: Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669
Not sure why that is. We have PERC 6/i based 2950s on as late as RHEL5.1.

The driver for PERC is megaraid. The one for these embedded SAS PERC cards is megaraid_sas. Running "lsmod |grep -i megaraid" shows:
megaraid_sas 67965 4
scsi_mod 186361 5 mptctl,sg,libata,megaraid_sas,sd_mod

Making an initrd with above in it might help though I would have expected it to do it automatically during the install as it did for us on 5.1

FYI: I think RHEL 5.4 is out in general release right now. It might be worthwhile to try that. Maybe there was a bug in 5.3?
 
Old 09-22-2009, 12:24 PM   #6
leepic
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Sep 2009
Posts: 10

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Quote:
Originally Posted by TB0ne View Post
I've seen something like this before, although not on that specific hardware. When I've seen it, it usually has to do with the module(s) for the RAID controller, not being in the initrd file. The MBR knows it's got an OS, but the disk doesn't 'appear', so it sits there.

I've gotten around it by booting from CD/DVD, into 'rescue' mode, then loading the drivers manually with the "modprobe <module name>" command. Of course, you'll have to know which modules to load.. There are usually a limited number of them, though, for SCSI/RAID controllers, if you've got to try them one at a time...

After you get the system booted, you can use the mkinitrd command to build an initrd file with the right modules in it, and you should be OK from there on. RHEL support can give you a hand, too...
I've never attempted any of that. Are the drivers on the dvd, or located somehwere w/in the OS that is loaded (but won't boot from)?

TIA,
-lee
 
Old 09-22-2009, 03:54 PM   #7
TB0ne
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Jul 2003
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Distribution: SuSE, RedHat, Slack,CentOS
Posts: 26,553

Rep: Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946
Quote:
Originally Posted by leepic View Post
I've never attempted any of that. Are the drivers on the dvd, or located somehwere w/in the OS that is loaded (but won't boot from)?

TIA,
-lee
The drivers are both on the DVD and on the hard drive, entertainingly enough. I expected it to auto-magically build the initrd with the correct drivers too, but it doesn't. The mention of the megaraid brought back memories, as that's the same module I had problems with.

I had to boot to rescue mode (or the "load modules" option...I was using openSUSE at the time..), and load the megaraid_old, then the megaraid modules. After that, I continued the load from hard drive, and everything came right up.

The mkinitrd command isn't that tough to go through, and the man page says alot about it, and Google has lots of how-tos. But if you have doubts, get in touch with RedHat support....you're in a supported config, and they can help you with it over the phone.
 
Old 09-22-2009, 10:41 PM   #8
Smartpatrol
Member
 
Registered: Sep 2009
Posts: 196

Rep: Reputation: 38
...

Last edited by Smartpatrol; 03-11-2010 at 09:32 PM. Reason: spelling
 
Old 09-23-2009, 10:04 AM   #9
MensaWater
LQ Guru
 
Registered: May 2005
Location: Atlanta Georgia USA
Distribution: Redhat (RHEL), CentOS, Fedora, CoreOS, Debian, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Solaris, SCO
Posts: 7,831
Blog Entries: 15

Rep: Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669Reputation: 1669
We do most of our installs here without the Dell helper disk since it expects a specific install CD/DVD. I've not seen the problems using RHEL 5 non-Dell install media on our 2950s.

I had to use the older Megaraid module mentioned by Tbone on an old PERC 2 (American Megatrends rather than Adaptec) on Fedora some time back on an old PE 2450 but haven't had to use it on a PERC 6/i on RHEL 5 on a 2950.

Last edited by MensaWater; 09-24-2009 at 09:26 AM. Reason: Fixed bizarred sentence
 
Old 09-24-2009, 09:03 AM   #10
leepic
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Sep 2009
Posts: 10

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Problem solved...somehow the the GRUB boot loader was being deselected during load. I should have paid closer attention to the settings as I was clicking thru the screens. Loaded 4 machines yesterday w/o issue. Sitting in a cold lab for hours on end and not paying attention can be blamed for this one... :-/
Thanks everyone!
-lee
 
Old 09-24-2009, 10:41 AM   #11
TB0ne
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Jul 2003
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Distribution: SuSE, RedHat, Slack,CentOS
Posts: 26,553

Rep: Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946Reputation: 7946
Quote:
Originally Posted by leepic View Post
Problem solved...somehow the the GRUB boot loader was being deselected during load. I should have paid closer attention to the settings as I was clicking thru the screens. Loaded 4 machines yesterday w/o issue. Sitting in a cold lab for hours on end and not paying attention can be blamed for this one... :-/
Thanks everyone!
-lee
Happens to us all...glad it's working for you, and thanks for posting back the solution.
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
[SOLVED] Fedora Live USB Creator Question: Error comes up: "Missing Operating System" FedoraLinuxLover Linux - Laptop and Netbook 59 07-20-2009 02:56 PM
changed bios to USB hard drive as #1 option - boots "Missing operating system" Elendrael Linux - Newbie 4 09-12-2007 08:48 PM
error during Ubuntu install, now says "Missing Operating System" DJGCrusader Linux - Newbie 6 08-11-2007 07:12 PM
Booting from USB ExHD - "Missing Operating System" onethirteenmain Linux - Laptop and Netbook 1 06-11-2007 01:49 PM
"Missing operating system" Ubuntu install hamburglar Ubuntu 11 08-12-2006 01:09 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Server

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:22 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration