Trouble getting initial SLES 10 SP2 install completed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES Install-Boot
1

I’m trying to just do a basic installation of SLES 10 SP2 with OES2 SP3,
on an HP Proliant DL380 G6 server with dual Xeon processors.

I was able to do the basic installation yesterday, and get through to
the point of starting to configure the server. However, I decided to
re-do it today, as some changes in direction (even the server name) were
made and also I had the OES DVD in-hand so I was hoping to do the
installations concurrently.

Every attempt at installation today has failed. The first item issue is
not Novell-related, in that apparently if PXE is enabled on this
server’s NICs, it fails to boot properly (seems only when an OS is
installed.) Got past that and installed it yesterday with just SLES.
http://www.vmwareinfo.com/2009/09/red-screen-of-death-hp-dl360-g6s.html

This was the point at which directions were changed, so I attempted to
re-install from scratch, but this time adding in the OES installation as
well.

Trying to install either removing and re-creating, or using, the
existing partitions as created from the day before, hung at the
“installation summary” step, similar to the following:
http://web.archiveorange.com/archive/v/wmeLDNzzdHgBy3tefx5J

As I didn’t have partitioning tools handy, and it didn’t pass that point
even if I deleted the partition & re-created it, I ended up removing the
RAID logical drive array & re-creating that instead, which of course
forced it to see everything as new & create a new partition.

At that point, installation seemed to be proceeding, as it had worked
the previous day; then suddenly the server rebooted for no reason. Not
knowing if this was part of the installation (as I hadn’t been observing
it continuously) I let it continue, and it hung on the default of trying
to boot from the hard drive. So I started again.

This time, I was able to re-install even though the partitions already
existed, and it properly formatted when I configured to delete the
existing partition & create a new one. It got to the point of seeming
to be much of the way done, and hung after installing some packaged
called “gail” (something I’m not familiar with.)

So I restarted, again with removing & re-creating the partition, this
time not including the OES install but just basic SLES, and choosing the
option to disable APIC. This time, it got done to the point of having
1:57 left, right after the Mozilla install, and hung again.

I don’t know why it is hanging or not completing what should be a basic
installation, on new server hardware. I don’t know if there is some
setting I should change that is causing the hang-ups. I just know that
the first installation worked, and everything since has failed.

Any suggestions? I feel as if it simply shouldn’t be this difficult to
complete, but perhaps there is some other hardware or setting issue that
I am overlooking that will help this complete (?)

Thanks for any help or enlightenment.

2

On Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:22:13 GMT
DE nowhere@all.disorg wrote:[color=blue]

Any suggestions? I feel as if it simply shouldn’t be this difficult
to complete, but perhaps there is some other hardware or setting
issue that I am overlooking that will help this complete (?)

Thanks for any help or enlightenment.[/color]
Hi
Did you check the install media? md5sum the iso image?

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.4 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop
up 3 days 10:19, 3 users, load average: 0.12, 0.23, 0.22
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 285.05.09

3

malcolmlewis;2146036 Wrote:[color=blue]

On Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:22:13 GMT
DE nowhere@all.disorg wrote:[color=green]

Any suggestions? I feel as if it simply shouldn’t be this difficult
to complete, but perhaps there is some other hardware or setting
issue that I am overlooking that will help this complete (?)

Thanks for any help or enlightenment.[/color]
Hi
Did you check the install media? md5sum the iso image?

Burned a new CD, no help. Last round, it got to a point of wanting to
write GRUB to a floppy, which baffles me … I can’t for the life of me
figure out why it wanted to boot from a floppy, though that does explain
the prior reboot & that it of course couldn’t read from the hard drive
yet. I’ve reconfigured the array back to ~850GB with a spare, instead
of 1.2TB, and this appears to have now allowed the installation to
complete. Now I am re-trying it with the OES installation included
again, but with a smaller partition size.

I’m not sure why it should have problems with a partition that it
assigned by default, but I didn’t really want it to use all 1.2TB
anyway.

Thanks.[/color]

–
de

de’s Profile: http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=22320
View this thread: http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=446791

4

On Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:36:02 GMT
de de@no-mx.forums.novell.com wrote:
[color=blue]

malcolmlewis;2146036 Wrote:[color=green]

On Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:22:13 GMT
DE nowhere@all.disorg wrote:[color=darkred]

Any suggestions? I feel as if it simply shouldn’t be this
difficult to complete, but perhaps there is some other hardware
or setting issue that I am overlooking that will help this
complete (?)

Thanks for any help or enlightenment.[/color]
Hi
Did you check the install media? md5sum the iso image?

Burned a new CD, no help. Last round, it got to a point of wanting
to write GRUB to a floppy, which baffles me … I can’t for the
life of me figure out why it wanted to boot from a floppy, though
that does explain the prior reboot & that it of course couldn’t
read from the hard drive yet. I’ve reconfigured the array back to
~850GB with a spare, instead of 1.2TB, and this appears to have now
allowed the installation to complete. Now I am re-trying it with
the OES installation included again, but with a smaller partition
size.

I’m not sure why it should have problems with a partition that it
assigned by default, but I didn’t really want it to use all 1.2TB
anyway.

Thanks.[/color]

[/color]
Hi
I would have created a separate /boot partition of say 256MB outside of
the RAID to boot from.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.4 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop
up 3 days 20:55, 4 users, load average: 0.18, 0.38, 0.50
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 285.05.09

5

malcolmlewis wrote:
…[color=blue]

Hi
I would have created a separate /boot partition of say 256MB outside of
the RAID to boot from.
[/color]
Thanks. I was reading up on all sorts of “advice”, as I haven’t done an
SLES+OES installation before (but did a fair bit of other Linux systems
some years ago, so not a total newb.) But I couldn’t find a consistent
indication of whether that was recommended or why, though the HP RAID
config allows for designating a boot partition of <8GB. And, of course,
it’s a bit late now unless I want to re-re-re-do the whole thing yet again.

Thanks for the advice, will keep it in mind as I move foward.

Still kinda baffled as to why the 1.2TB hung everything up so much, but
everything (except one issue) did seem able to complete on a smaller
partition, not going with the defaults. I think part of my problem is
that SLES partitions a little differently by default than what I was
used to in the past (which, IIRC after a lot of years, involved
separate volumes for VAR, HOME, USERS …)