Can't install RHEL4.7 from USB flashdrive

[sylvesri]

Hi Guys,

I’ve created a bootable RHEL4 USB flashdrive so that I can do my installs from rather than using CD\DVD's. The USB key boots fine to the point where it asks me to select a drive that contains the ISO images, but it doesn't show me the USB drive to select, only my 2 hard drives sda1 and sdb. We currently use HP xw9400's with the following spec as shown in dmidecode:

BIOS Information
Vendor: Hewlett-Packard
Version: 786D6 v04.02
Release Date: 04/21/2009
Address: 0xE0000
Runtime Size: 128 kB
ROM Size: 1024 kB
Characteristics:
PCI is supported
PNP is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
BIOS shadowing is allowed
Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
EDD is supported
Japanese floppy for Toshiba 1.2 MB is supported (int 13h)
5.25"/360 KB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
3.5"/720 KB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
Serial services are supported (int 14h)
Printer services are supported (int 17h)
ACPI is supported
USB legacy is supported
LS-120 boot is supported
ATAPI Zip drive boot is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported
Function key-initiated network boot is supported

System Information
Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
Product Name: HP xw9400 Workstation
Version:
Serial Number: CZC942944D
UUID: D5FFB0B4-46C3-DE11-BBDA-29049368001F
Wake-up Type: Power Switch

Processor Information (x2)
Socket Designation: CPU0
Type: Central Processor
Family: <OUT OF SPEC>
Manufacturer: AMD
ID: 42 0F 10 00 FF FB 8B 17
Version: Quad-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2389
Voltage: 1.3 V
External Clock: 2200 MHz
Max Speed: 3100 MHz
Current Speed: 2900 MHz

i know that the xw9400's have the nvidia mcp55 pro chip on the motherboard that handles USB, keyboard, mouse and other peripheral traffic, so am wondering if this could be what the problem is? Like there may some code that i need to tell the machine to use this or something?

Any help will be appreciated

Thanks

[sylvesri]

Here are the contents of my syslinux.cfg file:

default menu32
prompt 1
timeout 600
display boot.msg
F1 boot.msg
F2 options.msg
F3 general.msg
F4 param.msg
F5 rescue.msg
F7 snake.msg

label ks
kernel vmlinuz
append initrd=initrd.img method=hd:sdc1:. ks=hd:sdc1:ks.cfg

[reed9]

The USB key boots fine to the point where it asks me to select a drive that contains the ISO images, but it doesn't show me the USB drive to select, only my 2 hard drives sda1 and sdb.

I'm sorry. It's not very clear what you mean. How did you create the USB key? It's asking you for iso images during the boot process?

[sylvesri]

Yes it asks me to select from a list a device that has the ISO image. When I select Hard Drive, it only shows me the 2 internal hard drives and not my usb stick.

[sylvesri]

OK, I've managed to get RHEL to recognise th3e usb stick when it asks for me to select a hard drive that holds the ISO images for the install. The issue was with the actual ISO image that i was using. but, I have now hit another obstacle. When I go through a manual install, I can make all my selections etc, but when it comes to actually installing the the OS, straight away comes up saying " X file can not be opened, due to a missing file. If you are installing from CD, this means that CD is corrupt". X is the name of the file e.g libgcc for example. I can install fine of a DVD, but not off USB for some reason.

Any ideas?

Many Thanks

[reed9]

If you're using a licensed RHEL version, you should take advantage of their customer support. If you are not using a licensed version, you'd probably do better to use one of the RHEL clones, like Scientific Linux or CentOS.

In either case, you didn't say how you were creating the USB install. One of the easiest ways is to use unetbootin.

I can only assume that the message is correct, and assuming the iso you're working from is fine, somehow in creating the usb install, files became corrupted.

[sylvesri]

Hi reed9,

Unfortunately I cant post the link to the guide i used to create the bootable pen drive as I haven't made over 15 posts .

I did download a fresh ISO image the RedHat website, still got the same error when I created the flashdrive, but put the same ISO onto disk and it was fine. Will give unetbootin a go.

[sylvesri]

I found a program called iso2usb, which specifically designed for Centos\RedHat and works fine in creating me a rhel4.8+ bootable usb drive that i can install from. I think there is a component missing from the rhel4.7 ISO as when I create with iso2usb and go to install im back at square one with it not recognizing the flashdrive (sdc1), when it asks me to select where the ISO image is. What I notices when installing rhel 4.8 from usb, is that it loaded a driver called "usb-storage" when it was booting. Rhel4.7 doesn't load this driver, does anyone know anyway that i can tweak the 4.7 install so that it loads this driver so it will recognise my flashdrive?

[reed9]

I don't know what might be the problem with 4.7, other than it being quite old. Is there a reason you're stuck using such an old RHEL release?