CentOS - May 2016 - Installing 32-bit CentOS 6 on a new Lenovo System x3650 M5 server?

Is there any known incompatibility with the latest 32-bit (i386) CentOS 6 and
the latest Lenovo x3650 M5 servers?  I?ve been running i386 CentOS 6.X on 3 year
old x3650 M4 servers without any issues.  Our development environment has not
been ported to 64-bit (x86_64) yet, so we are stuck using i386 for another few
months.  When I try to boot from the netinstall ISO image I just get a ?Boot
Failed? message. Has anyone had similar issues, and more importantly, figured
out a way to workaround it?

Alfred

On 5/13/2016 1:27 PM, Alfred von Campe wrote:
> Is there any known incompatibility with the latest 32-bit (i386) CentOS 6
and the latest Lenovo x3650 M5 servers?  I?ve been running i386 CentOS 6.X on 3
year old x3650 M4 servers without any issues.  Our development environment has
not been ported to 64-bit (x86_64) yet, so we are stuck using i386 for another
few months.
you do know, x86_64 runs i386 apps as long as you install the suitable 
i386 libraries, right?
> When I try to boot from the netinstall ISO image I just get a ?Boot Failed?
message. Has anyone had similar issues, and more importantly, figured out a way
to workaround it?
you might try the minimal ISO.   thats my default install image, then I 
use yum to install everything my environment needs.



-- 
john r pierce, recycling bits in santa cruz

> On May 13, 2016, at 16:39, John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com>
wrote:
> 
> On 5/13/2016 1:27 PM, Alfred von Campe wrote:
>> Is there any known incompatibility with the latest 32-bit (i386) CentOS
6 and the latest Lenovo x3650 M5 servers?  I?ve been running i386 CentOS 6.X on
3 year old x3650 M4 servers without any issues.  Our development environment has
not been ported to 64-bit (x86_64) yet, so we are stuck using i386 for another
few months.
> 
> you do know, x86_64 runs i386 apps as long as you install the suitable i386
libraries, right?
Yes, but we have to change all of our Makefiles to use -m32 and there are some
other issues as well.  We are moving towards 64-bit but are not quite there yet,
and I thought I would initially install 32-bit CentOS 6 on our x3650 M5 system
as I did on the x3650 M4 systems.
> 
>> When I try to boot from the netinstall ISO image I just get a ?Boot
Failed? message. Has anyone had similar issues, and more importantly, figured
out a way to workaround it?
> 
> you might try the minimal ISO.   thats my default install image, then I use
yum to install everything my environment needs.
I have a completely automated installation via kickstart, so I usually just use
the net install ISO image,  but I will try the minimal or perhaps even the
LiveCD ISO when I am back in the office on Monday.

Alfred

> On May 13, 2016, at 16:27, I wrote:
> 
> Is there any known incompatibility with the latest 32-bit (i386) CentOS 6
and the latest Lenovo x3650 M5 servers?  I?ve been running i386 CentOS 6.X on 3
year old x3650 M4 servers without any issues.  Our development environment has
not been ported to 64-bit (x86_64) yet, so we are stuck using i386 for another
few months.  When I try to boot from the netinstall ISO image I just get a ?Boot
Failed? message. Has anyone had similar issues, and more importantly, figured
out a way to workaround it?
I?ll answer my own question now that I?ve figured it out in case anyone else is
in the same boat.  After the i386 CentOS 6 net install ISO failed to boot, I
tried the LiveCD and minimal ISOs which failed in the same way.  Then I tried
various x86_64 ISO images to no avail.  The only ISO image that I was able to
boot from was the latest Ubuntu 16.04 LTS release.  But I really need i386
CentOS.  I was able to install it by clicking on a Legacy checkbox in the BIOS,
which brought up a different list of boot devices and I was finally successful
in booting from the ISO image.  I then had to finagle the BIOS to always boot in
legacy mode so that it would recognize the i386 CentOS boot partition on each
powerup.

Alfred

On 05/18/2016 07:35 PM, Alfred von Campe wrote:
> 
>> On May 13, 2016, at 16:27, I wrote:
>>
>> Is there any known incompatibility with the latest 32-bit (i386) CentOS
6 and the latest Lenovo x3650 M5 servers?  I?ve been running i386 CentOS 6.X on
3 year old x3650 M4 servers without any issues.  Our development environment has
not been ported to 64-bit (x86_64) yet, so we are stuck using i386 for another
few months.  When I try to boot from the netinstall ISO image I just get a ?Boot
Failed? message. Has anyone had similar issues, and more importantly, figured
out a way to workaround it?
> 
> I?ll answer my own question now that I?ve figured it out in case anyone
else is in the same boat.  After the i386 CentOS 6 net install ISO failed to
boot, I tried the LiveCD and minimal ISOs which failed in the same way.  Then I
tried various x86_64 ISO images to no avail.  The only ISO image that I was able
to boot from was the latest Ubuntu 16.04 LTS release.  But I really need i386
CentOS.  I was able to install it by clicking on a Legacy checkbox in the BIOS,
which brought up a different list of boot devices and I was finally successful
in booting from the ISO image.  I then had to finagle the BIOS to always boot in
legacy mode so that it would recognize the i386 CentOS boot partition on each
powerup.
Yes, CentOS-6 32bit can not boot UEFI or secureboot at all, and needs
'Legacy Boot' enabled.  The CentOS-6 x86_64 can boot 'UEFI with
secureboot off', but not secureboot.

CentOS-7 (x86_64) can install on secureboot or 'UEFI w/secureboot off',
or legacy.

CentOS-7 (Altarch i386) can install on 'UEFI w/secureboot off' or
legacy, but no secureboot.

Thanks,
Johnny Hughes


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