CentOS - Sep 2008 - USB DVD drive disappearing during kickstart install.

Hi folks.

I maintain a bunch of centos based machines that are built using a 
somewhat stripped down (limited number but mainly stock rpms) centos 
distro.  The installation process is plain anaconda stuff with a 
kickstart file on the root of the DVD/iso.   The current hardware and 
media i'm using is DVD based.

On machines that have internal DVD drives (all IDE CD/DVD drives), 
everything is fine.  However, I'm having a problem that started in 4.6 
and continues in 4.7 on machines that don't have an internal DVD drive 
and therefore i must use a USB DVD drive.  On these machines, everything 
goes ok in the beginning.  The DVD is "seen" by the machine and boots 
fine, the isolinux screen comes up and i let the timeout go or i hit 
return to continue.  Then, almost immediately thereafter, (when i should 
see the blue screen with text about loading drivers) i see the blue 
screen with the prompt for language.  This is supposed to be a kickstart 
install, so at this point i know i'm hosed. 

If I use alt-f3 or alt-f4 (can't remember which one), i can see an error 
message saying that the usb-storage driver is loaded, but it cannot find 
any USB storage devices to read from. 

If i alt-f1 back to the main blue screen with the language prompt, i can 
go through the prompts for language, keyboard, however when i get to 
"install type", and select "usb cdrom" (i can't remember
the text
exactly...the machines are in the server room, and i'm at my desk ATM), 
it fails again.  I can alt-f3 back to see that the same error about 
loading the usb-storage driver was successful but it can't find any 
attached usb storage device.  Unfortunately, at this point, there's no 
shell yet available in alt-f2, so i can't poke around much).

It seems like somehow, something is happening like the USB bus is being 
reset and it's "loosing" the usb devices and they can't be
found anymore.

Note that the original boot occurred of the DVD drive (i got past the 
isolinux screen), so it's at least working in the beginning to get that 
far. 

I had seen this problem occur a handful of times in the past in my same 
distro based on CentOS-4.5, however it was sporadic and was usually 
solved by changing the manufacturer of DVD drive (i thought it was a 
hardware vendor not implementing the USB spec properly since most 
devices worked...only a handful didn't).  However, since moving to 4.6 
and also in 4.7, this problem is completely repeatable with all USB DVD 
drives i have (granted it's only 3 different vendors/models, but they 
all don't work, whereas all 3 of these used to work in the 4.5 based 
distro).

Also, as i stated earlier, on machines with internal DVD drives (IDE 
based), everything works fine. 

Has anyone seen anything like this?  Do you have any suggestions to try? 

One thing i'm going to try is downloading the stock  4.7 DVD ISO and see 
if it fails.  The download is taking a while, so i won't be able to 
report back on that test until tomorrow. 

Oh yeah, the machines i'm using that are having this problem are a Dell 
R200, Supermicro PDSMi, and Supermicro P4SC8.  I don't have the DVD 
drive mfg and model numbers handy, i'll get those as well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks.

...alex...

Alex Tang wrote:
...
> Note that the original boot occurred of the DVD drive (i got past the
> isolinux screen), so it's at least working in the beginning to get that
> far.
The first reading of the DVD is done by the bios, not the linux kernel.

Can't you do a PXE based install?

Mogens
-- 
Mogens Kjaer, Carlsberg A/S, Computer Department
Gamle Carlsberg Vej 10, DK-2500 Valby, Denmark
Phone: +45 33 27 53 25, Fax: +45 33 27 47 08
Email: mk at crc.dk Homepage: http://www.crc.dk

-----Original Message-----
From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On
Behalf
Of Alex Tang
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 3:28 AM
To: centos at centos.org
Subject: [CentOS] USB DVD drive disappearing during kickstart install.

Hi folks.

I maintain a bunch of centos based machines that are built using a somewhat
stripped down (limited number but mainly stock rpms) centos distro.  The
installation process is plain anaconda stuff with a 
kickstart file on the root of the DVD/iso.   The current hardware and 
media i'm using is DVD based.

On machines that have internal DVD drives (all IDE CD/DVD drives),
everything is fine.  However, I'm having a problem that started in 4.6 and
continues in 4.7 on machines that don't have an internal DVD drive and
therefore i must use a USB DVD drive.  On these machines, everything goes ok
in the beginning.  The DVD is "seen" by the machine and boots fine,
the
isolinux screen comes up and i let the timeout go or i hit return to
continue.  Then, almost immediately thereafter, (when i should see the blue
screen with text about loading drivers) i see the blue screen with the
prompt for language.  This is supposed to be a kickstart install, so at this
point i know i'm hosed. 

If I use alt-f3 or alt-f4 (can't remember which one), i can see an error
message saying that the usb-storage driver is loaded, but it cannot find any
USB storage devices to read from. 

If i alt-f1 back to the main blue screen with the language prompt, i can go
through the prompts for language, keyboard, however when i get to "install
type", and select "usb cdrom" (i can't remember the text
exactly...the
machines are in the server room, and i'm at my desk ATM), it fails again.  I
can alt-f3 back to see that the same error about loading the usb-storage
driver was successful but it can't find any attached usb storage device.
Unfortunately, at this point, there's no shell yet available in alt-f2, so i
can't poke around much).

It seems like somehow, something is happening like the USB bus is being
reset and it's "loosing" the usb devices and they can't be
found anymore.

Note that the original boot occurred of the DVD drive (i got past the
isolinux screen), so it's at least working in the beginning to get that far.


I had seen this problem occur a handful of times in the past in my same
distro based on CentOS-4.5, however it was sporadic and was usually solved
by changing the manufacturer of DVD drive (i thought it was a hardware
vendor not implementing the USB spec properly since most devices
worked...only a handful didn't).  However, since moving to 4.6 and also in
4.7, this problem is completely repeatable with all USB DVD drives i have
(granted it's only 3 different vendors/models, but they all don't work,
whereas all 3 of these used to work in the 4.5 based distro).

Also, as i stated earlier, on machines with internal DVD drives (IDE based),
everything works fine. 

<snip>

<snip/>

Thanks.

...alex...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------

JohnStanley Wrote:

Alex, have you tried setting the USB Option in the BIOS to Autodetect
between USB 1.0 and 2.0? That is if your machines BIOS supports that option.
Plugable USB drives are nice additions but my opinion is there not so good
at OS Installation, but don't get me wrong they are nice to boot a running
centos install to repair an install on a broken machine.. What about doing a
network install or VNC install from your desk?

Good Luck,
JohnStanley

On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 12:28 AM, Alex Tang <altitude at funkware.com>
wrote:
>
> It seems like somehow, something is happening like the USB bus is being
> reset and it's "loosing" the usb devices and they can't
be found anymore.
While, strictly speaking, this may be true, I'm pretty sure it's not
what you meant, and I've seen this enough times that I just have to
say:

"loose" [looss] - a condition opposite that of "tight;"
improperly
fastened or closed; unattached (and, in this sense, potentially
correct).

"lose" [looz] - to misplace <something> so as not to be able to
find
it, as in, 'it's "losing" the usb devices and they can't
be found any
more.'

There - got that off my chest!

And, now, back to our regularly scheduled emails....

mhr