HELP -- Kickstart does not run...

[Ksilebo]

I experienced this problem with a Lite-On DVD drive that for whatever reason, CentOS did not like. I swapped it with an older Compaq CDROM that I had lying around and it installed without any problems.

The key here must be use an oldish drive and it works? Its very weird because CentOS by itself wasn't too picky about drives before.

 

[phonebuff]

Well,

Pulled a very old IDE CD-rom from a box about to be recycled, found a "correct cable, set the jumper and booted this system. Saw the CD and Booted from it, (same as USB) but had no Kickstart Error and PIF installed from both of the CDs I have for 1.2.

My / The issue has something to do with what CentOS 5,1 does after you load a install driver for USB Mass Storage. It sees the CD and installs CEntOS fine, it just never sees the Kickstart custom files so it never installs PIF.

After the box is up a MKDIR / MOUNT of the CDROM let me do all the normal things to the CD.

How does the "installer" decide what the next step is after loading a driver ?

Isn't there some way to yum install PIF, or do a net install after the base CentOS has completed it's install, so we don't need the Kickstart that's on the CD ?

----------------------------

 

[jroper]

Hi

Unfortunately not. The kickstart files are part of the Centos5 installation, they dictate to Centos what packages are loaded and installed

When the install has completed in the ks.cfg %post section, it then sets up the system to pull down the PiaF payload and install on reboot.

There is little point in doing the install unless you have the right dependencies loaded in Centos first.

Are all ks.cfg options behaving the same, e.g. what happens if you type auto on cd boot?

Joe

 

[Ksilebo]

Well,

Pulled a very old IDE CD-rom from a box about to be recycled, found a "correct cable, set the jumper and booted this system. Saw the CD and Booted from it, (same as USB) but had no Kickstart Error and PIF installed from both of the CDs I have for 1.2.

My / The issue has something to do with what CentOS 5,1 does after you load a install driver for USB Mass Storage. It sees the CD and installs CEntOS fine, it just never sees the Kickstart custom files so it never installs PIF.

After the box is up a MKDIR / MOUNT of the CDROM let me do all the normal things to the CD.

How does the "installer" decide what the next step is after loading a driver ?

Isn't there some way to yum install PIF, or do a net install after the base CentOS has completed it's install, so we don't need the Kickstart that's on the CD ?

----------------------------

Noticed that no one asked what motherboard you're trying to install on. Do you know which it is?

 

[phonebuff]

Joe,

Are all ks.cfg options behaving the same, e.g. what happens if you type auto on cd boot?

Yes, it ignores them all regardless of which one I try and specify and just does a plan vanilla CentOS install.

Will try and log the ALT + F3 / ALT + F4 console windows and report them tomorrow evening.

I have a full day tomorrow, but I would be glad to get on the phone and work through any debug you would like to try on Thursday morning. EDT.

--------------------

 

[phonebuff]

More Information --

This configuration is Happy with TB 2.0
** Had to tell it which driver to use for the CD and it ran straight through with no issues.
CentOS 4.4 (Final)

Continuing to try and identify the PIF Kickstart Issue..

@ first Error
Error downloading kickstart file]
cdrom:/ks.cfg
ALT+F3
Info: getting kickstartfile
Info: getting kickstart file from first CDROM
Error: No CDROM devices found

ALT+F4
<5>SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
<6> sda: sda1 sda2 sda3
<6>sd 0:0:0:0: Atached ssi disk sda

-----------

Cancel
Choose Language
Keyboard Type
[Install Method] Local CDROM
USB Nass Storage driver for Linux (usb-storage)
[Loading SCSI Driver]
--------------------
ALT+F3
INFO: modules to insert usb-storage
INFO: loaded usg-storage from modules/modules.cgz
INFO: inserted /tmp/usb-storage.ko
INFO: load module set done
INFO: starting to STEP_URL
INFO: trying to mound CD device scd0
INFO: mntloop loop0 on /mnt/runtime as /mnt/source/images/stage2.img fd is 10
INFO: supported = 0
------------------
ALT+F4
<6> Initializing USB Storage driver
<6> scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage Devices
<7> usb-storage device found at 2
<7> usb-storage:waiting for device to settle before scanning
<6> usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
<6> USB Mass storage support registered
<5> Vndor: TSSTcorp Model: CDDVDW SE-S204N REV TS01
<5> Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 00
<4> sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writter dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tra
<6> Uniform CD-Rom driver version 3.20
<7> sr 2:0:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
<7> USB Storgae: device scan complete
<7> ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
<4> Unable to load NLS charset utf8
<4> Unable to load NLS charset utf8
<7> ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
<4> Unable to identify CD_ROM Format
<4> VFS: Can't find an ext2 filesystem in dev loop0.
-------------------------

Then System loads basic Centos 5.2 instead of PIF..

----------------
Does this help ??

 

[phonebuff]

Well,

To try and pin it down, I pulled the latest TB 2.6.0.19 ISO and went through the install. Initially I get the same Can't find the CD error looking for Kickstart. But after adding the USB Storage driver, it takes off and does a clean TB install with no issues.

---------------

PS: They are also now prompting the network and other options during the initial install from the Kickstart file.

 

[phonebuff]

Ideas ??

Joe and Company --

Anyone with any ideas as to what miught be the issue, what we could change or add to make the install work on this configuration.

A good IPBX box does not need an internal CD..

TIA..

 

[darmock]

I am afraid not. I use a sony external USB DVD drive and it installs just fine. Do you have another external usb cdrom, preferably from a different manufacturer, to try?

I suspect you are saying that it loads centos 5.1 and not 5.2 as it is not out yet at least when I check a couple of days ago. What is the USB storage driver youa re adding to make it work? Is it an rpm file or is it a driver that came with your cdrom.

Tom

 

[phonebuff]

Tom,

Yes, I mean the ISO 5.1. I am not adding any drivers, just using the USB Mass Storage on the ISO package from you all.

Beginning to think I have to return the unit and get another manufacturers USB 2.0 CD. If I ever want a working system. It's just that I did get the TB installs to work, although it appears that the 2.6.0.19 with 5.1 also is not cleanly installing.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1332596

 

[Techie-Micheal]

PS: They are also now prompting the network and other options during the initial install from the Kickstart file.

Finally. It took me quite a bit of fighting to get the network working because it was assumed I had DHCP ... That's why I like Debian, they don't assume things like that.

 

[wardmundy]

We didn't assume it at all. We told you up front on the first page of pbxinaflash.com and pbxinaflash.net what the requirements for a successful install were. One of those was having DHCP server access to complete the install. You did read at least that much, didn't you?

Basic Installation - On a dedicated machine connected to the Internet with an available DHCP server, insert the CD and reboot. Remove CD when prompted.

 

[Techie-Micheal]

Well aren't you just a bundle of joy. Hint: If you want people to use your product, you need to be a bit nicer.

You also say that if you don't have DHCP, you can go through, setup the network, and reboot. (Oh look, I actually read the documentation! ) Except that CentOS was being a pain and instead of using /etc/sysconfig/networking/profile/default/resolv.conf, it wanted /etc/resolv.conf, which is contrary to other CentOS installs I have seen. That was my problem, not with your release.

 

[wardmundy]

Sorry. You hit me on grumpy day. Glad it's working for you.

 

[Techie-Micheal]

Sorry. You hit me on grumpy day. Glad it's working for you.

Cheers.

 

[bubbapcguy]

install

What you need to do is to boot from a floopy (who has those any more??) or a custome boot cd and have a modified kickstart script to run which loads the USB driver and then run the PIAF script.

What the TB team did was to include the TB gui core in the centos install menu if you choose to do a custom install
this is so you can install on a raid system.

Or just buy the right hardware.
And yes if some took the time to do some research they could install from yum and wget as Ward has all that is needed on the site.
And if you are wanting to run / sell non-supported hardware you really should pick apart the installer just so you know how things work.

 

[phonebuff]

Bubba

Actually, it appears to be an issue in the installer, and the way it behaves after installing any of the packaged optional drivers.

Nothing weird about this hardware that I was using, off the shelf $100 USB 2.0 CD/DVD reader / writer.

New USB 2.0 External SATA external enclosure working with no issues, Other drive now assigned to FreeBSD 6.2 builds and lightscrbe labels.

..............

PS: I am a long time FreeBSD userm so yes, some of this CentOS stuff is very different..

 

[bujones]

Samsung SE-S204

phonebuff,

I had the same issue with the Samsung drive. The issue appears to be that 1. the CentOS loader does not recognize the drive even though the hardware does this is why you have to manually select the driver.

2. The drive seems to timeout after to boot and is not ready when CentOS goes looking for it.

I was able to work around the issue by creating a bootable flash drive. When I booted off the flash drive it loads the driver automatically. But it still did not see the CDROM.

I then copied the isolinux.cfg file off the cd and modified the linux ks option to point to the flash drive. I then get the error message again but since the driver is already loaded I am able to point it to the CDROM.

At this point I was able to install as normal.

I hope this helps.

 

[BeerCan]

Just FYI I am getting this issue also. I am using the cd I used to install my test machine so it is known good. I am using an external USB drive that I purchased today (lite-on) and I get the kickstart issue. If I load the USB mass storage driver when prompted the system installs the base centos.

Update: On a wim I decided to connect an incredibly old usb floppy drive I had hanging around and try the install again. My thinking was that the old floppy would get the usb driver to load and could then complete the install. It worked as planned with on minor caveat. I had to open and close the cdrom drive tray before the install would continue. I think I am going to buy the HP extrnal dvd drive tommorro. I will test with that and report back.

 

[jdaustin]

I've seen this same issue on Elastix; it seems to be an issue finding the kickstart file due to /dev/cdrom mapping.
It's not a problem with bad cdr or iso; its a problem with the installer itself.
In some cases it isn't possible to install a cdrom internally. The same issue occurs if you create a bootable cdrom via unetbootin. If someone has a workaround for this issue let me know.