Installation Problems on Dell PowerEdge 2600

[PCHome]

I've been trying for some time to make a fresh install of CentOS onto a Dell PowerEdge 2600 but no success so far. After trying newer versions, Dell tells me that the latest version supported is 5.X and, as I happened to have a LiveDVD available of v5.6, I tried it and it booted just fine.

So I downloaded and burned the two installation DVDs of v5.9 but it took me right back to the same issues with the later versions. It boots to the setup menu but then no matter which choice I make all I get is a screen with a blinking cursor. Since the live v.5.6 worked, I downloaded the installation CDs of v5.6 and they do the exact same thing. What is not clear is if I am supposed to do anything in advance to the drive which is now blank or if CentOS will do it itself. I know other Linux and non-Linux OSes usually prompt for an empty drive but if CentOS needs something done in advance, it's not clear what or even how to do it since nothing boots!

Thank you in advance for any assistance.

[gerald_clark]

Try the legacy video option or boot code nomodeset.
Current version is 5.11.

[PCHome]

I already tried that but it made no difference. Still only the blinking cursor.

[PCHome]

Anybody? From what I've read, mine is not an isolated case and it has been a problem for quite a long time so it does need a resolution. As mentioned, the LiveDVD boots just fine so it's likely not a hardware compatibility issue. Thank you.

[TrevorH]

Did you burn the DVD on the same identical type of media? I remember that DVD drives in some of my Dell servers from that era were very finnicky about the sort of media that they would read. You might try installation from a CD instead. If you download only CD1 and do the install in text mode, deselect all package groups and then it will do a minimal install that requires only the first CD. You can then use yum from the command line to install other packages.

[PCHome]

Yes, but when it would not work on one type of media, I tried another. I also tried the CD installation as I said but had the same exact problem. It doesn't matter which mode I select (including text mode) - all I get is a blinking cursor so I don't get the chance to select or deselect what to install.

[TrevorH]

Checked if you have the latest BIOS on the machine?

[PCHome]

Yes, A14 is the latest there is for it.

[norbster86]

I know this thread is almost two months old, but I hope you (PCHome) see this. I was able to successfully install CentOS 6.5 on a Dell PowerEdge 2600 with a Perc 4 controller. Here are the steps:

Boot the live CD (get from here: http://isoredirect.centos.org/centos/6/isos/i386/)
Press any key before the 10 seconds is up and instead of booting to the live desktop, choose text install.
Run through the installer and reboot when it prompts at the end.
Remove the CD and bam, you should have a working CentOS install.

Hope that helps.

[PCHome]

Thank you, I'll give it a try! I believe, though, that it is some kind of hardware issue as I haven't been able to install any operating system. Perhaps the drive needs to have a specific SCSI ID or it needs to be prepared in some specific way. Or perhaps there is some other conflict.