CentOS 7.6 update has done in my Dell Poweredge T30 server

Issues related to hardware problems
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taylorkh
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Location: North Carolina, USA

CentOS 7.6 update has done in my Dell Poweredge T30 server

Post by taylorkh » 2018/12/07 14:25:55

After successfully upgrading a couple of desktop PCs, a couple of virtual machines and my Dell T20 and T130 servers I updated my newest T20 server. The 3 "servers" are simple file servers for backup and archive storage. I bring them up when needed. Each server boots from a 16 GB USB3 flash drive thus allowing me to use the 4 internal SATA connections for data drives. This has worked great for quite a while.

After upgrading the T30 it would no longer boot. As it runs headless I had to take it down and attach a monitor and keyboard to see what was going on. I received a couple of error messages related to USB2-port1. I have no idea what that is but as the OS runs from a USB drive... I restored a backup CentOS 7.4 image from May onto a new flash drive. The server boots fine which makes me think the hardware is OK. I then upgraded this OS installation to 7.6. It will not boot. Here is what I see

Code: Select all

USB2 - Port1: Cannot enable - Maybe the USB Cable is bad?
USB2 - Port1: cannot disable (err = -23)

[then a few routine boot message lines]

dracut-initque timeout
dracut-initque timeout
The dracut messages continue ad-infinitum. If I attempt to reboot with Ctrl-Alt-Del I see a message re. "starting Plymouth reboot screen" but nothing ever happens.

For my next trick I downloaded the 7.6 minimal install image, booted the T30 from the image and attempted to install to another USB flash drive. The flash drive is NOT recognized as an install target. This makes me think that something is amiss in 7.6 rather than my hardware. I am currently installing Ubuntu 18.04 to the same flash drive on the machine and it seems to be going fine. That again seems to eliminate the possibility of a hardware defect.

Any suggestions?

My next steps, after backing up the boot drives for my other two servers, will be to attempt to install CentOS 7.6 on them and see if a USB target is recognized. I will update my post when I have that information.

TIA,

Ken

taylorkh
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Re: CentOS 7.6 update has done in my Dell Poweredge T30 server

Post by taylorkh » 2018/12/07 16:34:17

Following up on my original post... Ubuntu 18.04 installs and boots fine.

taylorkh
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Re: CentOS 7.6 update has done in my Dell Poweredge T30 server

Post by taylorkh » 2018/12/07 23:27:32

And it gets stranger... I decided to try a reinstall from the complete DVD - planning perhaps to install the GUI version. I grabbed a spare 32 GB flash drive for a test destination. I booted from the installer image and, AMAZING, the 32 GB drive presented itself as in installation target. I installed the minimal configuration and the server boots just fine.

I restored the Clonezilla image of the T30 with CentOS 7.4 to a 32 GB flash drive. I left the partition size the same - nominaly16 GB. The server booted fine. I updated this image to 7.6. The server boots fine. I did the same process to a faster USB3 32 GB flash drive. It is now in "production" and running fine.

Why does CentOS 7.6 require a drive bigger than 16 GB to install to or to boot from? And why does it only happen on some hardware? I am at a loss.

Ken

desertcat
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Re: CentOS 7.6 update has done in my Dell Poweredge T30 server

Post by desertcat » 2019/01/30 02:07:06

taylorkh wrote:
2018/12/07 23:27:32
And it gets stranger... I decided to try a reinstall from the complete DVD - planning perhaps to install the GUI version. I grabbed a spare 32 GB flash drive for a test destination. I booted from the installer image and, AMAZING, the 32 GB drive presented itself as in installation target. I installed the minimal configuration and the server boots just fine.

I restored the Clonezilla image of the T30 with CentOS 7.4 to a 32 GB flash drive. I left the partition size the same - nominaly16 GB. The server booted fine. I updated this image to 7.6. The server boots fine. I did the same process to a faster USB3 32 GB flash drive. It is now in "production" and running fine.

Why does CentOS 7.6 require a drive bigger than 16 GB to install to or to boot from? And why does it only happen on some hardware? I am at a loss.

Ken
Welcome of the Wonderful World of CentOS 7.6. There is something very strange with 7.6. I have a KVM switch w/ PS/2 mouse /Keyboard that has worked fine... up to 7.6. Now I have to use a workaround to get the thing to work right. Nor are we alone. A lot of people are having problems of various sorts with 7.6 that have never occurred before. This could be a bug in the kernel version that RH is using, or RH did something a broke a lot of things. 7.5 was a bit buggy, and 7.6 even more so.

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TrevorH
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Re: CentOS 7.6 update has done in my Dell Poweredge T30 server

Post by TrevorH » 2019/01/30 09:00:26

The dracut-initqueue error is possibly a known one caused by either a missing /boot/initramfs* file for the kernel in question or because the initrd line that's meant to be in grub.cfg for that kernel is missing. Usual fix is just to yum reinstall the kernel in question by full version number.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

taylorkh
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Re: CentOS 7.6 update has done in my Dell Poweredge T30 server

Post by taylorkh » 2019/01/30 13:03:37

Thanks TrevorH,

Unfortunately I cannot install AT ALL to a 16 GB flash drive. Ubuntu 18.04 will install to a 16 GB flash drive in this machine and CentOS 7.6 will install to a 32 GB flash drive (but not to the smaller one). No doubt related something in BIOS but I have no idea what.

Ken

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