After installing RHEL 8.2 console requires response before finishing boot
by roc97007 from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5FEAH)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2 installed via ISO (the DVD version) on a thumb drive, on rather elderly IBM x3650 M4 previously running RHEL 6.9.
The system is registered with Red Hat.
This is the fourth install on x3650 M4 and M5 hardware. No other servers exhibit this behavior.
Storage is 2 600gb drives in hardware raid 1. This is a web appliance that gets its data from a back end server, so there's no other local storage than the system disk. The application's static bits live local, but the data is elsewhere.
Install is default for headless server. The only exception being that the partition that is normally "home" is remounted as the name of the application. Actual /home is therefore on the root partition, but there's only two local service accounts and neither write to $HOME, so this has never been a problem.
Aside from repurposing one of the "standard" partitions, it's a dead simple install.
Behavior:
On boot, the console (accessed through the IMM) shows the server going through most of the boot process, but then it stops with:
1) [X] LICENSE INFORMATION 2) [X] Network Configuration
(License accepted) (Not connected)
Please make a selection from the above ['c' to continue, 'q' to quit, 'r' to refresh]:
Selecting 1 makes you read and accept the EULA
Selecting 2 puts you in a screen to configure the network interfaces, which are ALREADY CONFIGURED, demonstrably, because the system is on the network when it boots.
Selecting c or q causes the system to finish booting.
Selecting r just gives you the above selections again.
We have not been able to figure out what is causing this. We opened a ticket with Red Hat, and their best brains can't figure it out either. They were having me make various changes to /root/anaconda-ks.cfg, but nothing has changed the behavior. I'm not certain this is relevant, as we didn't install this via kickstart, we booted off an ISO and installed it through the graphical interface.
I've done many an install of Red Hat over the years but don't recall ever seeing this condition before. I'm not sure what to even look for at this stage.
Has anyone else seen this?
The system is registered with Red Hat.
This is the fourth install on x3650 M4 and M5 hardware. No other servers exhibit this behavior.
Storage is 2 600gb drives in hardware raid 1. This is a web appliance that gets its data from a back end server, so there's no other local storage than the system disk. The application's static bits live local, but the data is elsewhere.
Install is default for headless server. The only exception being that the partition that is normally "home" is remounted as the name of the application. Actual /home is therefore on the root partition, but there's only two local service accounts and neither write to $HOME, so this has never been a problem.
Aside from repurposing one of the "standard" partitions, it's a dead simple install.
Behavior:
On boot, the console (accessed through the IMM) shows the server going through most of the boot process, but then it stops with:
1) [X] LICENSE INFORMATION 2) [X] Network Configuration
(License accepted) (Not connected)
Please make a selection from the above ['c' to continue, 'q' to quit, 'r' to refresh]:
Selecting 1 makes you read and accept the EULA
Selecting 2 puts you in a screen to configure the network interfaces, which are ALREADY CONFIGURED, demonstrably, because the system is on the network when it boots.
Selecting c or q causes the system to finish booting.
Selecting r just gives you the above selections again.
We have not been able to figure out what is causing this. We opened a ticket with Red Hat, and their best brains can't figure it out either. They were having me make various changes to /root/anaconda-ks.cfg, but nothing has changed the behavior. I'm not certain this is relevant, as we didn't install this via kickstart, we booted off an ISO and installed it through the graphical interface.
I've done many an install of Red Hat over the years but don't recall ever seeing this condition before. I'm not sure what to even look for at this stage.
Has anyone else seen this?