What a PITA!!

This week I've been configuring a couple of new HP servers, ProLiant DL 360 G6s to be precise. They were configured to have 8 internal disks so the internal CD/DVD-ROM had to be sacrificed.

So to configure them, I temporarily attached a USB CD_ROM drive, Keyboard and Mouse and attached a monitor.

Having installed the latest CentOS x86_64 Linux from CD on the first one, I removed the CD-ROM and rebooted. It hung coming up configuring the USB storage driver!

So I spent a day googling for help. I re-installed Linux half a dozen or so times. I downloaded the DVD and followed the instructions to make that available via both HTTP and NFS and tried using the first CD to boot from and then installing across the network. Actually that was considerably faster than the CD method!


Nothing changed the hang during boot. Always on the USB storage driver installation.

As a punt with nothing else to lose, I unplugged the USB keyboard and mouse and rebooted.

The b*$#*^d box booted all the way.

I plugged the keyboard in and it was recognized without fuss and was immediately useful.

So it goes! Some days are just like that.