Hi Akemi: Some good news: the latest test on the Compaq Presario worked.
To install the kmod .rpm, the command required was sudo rpm -ivh kmod*.rpm
which I followed up with sudo modprobe sata_nv
There were no error messages.
I initiated the installer on the graphics screen and after a momentary pause,
the language selection screen came up.
Len E.
Hi Akemi:
In the July 19, entry 17 on this post, I mentioned that I had a test on CentOS 8.5.2111
which worked. With several subsequent test failures, I tried to repeat this one on
the HP Pavilion, and it no longer worked.
On the understanding that the CentOS version number should match the dud/kmod
version number, i.e. CentOS-8.6 and dd-sata_nv-3.5-5.el8_6.elrepo.iso have a “six”
in the appropriate places, I downloaded CentOS 8.4.2105 boot .iso from the Japanese
archive.
On the HP Pavilion, using CentOS 8.4.2105, rather than use the dud file, I
initialized a USB stick with the label, OEMDRV, and loaded the file,
kmod-sata_nv-3.5-4.el8_4.elrepo.x86_64.rpm on it. On booting up the CentOS
dvd, I added the following statement to the grub command line:
inst.dd=hd:LABEL=OEMDRV:/kmod-sata_nv-3.5-4.el8_4.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
CentOS booted up o.k. and I selected the English language, and moved to master
selection screen. The disks were recognized on the destination screen, but there was
no ethernet available, and as a consequence, the installation source was not available
because the BaseOS repo could not be reached.
I went onto the Compaq Presario with the CentOS 8.4.2105 DVD and added a file
to the USB stick, kmod-forcedeth-0.0-6.el8_4.elrepo.x86_64.rpm, and to the grub
command line, added a second statement,
inst.dd=hd:LABEL=OEMDRV:/kmod-forcedeth-0.0-6.el8_4.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
Again, CentOS 8.4.2105 booted up o.k. and after language selection, the master
selection screen came up. The disks were recognized and ethernet was now available
and could be enabled. The installation source screen was puzzling. An .iso could be
selected from OEMDRV if available, and an .iso could be downloaded from the
internet, with ftp, or http, or a few other options, but there was no apparent recognition
that the CentOS dvd was in fact the main installation source ???
I repeated this test format on both the HP Pavilion and the Compaq Presario using the
Rocky 8.6 dvd and the two files,
kmod-sata_nv-3.5-5.el8_6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm and
kmod-forcedeth-0.0-7.el8_6.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
Both tests failed after a series of messages, ending with
“started dracut pre-pivot and cleanup hook”.
After several minutes, there was a lengthy series of dracut-initqueue timeout messages ended
by an exit to the dracut emergency shell on the Compaq Presario.
On the HP Pavilion, nothing further happened.
There were some significant error messages:
-after the message “extracting sata_nv”, modprobe: ERROR:
could not insert ‘sata_nv’ invalid argument
-cat: ‘/sys/class/net/*/device/modalias’ no such file or directory
this message occurred after extracting kmod-forcedeth as well as sata_nv
I used the same USB stick and USB ports for both the CentOS and Rocky tests,
so I don’t understand why the sata_nv and kmod-forcedeth files were so
problematic for Rocky, and without incident on CentOS.
Len E.
If I understand the situation correctly,
CentOS 8.4 → success
Rocky 8.6 → fail
Naturally, I wonder what would happen with:
Rocky 8.4 → ??
( Rockt 8.4 isos are here: Index of /vault/rocky/8.4/isos/x86_64/ )
Hi Akemi:
I downloaded Rocky 8.4 and ran the same test on the Compaq Presario.
It behaved the same as CentOS 8.4.
It’s not truly a “success” because there was the same problem with the installation source selection,
and in fact, I could’nt exit out of the installation source selection with the DONE button, because
there was still the problem of the BaseOS repository not available. I had to abort the session.
Len E.
Hi Akemi:
With respect to the installation source selection problem, I found some Fedora documentation on the web which suggested that a network source be used, and that there was a setting which could be
toggled to “closest mirror”.
I reran the test on the Compaq Presario, with Springdale 8.4, which went the same as the Centos 8.4 and Rocky 8.4 tests, and when I reached the Installation Summary screen, and I enabled the internet
connection, I found that the
Installation source was automatically set with an http: connection to the Springdale repository.
Len E.
Hi Akemi:
I just completed 2 more tests on the Compaq Presario, with some significant results.
I downloaded the AlmaLinux 8.6 boot .iso, and performed the same test as last done
with Rocky 8.6; it failed in the same way.
I reran the test you previously recommended for the AlmaLinux 8.6 live .iso, with
the addition of the kmod-forcedeth .rpm:
Specifically, sudo rpm -ivh kmod-sata_nv*.rpm
sudo modprobe sata_nv
sudo rpm -ivh kmod-forcedeth*.rpm
sudo modprobe forcedeth
There were no error messages to this point.
I started up the installer, and after the language selection screen, I arrived
at the Installation Summary screen. The ethernet connection was already enabled.
In the installation destination screen, the hard drive was recognized, but after
selecting the hard drive and custom partitioning and hitting the DONE button, no
partitions were displayed on the screen.
I retrieved a copy of the EPEL gparted .rpm, and added it to the 2nd USB containing
the kmod .rpm’s.
I then started again, and after installing the kmod .rpm’s,
sudo yum --nogpgcheck localinstall gparted*.rpm.
yum accessed the AlmaLinux repositories with no problem, and installed gparted.
gparted showed sda1 as the boot USB, sdb1 as the 2nd USB containing the extra rpm’s,
and sdc1 as the hard drive with all 16 partitions accurately displayed.
Again, at the installation destination screen, after hitting the DONE button, a screen
did come up showing the hard drive partition contents and the ability to make
selections to proceed with the install.
I didn’t proceed with the install at this point, because I’m striving for an installation with
a lighter desktop environment then Gnome.
Based on these latest results, I’m convinced that the kmod .rpm’s are o.k. , and that some
problem in the latest anaconda installer prevents it from handling the inst.dd statements
correctly.
Len E.
You can select “Minimal” as package selection in the installer (rather than “Workstation” or “Server with GUI”, or whatever the environment group names are there) and after install get EPEL (or other third-party repo, where to install “leaner” DE from).
Hi jlehtone:
Further to your comments about leaner desktop environments:
I happened to come across the Rocky 8.5-XFCE live .iso in the Rocky vault,
and I was pleased to learn that Rocky has already developed a lighter DE .iso.
I downloaded the Rocky 8.5-XFCE live .iso on the Compaq Presario and tested
it in the same manner as AlmaLinux 8.6 live was just re-tested, according to Akemi’s
instructions.
As with AlmaLinux 8.6 live, Rocky 8.5-XFCE live would not boot from a DVD+RW,
and had to be loaded onto a USB stick with unetbootin-702.
I discovered the reason that ElRepo has kmod-sata_nv .rpm’s for CentOS 8.6 and
CentOS 8.4, but not CentOS 8.5: CentOS 8.5 provided one:
kmod-sata_nv-5.4.5.el8.x86_64.rpm
I downloaded it from the Japanese CentOS 8 archive.
There was no specific kmod-forcedeth .rpm available for CentOS 8.5, so I used
the one for CentOS 8.4.
After booting up the live.iso, from a terminal session, I ran the following sequence:
sudo rpm -ivh kmod-sata_nv-5.4.5.el8.x86_64.rpm
sudo modprobe sata_nv
sudo rpm -ivh kmod-forcedeth-0.0-6.el8_4.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
sudo modprobe forcedeth
There were no error messages to this point.
Then, I ran sudo yum --nogpgcheck localinstall gparted*.rpm
yum accessed the Rocky 8.5 repositories, which included the EPEL repository,
and reported “nothing to do”, because gparted was already installed !
I started the installer, and after the language selection, the Installation Summary
came up, and the installation destination screen, after selecting custom partitioning,
did show the partition selection options.
I didn’t proceed with the install at this point. I’m certainly hopeful that
Rocky-8.6-XFCE live .iso will be available soon, as it will offer a lighter
DE than Gnome.
Len E.
No, they have not “developed”. Rocky Linux has only what RHEL has and RHEL has only Gnome.
It is the EPEL repo that builds additional packages, like DEs, for Enterprise Linux (for RHEL and hence Rocky).
A Live image is a preinstalled system that you can boot and use without touching local storage.
The “XFCE Live” is a Rocky installation, where XFCE has been installed from EPEL.
Basically, they have installed minimal Rocky system, added XFCE from EPEL, and all that in form that can be on and boot from removable media.
The Rocky installation images are a special installed system (one task “appliance”) that has and runs only one application: the Anaconda installer that then installs Rocky to local storage.
PS. The (kernel of) 8.6 point update was incompatible with XFCE. I don’t know whether 8.6 has received fixes to that, or will those fixes appear in 8.7 (or ever).