new fedora 11 install - press the "enter" key to begin doesn't work

hausertreyen · #1 22nd July 2009, 04:58 AM

My google-fu has completely failed me, and I've been searching forums for quite a while to no avail. I have a weird issue.

I have a new Dell R710 dual processor machine I'm trying to install Fedora 11 x86_64 on (all versions I mention in this post are x86_64 bit). I downloaded the cd iso files, burned them to cd (I don't have a DVD burner), then told my machine to boot to the optical drive. I get a very brief introduction message about ISOLINUX then the monitor refreshes and gives me the following message:

"Press the <Enter> key to begin the installation process."

Naturally, I press the Enter key(s) on my keyboard. Nothing happens. I try Alt ASCII combinations that might mimic an Enter key. No dice. ctrl-alt-delete works, however, and the machine reboots.

My checksums for the iso's are perfect, and the install process triggers perfectly on other machines. Just not this one.

After much vain research, I download the Fedora 11 Live-KDE, burn it to CD and try it. It doesn't work - the same thing happens. I tried the net install, and it doesn't work either.

On a lark, I download the Fedora 10 Live KDE iso and burn it to cd. It works perfectly and skips the "Enter" phrase entirely. I take my Fedora 11 Live KDE disc and put it in another machine and it, too, works perfectly, which leads me to believe my cd burns are fine.

I've also used usb creator to create a bootable USB drive. It doesn't ask me to press enter - it just fails with a really arcane IF=0 error (arcane to me, anyway).

So I'm at a loss. I'd like to install Fedora 11 on this machine, but may end up with Fedora 10 or CentOS if I can't figure this out.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is there some weird BIOS setting somewhere I'm missing? I find it really weird that my fedora 10 cd works, but my fedora 11 cd does not (but my fedora 11 cd works in other machines).

Please help - thx!

CSchwangler · #2 22nd July 2009, 08:33 AM

Some things come to my mind, that you could try:
- Try a 32-bit version
- Do you have the chance to plug-in an external keyboard?
- Try the keyboard and language selection (F2, F3) and select keyboard and laguage

hausertreyen · #3 22nd July 2009, 05:14 PM

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate the ideas.

The R710 is the updated 2950, which is a 2U rack server. As such, I'm using an external keyboard. (I assume you thought it was a laptop, which it sort of does sound like one). I've even tried different USB keyboards, to no effect.

I'd give the 32 bit version a try, except that this is going to be a MySQL database server, and I need to be able to allocate well more than 4GB memory to the MySQL processes.

Thanks again.

CSchwangler · #4 23rd July 2009, 07:50 AM

Sorry for totally misunderstanding, I really thought you are talking about some kind of laptop. How is your keyboard connected to the server, e.g. is it directly connected or through a switch? Do you have a chance to try different USB ports?
If Fedora 10 is working for you, there would potentially be the option to install F10 and then do an upgrade to F11 using preupgrade.

hausertreyen · #5 23rd July 2009, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CSchwangler

Sorry for totally misunderstanding, I really thought you are talking about some kind of laptop. How is your keyboard connected to the server, e.g. is it directly connected or through a switch? Do you have a chance to try different USB ports?
If Fedora 10 is working for you, there would potentially be the option to install F10 and then do an upgrade to F11 using preupgrade.

I've tried different keyboards and USB ports, and I'm plugging directly into the server, to no avail.

I'll google for preupgrade directions and give it a shot. I'm perfectly happy using ext3 throughout, anyway, as the rest of our RHEL 5 servers use ext3 and performance is grand.

Any gotchas you can think of by chance before I get started? I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks.

jinzishuai · #6 27th July 2009, 05:07 AM

Hi there,

I've got exactly the same problem as you: R710 cannot install Fedora Core.
I've tried 32bit and 64bit, FC10 and FC11, and all kinds of ISOs.
I've installed them using the same ISO on a virtual machine so I know the ISOs are perfectly fine.

For the FC10, I was able to go on for a step or two but then the keyboard response is completely gone again.

For FC11, once in the hundreds of trials, I was able to step in a few steps while the rest is completely dead at the "Enter to install" first line.

I would appreciate your information if you have found a solution. I must say I feel much better knowing that I am not the only one with this seemingly silly problem.

Thanks.

Shi Jin

imsumitt001 · #7 27th July 2009, 06:51 AM

Orca is unable to speak PDF files in edora linux . Kindly provide the solution.

Regards

Sumit

hausertreyen · #8 27th July 2009, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jinzishuai

Hi there,

I've got exactly the same problem as you: R710 cannot install Fedora Core.
I've tried 32bit and 64bit, FC10 and FC11, and all kinds of ISOs.
I've installed them using the same ISO on a virtual machine so I know the ISOs are perfectly fine.

For the FC10, I was able to go on for a step or two but then the keyboard response is completely gone again.

For FC11, once in the hundreds of trials, I was able to step in a few steps while the rest is completely dead at the "Enter to install" first line.

I would appreciate your information if you have found a solution. I must say I feel much better knowing that I am not the only one with this seemingly silly problem.

On Fedora 10, my server briefly (< 1 second) the "Press Enter" language that I hang up on in Fedora 11, but automatically proceeds through the installation. So my suspicion is that it's not actually intended to press Enter at all, but rather, the designed action is that we never really see that screen and the installation simply proceeds on its own.

My solution was to install Fedora 10 x86_64, which worked for my R710. I have Fedora 10 installed now, which will be sufficient for what I need, if not optimal. Just in case, you may need to hit ctrl-R and make sure your RAID arrays are initialized before you try to install Fedora 10. Dell sometimes will do this for you, but other times, may not.

Incidentally, if you decide to go the Fedora 10 route and are able to get it installed, I'll save you some time and point you to this thread (which you'll eventually need): http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=152316. It's a known issue that SCSI initialization doesn't wait long enough on boot, so the hard drives aren't read.

mlarchet · #9 10th September 2009, 10:14 AM

I have the exact same problem.

Solved with BIOS update 1.2.6

hlavac · #10 15th September 2009, 10:18 PM

I have the exact same problem, will check the BIOS suggested above

dbbd · #11 4th October 2009, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlarchet

I have the exact same problem.

Solved with BIOS update 1.2.6

I'd love to upgrade the BIOS so that I'll be able to fresh-install FC11.
However, DELL's BIOS upgrade does not install from FC10.

I'll need to install windows, maybe there the bios upgrade will work.

What happened to cdrom based bios upgrade?

hlavac · #12 5th October 2009, 05:50 AM

I upgraded the BIOS without Windows.
I made a bootable DOS USB stick, and used the DOS version of the update (they call it "hard drive" for some reason)