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I am at wit's end!

I have a brand new out of the box Dell R730xd. I am simply trying to install / boot Centos 6.7 onto it from a USB stick.

I have downloaded (to my Mac) 3 flavors of Centos-6.7. minimal / LiveCD and DVD.1.bin. I used various techniques to burn the USB Stick but basically was

-- hdiutility to do a convert from iso to .img file (I have done this and NOT done this) -- dd file to usb stick

When I put the stick in the front of the R730xd and boot -- I hit F11 and add the USB to the "One-time UEFI Boot Options".

However, not matter what I try -- I always get a

Boot Failure: Boot from Front Device DISK2: USB DRIVE

Boot Failure: Make sure a compatible media type is installed.

I have looked at every imaginable BIOS / UEFI BIOS option ..

I am pulling my hair out -- this can't be that hard.

/Steve

P.S. I did check the RAID card to make sure my 2 SSD's are already configured as RAID-1 in case I ever do get to boot it and install the OS.

S McDowall
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  • Update: If I switch the boot BIOS from "UEFI" to "BIOS" it then can boot the USB Stick and I get the Centos 6 welcome boot message! However, I need UEFI because I have 12TB of RAID-10 disk to access. So still not sure what to do! – S McDowall Nov 09 '15 at 21:32
  • Secure Boot mode is disabled in UEFI mode -- just checked that since it seems to be a common issue. But not mine alas. :( – S McDowall Nov 09 '15 at 22:25

1 Answers1

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First about the server:

  • make sure UEFI Secure Boot mode is disabled

I have never created a bootable USB Stick on OSX, but I have created a number of them in Ubuntu. It could be that you may be missing a conversion parameter (you never specified what command you are using).

The Ubuntu articles are excellent. Here is one that describes how to create USB stick of Ubuntu on OSX: Create A USB stick on Mac OSX

From that link:

Once you downloaded your ISO, you convert it:

hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ~/path/to/target.img ~/path/to/linuxdistro.iso

Note from article: OS X tends to put the .dmg ending on the output file automatically.

Plug in your stick, and list your storage devices:

diskutil list

Figure out your device number and type (where N is the number behind '/dev/disk') to make sure it is not mounted.

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN

Next run the dd command:

sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/rdiskN bs=1m

A couple of notes from the article:

  • Using /dev/rdisk instead of /dev/disk may be faster
  • If you see the error dd: Invalid number '1m', you are using GNU dd. Use the same command but replace bs=1m with bs=1M
  • If you see the error dd: /dev/diskN: Resource busy, make sure the disk is not in use. Start the 'Disk Utility.app' and unmount (don't eject) the drive

If you still have issues after this, then it seems that it's a configuration on your server that needs to be changed. It could be the way that UEFI hands over USB devices to the boot loader. Consider changing the UEFI setting of USB devices to 'legacy'. Another option is to go old school and trying the whole thing with a DVD drive.

G Trawo
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  • Yes I followed all those -- and did confirm Secure Boot mode was off. If I change the Boot mode from UEFI to BIOS -- it reads the USB sticks just fine and boots. It appears to be only an UEFI issue. On a Dell not sure what / how to change the UEFI setting of USB devices to "Legacy" or anything like that. Thanks! – S McDowall Nov 09 '15 at 22:24
  • The only other two suggestion I would have for you is to turn OFF USB 3.0 in the BIOS (Main Menu → System BIOS → Integrated Devices) and see if it makes a difference. Also, I would try to use CentOS 7 and see if it has the same UEFI issues. It could simply be an issue with CentOS 6. – G Trawo Nov 10 '15 at 14:57
  • Thanks G Trawo -- USB 3 was turned off. Alas, the only supported OS the s/w that needs to run on it is certified for CentOS 6.X. Things seems to be working though in BIOS mode .. so I'll live with that for now! – S McDowall Nov 11 '15 at 00:35