Are You Unable to Boot from the CD-ROM?

If you cannot boot from your Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS CD-ROM, you have two options:

1. You can change your BIOS so that booting from the CD-ROM is recognized first in the boot order, or

2. Boot using a boot disk you have created.

	Note
	There are a few cases where the system BIOS will not allow the Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS CD-ROM to boot because of the size of the boot image on the CD-ROM itself. In cases such as these, a boot disk should be made to boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS. Once booted, the CD-ROMs will work properly for the installation.

To change your BIOS, refer to your system manual for the correct keyboard combination that allows you to access your BIOS, or you can read the key sequence needed while the system begins to boot.

To create a boot disk, follow the instructions in the Section called Making Installation Diskettes in Chapter 1.

To boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS using a boot disk, insert the diskette you have created into your floppy drive and then boot/reboot your computer. Make sure that your BIOS is set to use the floppy or removable disk (A:) to boot.

Are You Unable to Boot from the Local Boot Disk?

If you are experiencing difficulties in getting a local boot disk to boot your system correctly, you may need an updated boot disk.

Check the online errata (http://www.redhat.com/support/errata) for updated diskette images (if available) and follow the instructions in the Section called Making Installation Diskettes in Chapter 1, to make an updated boot disk for your system.

Is Your System Displaying Signal 11 Errors?

If you receive a fatal signal 11 during your installation, it is probably due to a hardware error in memory on your system's bus. A hardware error in memory can be caused by problems in executables or with the system's hardware. Like other operating systems, Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS places its own demands on your system's hardware. Some of this hardware may not be able to meet those demands, even if they work properly under another OS.

Check to see if you have the latest installation and supplemental boot diskettes from Red Hat. Review the online errata to see if newer versions are available. If the latest images still fail, it may be due to a problem with your hardware. Commonly, these errors are in your memory or CPU-cache. A possible solution for this error is turning off the CPU-cache in the BIOS. You could also try to swap your memory around in the motherboard slots to see if the problem is either slot or memory related.

For more information concerning signal 11 errors, refer to http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/.

Are You Unable to Boot from a Network Boot Disk?

If you are experiencing difficulties in getting the network boot disk you made to boot your system correctly, you may need an updated boot disk.

Check the online errata for updated diskette images (if available) and follow the instructions provided to make an updated boot disk for your system.

Are You Unable to Boot With Your RAID Card?

If you have performed an installation and cannot boot your system properly, you may need to reinstall and create your partitions differently.

Some BIOSes do not support booting from RAID cards. At the end of an installation, a text-based screen showing the boot loader prompt (for example, GRUB:) and a flashing cursor may be all that appears. If this is the case, you will need to repartition your system.

Whether you choose automatic or manual partitioning, you will need to install your /boot partition outside of the RAID array, such as on a separate hard drive. An internal hard drive is necessary to use for partition creation with problematic RAID cards.

You must also install your perferred boot loader (GRUB or LILO) outside of the RAID array — not on the MBR. The boot loader should be installed on the MBR of the same drive as the /boot partition was created.

Once these changes have been made, you should be able to finish your installation and boot the system properly.