CentOS 7 1810 dracut initqueue not booting

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carlsuper14
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Joined: 2019/04/11 04:24:29

CentOS 7 1810 dracut initqueue not booting

Post by carlsuper14 » 2019/04/11 04:35:34

Hi, so I have an HP DL160 G5 with outdated BIOS and raid firmware (can't update now with HP new policy on warranty). So I tried installing CentOS 7 1810 and couldn't get it to find the RAID. So on the grub install menu I pressed tab and added the following to the end of the line: hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 and that seems to do the trick. I was able to find the RAID and install CentOS 7. After installation, I rebooted the server and got to the GRUB menu where it boot into default selection and failed to boot completely. dracut can't find the following:

dracut-initqueue[373]: Warning: dracut-initqueue timeout - starting timeout scripts
dracut-initqueue[373]: Warning: Could not boot.
dracut-initqueue[373]: Warning: /dev/centos/root does not exist
dracut-initqueue[373]: Warning: /dev/centos/swap does not exist
Starting Dracut Emergency Shell...
dracut-initqueue[373]: Warning: /dev/mapper/centos-root does not exist
Warning: Could not boot.
Warning: /dev/centos/root does not exist
Warning: /dev/centos/swap does not exist

Entering emergency mode. Exist the shell to continue.

So at this point I'm at the dracut shell. I have tried numerous solutions found in this forum and other forums and can't find a solution to this problem. I've typed the following:
# lvm vgscan
# lvm vgchange -ay
# blkid

and I don't see anything after I run blkid. So I don't know what to do at this point. Any help is truly appreciated.

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TrevorH
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Re: CentOS 7 1810 dracut initqueue not booting

Post by TrevorH » 2019/04/11 08:44:19

You will need to edit grub.cfg and make the same change there that you made to get the system installed in the first place. It doesn't happen automatically. You can append it to the entry at boot time manually (then fix it) or boot into recovery media and edit the file.

Also:
have an HP DL160 G5 with outdated BIOS and raid firmware (can't update now with HP new policy on warranty)
It's hardly new, it's been in place since 2013 and so far, in all that time, I've not had a problem downloading any firmware from HP for anything - just use google to search for it and it comes up. Sometimes the files have some sort of "license required" blurb round them but it's never stopped me from downloading them and using them. Especially not for something as old as a G5 as those were already EOL by the time that 2013 policy came into effect.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

carlsuper14
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Joined: 2019/04/11 04:24:29

Re: CentOS 7 1810 dracut initqueue not booting

Post by carlsuper14 » 2019/04/11 13:12:55

Hi Trevor, thank you for the reply. I have done the following and still no luck:

1. Boot server to grub menu, pressed E to edit boot command. I added the hpsa.hpsa_simple_mode=1 hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 to the boot command and I still can't get CentOS to boot, it just drops me into the dracut shell.

2. I've also used the DVD to boot into rescue or recovery mode. I created a grub file at /dev/default/grub and added the following line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="hpsa.hpsa_simple_mode=1 hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1"

After I created the file, I ran the following command to create a grub.cfg file at /boot/grub2/grub.cfg which doesn't exist for some reason:
grub-mfconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Everything seems to work and the file is created in /boot/grub2, however when I reboot and get to the grub menu and press E, I don't see the changes I made.

So, I'm still not sure what do at this point :(

Also, I can't download any drivers or firmware from the HPE website without having a warranty on place. Apparently this started back in 2015. If you happen to know a way to download the drivers and firmware please let me know or send me a PM. Here is the link to the hpe page https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/ho ... 97&pmrsr=0
Can't download the bios firmware unless I have a warranty.

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TrevorH
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Re: CentOS 7 1810 dracut initqueue not booting

Post by TrevorH » 2019/04/11 13:40:41

After I created the file, I ran the following command to create a grub.cfg file at /boot/grub2/grub.cfg which doesn't exist for some reason:
Most likely your machine is in UEFI mode and the grub.cfg is located under /boot/efi not /boot/grub2
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

carlsuper14
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Re: CentOS 7 1810 dracut initqueue not booting

Post by carlsuper14 » 2019/04/11 14:02:26

I did not think that. Although when I list the content inside /boot i do not see anything regarding grub2 only the initramfs image file and the kernel image file.
I'll try creating the grub config file and specify the efi path instead.

However, if my server BIOS doesn't support uefi and I'm installing CentOS 7 with efi, then how can i install CentOS 7 to support BIOS legacy? Thanks!

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TrevorH
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Re: CentOS 7 1810 dracut initqueue not booting

Post by TrevorH » 2019/04/11 14:18:23

CentOS won't install in UEFI mode unless the hardware is in UEFI mode. Otherwise it installs in legacy BIOS mode.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

carlsuper14
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Joined: 2019/04/11 04:24:29

Re: CentOS 7 1810 dracut initqueue not booting

Post by carlsuper14 » 2019/04/12 00:24:38

So I turned on my server, let it boot in normal mode and it drops into the dracut shell after it timesout as I previously stated in the first post. From the dracut when I checked /sys/firmware/efi and efi doesn't exist. So that tells me the system is using legacy BIOS.
I tried looking into /boot but it doesn't exist, not sure if that is weird or normal. Anyways, I'm still not sure what else to do at this point. I'll keep trying whatever possible options, but I don't know what else to do. Any thoughts?

carlsuper14
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Joined: 2019/04/11 04:24:29

Re: CentOS 7 1810 dracut initqueue not booting

Post by carlsuper14 » 2019/04/12 04:50:32

So I have finally managed to get it working thanks to some other sources I found online.
What I learned was that CentOS 7 does not contain the necessary drivers to support HP Smart Array P400 raid card. To solve this issue you must create a driver disk containing the cciss.ko module from the package kmod-cciss, and install the driver prior to installing CentOS 7. The following steps is what I followed based on two sources I found online:

Building the driver disk
Source: https://vessokolev.blogspot.com/2015/03 ... liant.html

To build the driver disk you need to use a CentOS 7 computer or virtual machine to create the driver disk. Here are the steps to create the driver disk:

1. Go to the following link and verify the version of the kmod-cciss rpm file:
http://elrepo.reloumirrors.net/elrepo/el7/x86_64/RPMS/

2. On the CentOS 7 machine, create a file called build-kmod-cciss.sh

3. Set read+execute permissions to the script: chmod 755 build-kmod-cciss.sh

4. Copy/type the following lines into the build-kmod-cciss.sh script and update VER to match the version in the rpm from the mirror on step 1:
#!/bin/bash

export CURR=`pwd`
export SQUASH_ROOT=${CURR}/squashfs-root
export VER=3.6.26-5
export RPM_PKG=kmod-cciss-${VER}.el7_5.elrepo.x86_64.rpm
mkdir -p ${SQUASH_ROOT}/rpms/x86_64/
echo "HP Smart Array CCISS driver ver. 3.6.26" > ${SQUASH_ROOT}/rhdd3
wget --directory-prefix=${SQUASH_ROOT}/rpms/x86_64/ http://elrepo.reloumirrors.net/elrepo/e ... /${RPM_PKG}
createrepo --basedir ${SQUASH_ROOT}/rpms/x86_64/ .
touch ${SQUASH_ROOT}/.rundepmod
cd ${SQUASH_ROOT}
rpm2cpio ${SQUASH_ROOT}/rpms/x86_64/${RPM_PKG} | cpio -imVd ./lib/*
cd ${CURR}
mksquashfs ${SQUASH_ROOT} ${CURR}/kmod-cciss-${VER}-driver-disk.img
rm -rf ${SQUASH_ROOT}

5. You might have to install the following dependencies:
$ sudo yum -y install wget
$ sudo yum -y install createrepo
$ sudo yum -y install rpm2cpio
$ sudo yum -y install squashfs-root

6. Execute the script and you should end up with an *.img file. If not, see what went wrong in the script.

7. Insert a USB stick to create the driver disk. Execute the following command to figure out the device assigned to your USB stick, e.g. /dev/sdb :
$ sudo fdisk -l

8. Using dd tool, execute the following command:
$ dd if=kmod-cciss-3.6.26-5-driver-disk.img of=/dev/sdb

9. Now you are ready to move into the installation step.


Installing CentOS 7 with driver disk
Source: https://www.unix.com/red-hat/278909-ins ... -p400.html

1. Turn on your server and make sure you can boot to the installation DVD or USB stick (not the driver disk).

2. Once at the installation menu, press the ESC button.

3. You should now get a "Boot:" prompt. Type "linux dd" without the quotes and press ENTER.

4. After things are done loading, you will be prompt with a menu "driver disk device selection". From here, press the number that represents your USB stick which is probably /dev/sdb and press enter afterwards.

5. Now you should be at the "Select drivers to install" menu. It should only list one driver, so press 1 and enter to load the cciss driver.

6. The same menu should appear "Select drivers to install". However, you'll notice that the driver is now selected and you should see "[x]" after the number. Press c and enter to install driver.

7. You should be at the last menu "Driver disk device selection". Press c and enter to begin installation.

8. You should end up at the first window in the CentOS 7 installation guide. You should be able to see the RAID and select it to install the operating system.


I hope this helps anyone else in the future. It has been an adventure and I'm glad I was able to find a solution. After four days fighting with this, I can now begin setting up my test environment. So much for the whole "oh you can install Linux on any old computer you have around the house". I guess times have changed...

scooper
Posts: 1
Joined: 2019/05/24 14:10:59

Re: CentOS 7 1810 dracut initqueue not booting

Post by scooper » 2019/05/24 14:20:45

I saw the same thing this AM while rebuilding a DL580 G5 with an HP P400i on FW 7.7 with Centos 7 1810

If I booted with hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 hpsa.hpsa_simple_mode=1 as added boot options (during install AND after install was complete), I saw this error:
dracut-initqueue[373]: Warning: dracut-initqueue timeout - starting timeout scripts
dracut-initqueue[373]: Warning: Could not boot.
dracut-initqueue[373]: Warning: /dev/centos/root does not exist
dracut-initqueue[373]: Warning: /dev/centos/swap does not exist
Starting Dracut Emergency Shell...
dracut-initqueue[373]: Warning: /dev/mapper/centos-root does not exist
Warning: Could not boot.
Warning: /dev/centos/root does not exist
Warning: /dev/centos/swap does not exist
Removing hpsa.hpsa_simple_mode=1 from the command fixed my problems.

Edited grub command line that is working for me is:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="crashkernel=auto rd.lvm.lv=centos/root rd.lvm.lv=centos/swap rhgb quiet hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1"

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