Chapter 12. Booting the Installation on IBM Power Systems
To boot an IBM Power Systems server from a DVD, you must specify the install boot device in the System Management Services (SMS) menu.
To enter the System Management Services GUI, press the 1 key during the boot process when you hear the chime sound. This brings up a graphical interface similar to the one described in this section.
On a text console, press 1 when the self test is displaying the banner along with the tested components:
Figure 12.1. The SMS Console
Once in the SMS menu, select the option for . In that menu, specify Select Install or Boot a Device. There, select CD/DVD, and then the bus type (in most cases SCSI). If you are uncertain, you can select to view all devices. This scans all available buses for boot devices, including network adapters and hard drives.
Finally, select the device containing the installation DVD. The boot menu will now load.
Important
Because IBM Power Systems servers primarily use text consoles, Anaconda will not automatically start a graphical installation. However, the graphical installation program offers more features and customization and is recommended if your system has a graphical display.
To start a graphical installation, pass the
inst.vnc boot option (see Enabling Remote Access).
12.1. The Boot Menu
Once your system has completed loading the boot media, a boot menu is displayed using GRUB2 (GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2). The boot menu provides several options in addition to launching the installation program. If no key is pressed within 60 seconds, the default boot option (the one highlighted in white) will be run. To choose the default, either wait for the timer to run out or press Enter.
Figure 12.2. The Boot Screen
To select a different option than the default, use the arrow keys on your keyboard, and press Enter when the correct option is highlighted.
To customize the boot options for a particular menu entry, press the e key and add custom boot options to the command line. When ready press Ctrl+X to boot the modified option.
See Chapter 23, Boot Options for more information about additional boot options.
The boot menu options are:
- Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0
- Choose this option to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux onto your computer system using the graphical installation program.
- Test this media & install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0
- This option is the default. Prior to starting the installation program, a utility is launched to check the integrity of the installation media.
- Troubleshooting
> - This item is a separate menu containing options that help resolve various installation issues. When highlighted, press Enter to display its contents.
Figure 12.3. The Troubleshooting Menu
- Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 in basic graphics mode
- This option allows you to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux in graphical mode even if the installation program is unable to load the correct driver for your video card. If your screen appears distorted or goes blank when using the Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 option, restart your computer and try this option instead.
- Rescue a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system
- Choose this option to repair a problem with your installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux system that prevents you from booting normally. The rescue environment contains utility programs that allow you fix a wide variety of these problems.
- Run a memory test
- This option runs a memory test on your system. For more information, see Section 23.2.1, “Loading the Memory (RAM) Testing Mode”.
- Boot from local drive
- This option boots the system from the first installed disk. If you booted this disc accidentally, use this option to boot from the hard disk immediately without starting the installation program.
