Description of problem: Trying to install Fedora 11 on IBM HS21 BladeServer. DVD, NFS, and NFS+Kickstart installations all exhibit same behaviour where anaconda does not seem to proceed to stage2. After initial kernel messages, the screen goes black. There is a fatal error message on vt/3 when the floppy kernel module tries to load. (There is no floppy device on this system.) How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Boot from installation DVD or initiate NFS installation Actual results: Anaconda does not seem to proceed to stage2. Expected results: Anaconda installation process should continue normally. Additional info: Initial kernel boot messaging displays normally. After screen goes black, virtual terminals are no longer available. Final messages before fading to black: ----- vt/1 ------ Greetings. anaconda installer init version 11.5.0.59 starting mounting /proc filesystem... done creating /dev filesystem... done starting udev...done mounting /dev/pts (unix98 pty) filesystem... done mounting /sys filesystem... done trying to remount root filesystem read write... done mounting /tmp as tmpfs... done running install... running /sbin/loader detecting hardware... waiting for hardware to initialize... ----- vt/2 ------ (Nothing -- no virtual terminal) ----- vt/3 ------ 20:55:13 INFO : kernel command line: nfsdir=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:/xxx/xxx initrd=fedora-11-x86-64/initrd.img text headless serial BOOT_IMAGE=fedora-11-x86_64/vmlinuz 20:55:13 INFO : text mode forced from cmdline 20:55:13 INFO : early networking required fro syslog 20:55:13 INFO : anaconda version 11.5.0.59 on x86_64 starting 20:55:13 INFO : text mode forced due to serial/virtpconsole 20:55:13 INFO : 32692644 kB are available FATAL: Error inserting floppy (/lib/modules/2.6.29.4-167.fc11.x86_64/kernel/drivers/block/floppy.ko.gz): No such device Anaconda will proceed to stage 2 if the "noprobe" option is passed, but bug #499425 prevents NFS installation from proceeding.
floppy.ko is one of the modules we unconditionally load, as it may be needed for a variety of update possibilities.
It looks like the HS21 BladeServers require a "nomodeset" option to the kernel (for installation and afterwards). I was seeing similar behavior and after trial and error found that option to work. The floppy error was a red herring.
I can confirm that this was, in fact, a display issue; and not an issue with the floppy module. Passing the "nomodeset" option remedies the problem. (Though I still think that reporting "FATAL" errors for non-fatal events warrants a bug report.)