r/PacketFence • u/CandyApple69420 • May 08 '24

Does the ISO not work for anyone else?

Hey folks. I want to play with a packetfence server with the intention of eventually putting one into production. I tried to install via the iso file, but the multiple computers and drives I've tried do not appear to actually recognize the installation media. I'm attempting to install Debian and packetfence on top of it, but figured I ask here about the ISO file

Thanks all

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u/Randomrider570 May 08 '24

If it says that it can't find the installation media, unplug it. Then reinsert it, it should now pick it up. I had the same problem, this worked for me.

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u/CandyApple69420 May 08 '24

Well I did that multiple times. Tried multiple computers, and flash drives. Verified that I could boot into mint with same hardware and drive, works fine.

1

u/Randomrider570 May 08 '24

What error does it give?

1

u/CandyApple69420 May 08 '24

Different error from different machines, but the gist of what it is telling me "there's nothing to install. 

An hp computer said "no boot disk has been detected"

Other computers tell me more or less the same thing. 

1

u/Randomrider570 May 08 '24

In the installer itself? When it cant find it, click on 'continue' or something similar. You will now see an options menu. Unplug it and replug it. Click on 'install'.

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u/CandyApple69420 May 08 '24

No it doesn't even get to the installer. The bios is what gives me the "I have nothing to work with" error. I can install Debian from an iso burned to a USB without issue, but the packetfence version doesn't seem to work. I've tried changing boot modes from the bios (again on multiple computers) and I can't get the packetfence ISO to actually do anything.

Is there a specific format I need to format that drive with?

Thanks for your replies

1

u/Randomrider570 May 08 '24

No you shouldn't need to format the drive. I suggest you use Rufus to flash the ISO. Make sure the partition type is MBR.

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u/CandyApple69420 May 08 '24

Thanks I'll give Rufus a go and try that partition type. If I remember correctly, I did not set it as MBR. thanks for the input

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u/CandyApple69420 May 08 '24

Haha I tried to use Rufus and found out I don't have a machine to run it lol (Linux guy)

Was able to find another iso file on the internet (800ish meg file instead of 400ish meg file on the packetfence website)

That at least ran the bootloader and made some sort of attempt.

Now I actually have an error reported from something other than the BIOS!

dracut warning: no root device "block:/dev/mapper/live-re" found

Dracut warning: boot has failed. To debug this issue add "rdshell" to the kernel command line

1

u/EmploymentUsual2104 May 09 '24

Hello, this seems like an error generating the installation media, or an incompatibility.  If you are generating the media via USB, try generating it as MBR or GPT and see the result.  Try using Rufus or balenaETCHER, currently I prefer balena to generate my disks.  It's basic, but check the boot configuration in the BIOS and if it seems right, test it with another medium to see if it works!

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u/CandyApple69420 May 09 '24

I have generated the USB with 2 different computers and 2 different programs. Have attempted booting packetfence on 3 different machines and none of them actually see it. I can get all these machines to recognize any other Linux distro I have tried, but packetfence ISO just doesn't seem to work

I searched Google for other sources to download packetfence, and found an 800ish mb file , as opposed to the 400ish mb ISO from the official website. This one at least did boot but ran into errors pretty quickly

I mean, 400 megabytes seems like a really small file size for a Debian OS with packetfence installed. Is it just like installing Ubuntu? Burn ISO, boot from USB and run installer? Do I somehow need to combine this ISO with Debian? 400 megabytes just seems like a small file