It’s never easy, is it?

After a well-needed vacation and time to get caught up after said vacation, I went back to the servers. And man, what a mess.

As I stated before, I figured I would use CentOS as the OS for all servers, based on the availability on the Google Cloud. I had downloaded the ISO from centos.org, CentOS Stream 10, and in fact created a bootable USB. As you may remembered, even installed it on what was to be the database server.

But then I realized I had a 2TB drive (a SK hynix Platinum P41 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen4 M.2 2280 SSD), which I was supposed to use in the database server. Because it would replace the existing 512MB drive in it, I would have to re-install CentOS. No biggie, I said. Side note: technology is awesome. In what in effect is a RAM memory chip, now holds 2 TB of data. Awesome.

I installed the new drive, as simple as remove one screw, take old one out, put new in, screw back in, got my CentOS USB stick and off I went…so I thought. It didn’t work. PC would not recognized stick when booting. Alright, this is where I went nuts. I’ll spare you the cussing, and frustartion along the way, but here is where I went from here:

Created a new USB stick with CentOS, using Balena Etcher. Yes, I know it had not worked before, but a few days I ago I did a ChromeOS bootable USB with Etcher, and it worked to perfection. So, why not. Attempted to install. It recognized stick but a third of the way in, installation failed.

Maybe it’s the ISO image. Downloaded it again, checksumed it, created bootable USB again…same thing.

For kicks, downloaded Ubuntu 24.02, created stick… same results. Recognized stick, but installation failed half way through.

This is getting silly.

Alright, let’s switch PCs, I said. I was installing on the Beelink PC (the Bmax B3 Mini had to be returned and replace, have not received it back as of this writing) so I moved to one of the DreamFyre PCs. Since the OS would be installed in all of them regardless, it didn’t matter which.

No deal. I did the same steps with this PC. Tried CentOS and Ubuntu, with the same results. Now listen, I will be the first to admit this is no way closed to my forte. Hardware, installation issues, are just way out of my league, so I had no chance to troubleshoot this, especially since the error seemed to be related to the installer application itself. And of course, time was of the essence.

Now, back in the day when I was a bit more familiar with Linux distros, I knew Debian was the base of just about every other Linux distro. I figured, let’s go to the source. I download Debian 12. Something that caught my eye, and not saying it was in fact the answer:

The fact that it said “installation” in the image, where for CentOS and Ubuntu it did not, well, gave me hope.

Again, bootable USB stick with Etcher, but this time success. It installed without a hitch. I mean, zero. I tried the Beelink PC, with the 2TB drive, and voila success again. Second DreamFyre, no problem.

No moral of this story, other than I know less than what I thought.

But now that I have everything installed (will take care of 4th PC when it arrives), in a distro widely used, I feel good. More importantly, I get to start playing with the database. That, my friends, is wickedly exciting!

I do have some cool update about that in the next blog.

Until then,

Luis

Debian Saved the Day

Let’s Set the Stage. Servers await!