Cannot Boot Remote Exam Live ISO USB for Remote Exam, Boot hanging at 100%

[o1e]

Hello all,

i’m having some issues with the boot of the Remote Exam Live ISO.

During the preparation for the Remote Exam for ROL Course DO288, i tried to boot my Laptop using the Remote Exam Live ISO. I'm following the docs available here: https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/remote-exams-preparation-ebook.

Downloaded https://static.redhat.com/downloads/training-certification/rhrexboot.iso and written it to USB Stick by using the dd utility.

The boot process is starting until the screen "environment is loading into memory" appears, it counts up to 100% and then nothing more is happening. 

I tried different USB-Stick, always the same result.

For tests, i also used the rhrexboot-2020-08.iso Image, which i found as reference in an redhat Issue description, this one is working for me. Boot is without error, and the hardware compatibility checks are successful.

I plan to do the exam soon, thanks to advice how to proceed. I only have one Laptop available for the training/exam, it's a Lenovo Thinkpad P50.

Greetings

Oliver

[SteenC]

Please note that as I do not work for Red Hat this reply reflects my personal views only!

Anyway, I would suggest that you ask this question directly to "(Red Hat) Remote Exam readiness support".
You can find a link to this Support desk in the "getting ready for your Red Hat remote exam ebook"!
Note that the link I used to get to the ebook was this =>
https://www.redhat.com/en/resources/remote-exams-preparation-ebook

When I recently (i.e 2021-12-08) contacted "(Red Hat) Remote Exam readiness support" I was told the following =>
["The older ISO (2020-08) can be currently used but it will be discontinued soon"
...
"If you are planning to appear for exam in upcoming week, the older ISO can be used ..."
...
"Once you schedule your exam or when you finalize the date of exam, you can contact us again and confirm it"
]

So, I assume that the answer would still be pretty much the same if you ask it today, assuming you have machine "somewhat similar to" the one I have etc. etc. - but I would suggest, that you ask the question directly to Red Hat Support, yourself.

I hope this reply was helpful!

[JohnCall]

I have a Lenovo t470s and the new ISO doesn't work for me. Does anybody have the MD5/SHA256 signature of the older image, rhrexboot-2020-08.iso ?

[SteenC]

The image I've dowloaded a while back via https://static.redhat.com/downloads/training-certification/rhrexboot-2020-08.iso gives the following message digests when executed on a machine running RHEL 8.5.
"
$ sha256sum rhrexboot-2020-08.iso; md5sum rhrexboot-2020-08.iso; sha512sum rhrexboot-2020-08.iso;
eda73a25d7d9b5eb51273c1773ee08297d17fb4430200125f3432d2f31ab594f rhrexboot-2020-08.iso
ba35acb890b5bf828b8dba8049d43706 rhrexboot-2020-08.iso
5d37b4560beb9392106d36986d95cca2670c94253bd6f9cb1681d5a0727f067c1304ec6a9d588e995e2afad9efca12983511eedf06c6b01ac89e6c67fc1530f5 rhrexboot-2020-08.iso
"
Hope it is useful.

[Please note that the input I provide reflects my personal observations and point of view - only.]

[alexa]

I have the same issue, the exam environment loads into memory,it reaches 100% progress and then gets stuck.

I use Lenovo P50 and USB 3.0.

I did try the older ISO file https://static.redhat.com/downloads/training-certification/rhrexboot-2020-08.iso, i managed to run successfully the compatibility tests before the exam, but during the exam i had major issues with using the mouse and the keyboard, i could not proceede with the exam.

I could not use right click, copy paste, open new tabs in the browser, i could not even type at some point.

I know there is an input box in the right corner to help type in, but is this how a performance based exam should look like?!

I contacted the support team and they also say the only option is to use the old ISO file.

Did the rhrexboot-2020-08.iso work for you fine during the exam?

[o1e]

Hi alexa,

> Did the rhrexboot-2020-08.iso work for you fine during the exam?

Let's say it was working. I'm not able to compare as the actual image is still not booting on my P50.
Are you using a USB Keyboard/Mouse?

I used the P50 Touchpad/keyboard for the exam, i didn't had any issues there.

About copy/paste, it's somehow limited if i remember right. The typical keyboard-shortcuts are not working as the exam i running in a "remote" session. However i was able to do copy+paste by using the context-menu (Mouse/Terminal). Usually i open several tabs in the Terminal, and within on Tab i have all the text-snippets i need (like the different user/PW, URLs etc.). I think Multi-Tab in the Browser is not an option during the exam.
Not sure about the input-box you mentioned, i never used it.

[linuxss]

all:

in the exam environment - what would be the best way to copy paste between windows and for opening new terminals....?  Ctrl + Shift + T ?

[AUB]

Has anyone made this work? Please can you help me with the exam support email? so we can contact for a clear resolution to this.

[FOUSCOU]

Hi,

I downloaded the remote exam iso file and put it on a new usb 2.0 drive using fedora writer installed on a new computer (Windows).

But, when I tried to boot the remote exam OS on the usb drive, the display hanged on 100% progress.

A member of your team sent me this link https://static.redhat.com/downloads/training-certification/rhrexboot-2020-08.iso as a replacement  of the previous image.

This iso gave a black screen without anything else.

Can you help me ?

Best regards,

Fouscou B.

[csan]

(I knew i had to copy my previous message, because the forum threw an error and now have to type everything again...)

I use these parameters on the older iso, rhrexboot-2020-08.iso to make my thinkpad e15 2nd gen laptop work well.

snd-intel-dspcfg.dsp_driver=1
i915.force.probe=9a49

Unfortunately, the new iso doesn't allow for grub boot parameter editing. Red Hat? It would make it much easier for people to sucessfully boot  their exam enviroments. Also, it's based on fedora 33, but last fedora is 35. Come on Red Hat, please update it.

[Rob-L]

I am also getting same issue.  The older rhrexboot-2020-08 iso works and laptop boots fine into it. 

However the most recent iso does not boot at all. If you select the USB from the boot menu you get about 10 seconds of black screen then it reverts to the boot menu.

Laptop is a new lenovo P15  (IBM Issued Developer laptop)