I am stuck at Red Hat Remote Exam "environment is loading into memory" screen

[redhatuserlive]

I am trying to set up the environment to take my rhcsa ex200k remotely but got stuck at the "environment is loading into memory" screen

I disabled secure boot in the bios uefi to no avail

Also, I switched the thumb drive on all the USB ports on my machine but still couldn't get past the screen.

[Tess]

Unfortunately there are many known problems with the current exam ISO for Red Hat. For example, seven pages of discussions here -> https://learn.redhat.com/t5/General/Cannot-Boot-Remote-Exam-Live-ISO-USB-for-Remote-Exam-Boot/td-p/1...

One work-around is to use the old exam ISO instead -> https://static.redhat.com/downloads/training-certification/rhrexboot-2020-08.iso

This image works on my laptop, where the new one fails to load properly.

[Antonio03]

None of the ISO images work on my Lenovo Yoga7i, unfortunately. I'm headed to Best Buy to purchase a new laptop for the sole purpose of this exam.

[Fran_Garcia]

Don't buy a new laptop; new hardware is unlikely to work better. As Petr was mentioning in another thread, wait for a couple of weeks until the next ISO is released, which should provide better hardware compatibility.

You can also try to borrow an older laptop and check if that one works any better.

[Antonio03]

*I have seen that a lot of people having issues with the ISO are Lenovo users. I will test my luck with a different brand and go from there.

[Fran_Garcia]

Remember that you need at least 24h to reschedule your exam in case you don't find a working laptop in that timeframe. My suggestion is to only schedule the exam if you have found a working laptop... but ymmv.

[Antonio03]

Yeah a newer laptop didn't work. I have an older laptop on the way and will reschedule accordingly. Very frustrating experience overall- the last thing I expected was to be unable to take the exam because my laptop is too new. Oh well. 

[Tess]

> "Very frustrating experience overall- the last thing I expected was
> to be unable to take the exam because my laptop is too new"

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. When Red Hat introduced the kiosk exams, they were ahead of the pack, their competitors didn't have a similar setup.

But ever since at-home testing because really important, they've not been able to catch up. Vendors like Pearson-Vue and Linux Foundation have rushed ahead in making a solid and reliable at-home testing setup.

[Fran_Garcia]

Basically what we are now facing are the problems of scaling the "Kiosk" way of doing exams to "do it from home exams" . I ellaborated a little bit more in this post: 

https://learn.redhat.com/t5/General/Why-is-the-ISO-image-necessary-for-the-remote-exam-in-Red-Hat/m-...

tl;dr: Other exam vendors make you install software on your own computer/operating system, and Red Hat didn't choose that path.  As Petr mentioned in another reply in this thread, let's hope the new ISOs provide better hardware compatibility.

[PetrCihlar · Accepted solution]

This is not a Secure Boot issue if it ever starts booting. I guess it is a compatibility issue. Try using some older mainstream office computer or wait, I think the updated ISO based on newer Fedora should be out within a couple of weeks.