Questions about getting ready for your Red Hat remote exam?

[Deanna]

This thread is dedicated to connect you with Red Hat subject matter experts who can help answer your questions regarding Red Hat remote exams. Please see the following resources for Red Hat Remote Exams below:

• Remote Exams Announcement
• Technical Documentation for "Getting ready for your Red Hat remote exam"
• Remote Exams FAQ

For questions on scheduling or redeeming your exams,  please use the Red Hat Certification team comment form here. 

**Our subject matters experts in the Red Hat Learning Community will not be assisting with tasks related to scheduling exams. 

[Tess]

Even disabling those security settings will not be a guarantee that the current ISO boots, @PetrCihlar . On my Lenovo from 2018, the current ISO's a dead fish. 

[PetrCihlar]

Sure. You have to define what "security settings" you mean.
There are:
Enable/disable Secure Boot
Enable/disable External USB booting
Bitlocker
Legacy/UEFI Bios

You should at least understand those terms, you should know what your own settings is. If you do and set it properly, the computer starts booting. You should also define, what the term "boots" mean for you. Does it mean it boots all the way successfully or it just starts booting? It may hang during the booting process of course. I am not saying it will not. But it is a compatibility issue, not a setting issue. 

[Tess]

Fair enough Petr. 

For those people who do not have issues with any of the Secure Boot settings, the ISO does start the boot process of Linux. In many cases it comes very far and starts the exam environment. 

In my personal case, it ends up hanging at the 100% mark, just like the people in this thread ->  Cannot Boot Remote Exam Live ISO USB for Remote Exam, Boot hanging at 100% 

So, you could say that the ISO boots just fine. It's the exam environment itself that's just not starting correctly. It never lets you login and start the process of taking your exam. 

[shefeeqyr]

Hi Tess,

You said the system is a 2018 Lenovo. What are the specs like? Do you have any add-on graphics card (before that, is that a desktop or a laptop?). Have you used any convertors/docking station/additional cards etc. that the LiveUSB is having trouble loading drivers for? If yes, you can try removing such elements to isolate the issue. When the boot process gets stuck infinitely at 100%, it indicates a compatibility issue between the computer+peripherals and the LiveUSB. 

The exam environment enters the picture much later. You boot to the LiveUSB, configure the settings to connect to the internet, set the mic volume, touchpad sensitivity, accessibility settings if applicable etc. and then the login page to the proctoring application presents itself.

[Tess]

> "The exam environment enters the picture much later."

Argh, of course you're right. Thanks for that!

In my case it concerns a laptop, without any special hardware connected at all. It's the stock laptop, with a mouse connected via USB. But, you did make me realize that it might be trying something with the GPU that's built-in, so I could try to hard-disable the GPU from UEFI.

[Tess]

Like @sam1974 I've got my exam booked for next week. 

I hope Red Hat don't pull this rug from under my feet, I need the old 2020 ISO, because none of the newer ones work on my laptop. If that new ISO comes around and doesn't work, I'd have to delay my exam even further. 

[AndrewM]

Is there any support available for running the Remote Exam Bootable Live USB on Mac?  I have tried booting on a 2015 iMac, a 2013 MacBook Air and a 2015 MacBook Pro.  All fail to boot from the USB with the error 36 Rebuild USB Drive (see screenshot attached).  I haved rebuilt the USB drive 3 times. 

[vishals]

Hi @AndrewM ,

Apple devices are generally not a good match with the remote exam image (any linux image in fact).
In your case, a possible workaround is to use the older image - https://static.redhat.com/downloads/training-certification/rhrexboot-2020-08.iso

Personally, I have been able to fix this by tinkering with the bios. If you know your way around the bios settings, you may try to temporarily disable the SATA controller or change its mode in BIOS. (Note: Changing bios settings from their defaults can cause harm, only take this route if you are confident. Red Hat does not recommend altering the bios settings and this is only something which worked for me)
If this does not help, please use the older ISO or a different device.

You can also connect to a support agent by following the instructions in the exam confirmation email.

Best Regards,

[igmarkovic]

Hello,

I`ve tried to test USB with the newest image. I`ve tried it on the newer hp EliteBook and also on older hp desktop. 

The image is booting, I can see the settings and change it, then after closing the settings, there is a message poped up "the next screen is onboarding exam...", when I press OK, all I got is black screen with a cursor and nothing happends... 

I will try this older image, if this works, can I use it for the exam? Not importartant if it`s older..? 

Thanks,

Igor.

[vishals]

Hi @igmarkovic ,

There was a scheduled downtime of the server during the early EMEA hours yesterday and if you tried to boot into the image during that window, you would have seen this black screen issue. Please test again now and it should take you to a login page.

About the image, we plan to support the two latest versions (n and n-1 versions). I expect the next version to be available late next month.The August-2020 version (https://static.redhat.com/downloads/training-certification/rhrexboot-2020-08.iso) will be supported and can be used until then.

Best Regards,