Dell Poweredge T130 won't boot USB or DVD - any suggestions?

Hi eveyone! I have a brand new Dell PowerEdge T130 server and it will not boot off the latest FreePBX USB or DVD. I have tried all the options such as UEFI or BIOS mode, selecting “Other Operating System” etc. The T130 will boot fine off a Windows 7 DVD or Windows 7 USB. The FreePBX USB and DVD have been tested in several other computers and they boot the other computers with no problems. Dell Tech support can not figure it out either. Does anyone else have any experience installing FreePBX on these servers or have any suggestions that might make either USB or DVD work? Thank you in advance for your time!

Well I have but not with the distro, you will need the linux tg3 driver installed for the motherboard nic or temporarily add any “old” nic that fits a slot or usb whilst you install.

Hi dicko,

Thanks for your reply! I’m just trying to perform the initial installation, and it won’t even begin to even boot off the DVD or USB. Is there some reason I would need a compatible NIC in the system just for the basic bootloader function from my boot device to happen? It sees the USB jumpdrive and tries to boot off it but just says:
Boot Failed: Disk connected to USB 3: Jumpdrive
No boot device available

Thanks!

I would use a more traditional boot method, perhaps a dvd on a usb interface maybe on the front usb2 interface, personally I have no problem with usb images either RH like or Debian like. but as I say I don’t use “the distro” Also make sure your usb device doesn’t have any “helper” windoze crap loader on it, (try another one).

Funnily enough make sure your monitor is a good old fashioned one, it might be booting but the modeset don’t work, is there a little blinking cursor in the top left corner or is the screen just totally blank?

Hey dicko,
Thank you so much! I attached a DVD to the front usb2 and it booted right up from the distro DVD that I made on a Windows 7 PC and installed just fine. I had achieved partial boot ups into just the basic Centos install off the distro DVD and USB Image but they wouldn’t install the FreePBX GUI for some reason (the USB was a Rufus-made jumpdrive from an .ISO, so no surprise there, it was looking for it’s images on the DVD. But when I burned a distro DVD and put it in the server’s DVD drive, it would do the same thing, I would get what I assume was the Centos install without FreePBX. strange). I also disabled the Dell Lifecycle controller, not sure if that had anything to do with problems earlier or not. Now there is just one message “UNSUPPORTED HARDWARE” that flashes by on the initial grub boot-up, I think it might be because the CPU isn’t recognized by Centos 6.6? The processor is an Intel Xeon E3-1220 v5 3.0Ghz. It seems to be running fine so I’m not worried for now. Thanks very much again!

Possibly the unsupported hardware is the NIC (BCM5720) as previously said you might need the TG3 driver for that hardware unless it is include on the iso. without it you will only be able to get as far as the necessary download bit to get the “FreePBX GUI” and a lot of other stuff.