Is the CentOS Stream ISO broken? (original) (raw)

December 31, 2024, 3:17am 1

I’ve been trying to install CentOS Stream on an old HP desktop (Nehalem or Westmere Core i7, c. 2009) to no success. I’ve tried flashing the ISO to multiple USB drives using multiple apps (GNOME Disks image restore, Impression, Popsicle, Ventoy). Here is what happens when I boot into the ISO on my HP desktop:

GRUB menu shows regular options
Select “Install CentOS Stream 10” or “Test This Media then Install CentOS Stream 10”
Screen goes black except for text cursor in upper left for 15-20 seconds
System reboots

This also happens on my 2008 Core 2 Duo laptop (I have a lot of old computers). I have a newer laptop (Ryzen 1st gen, ~2018) which gave slightly different results.

On SanDisk USB:

Boot into ISO
Select “Test This Media then Install CentOS Stream 10”
Media test fails ~4.5% of the way in

On PNY USB (via Ventoy):

Boot into Ventoy → ISO
Select “Test This Media then Install CentOS Stream 10”
Pile of systemd messages about stopping and starting services
Installer SKIPS testing the media (!!!) and loads Anaconda

…or, at least, if it is testing the media, it’s doing it faster than I’ve ever seen before, and it’s not showing me the results afterwards.

What on earth is going on? At first, I suspected my old computers just didn’t run Wayland. But I’ve used GNOME on Wayland on the 2018 laptop for years, and the ISO is still acting weird there. And then I suspected the SanDisk USB stick was at fault, but the PNY one is acting nearly identical, and it’s literally brand new. Maybe I’m dealing with more than one problem at a time. I don’t know.

Is anyone else having this issue? I would love some help!

theqlp (Linh Pham) December 31, 2024, 3:26am 2

My understanding is that CentOS Stream 10 [1] (and the future RHEL 10 [2]) is targeting x86-64 v3, which means that you’ll need an Intel processor that is at least the Haswell generation (2013), or Gracemont for Intel Atom processors. I think all AMD Zen architectures are x86-64 v3 or higher, but I could be wrong.

ngompa (Neal Gompa) January 6, 2025, 8:51pm 3

Yes, this is a result of the x86_64 microarchitecture floor being raised.

There are two options for you here:

AlmaLinux Kitten 10, which offers an x86_64-v2 variant that works on most hardware going back the past 15 years. If it worked with CentOS Stream 9, it’ll work with the AlmaLinux Kitten 10 x86_64-v2 variant.
CentOS Stream 9, which has an x86_64-v2 baseline instead of x86_64-v3. Of course derivatives for CentOS Stream 9 (like Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux, and others) fall in this bucket too.

Your Ryzen systems all qualify at x86_64-v3, but everything older does not.