After installing RHEL in Parallels on my Mac how do I log in?

I installed RHEL 6.4 server under Parallels 7 on my Mac OS 10.8 just now from an iso file I just downloaded from RedHat. I didn't do any customization - just selected the iso from a new guest installation.

The installation seemed to proceed ok, but at the end I'm left with a black screen with a gray bar followed by the text "RedHat Enterprise Linux Server 6.4" with no obvious way how to login.

If I shut down the machine I see it running the shutdown scripts. If I boot it I see the boot scripts and they all look ok. But I always end up at that same screen with no way to login.

I can enter characters in the screen, but there is no Linux prompt at all.

Anybody know what to do next? I couldn't glean anything fro the RedHat install manual.

Thanks,

doug

 

Have you tried to switch between consoles by pressing ctrl+alt+{F1,F2, etc}
And screenshot would be helpful

 

I'm re-installing now and will try to add a screenshot when done. I tried ctrl+alt+F7 but the ctl+alt sequence takes me out of the VM and returns my cursor and keyboard back to the Mac.

The screen is really simple though. Imagine a black square. Near the bottom of the square is a grey bar, and to the right of that it says "RedHat Enterprise Linux Server 6.4" . That is all there is.

Thanks,

doug

 

I tried various ctl+alt+f1, etc. but nothing useful happened. Either nothing happened or some ^[ characters appeared on the screen.

Here is a screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/juzg1wjjf2urwb6/rhel.png

Maybe the "express install" option (checked by default) doesn't work and it needs to be installed manually?

doug

 

looks like it hanged during boot. So no consoles available and you can not switch them.
I suggest to submit a problem report via Parallels Help menu and post report ID here.

 

I might try that. I haven't gotten very helpful replies from Parallels in the past to problem requests though. What I'm trying now is to install the RHEL workstation version instead of the server version and see if it goes better.

I suspect I need to uncheck the "express installation" option and go through the setup steps manually. However, I'm not sure what to set in some places. It gets unclear around things like the HD to use for the installation, and networking. So I was hoping to use the automated setup.

 

I ended up at the same screen when installing the workstation. But with your suggested ctl+alt+f2 I was able to get a login prompt and get in and it seems things are set up correctly. Perhaps I would have been able to if I tried again with the server version as well. For my purpose it doesn't matter which version I use. So for now I'll just have to remember to use ctl+alt+f2. I don't see how to get into GUI mode, but that's ok for now too.

Thanks for your help.

doug

 

Does it boot in runlevel 3?
Try to boot it without X server, just add "3" in bootloader as an additional kernel parameter.

 

Sorry for the late reply. The ctl+alt+F2 let me get to the login and test what I needed to test, so all is well. If I have a spare half-day sometime I'll try modifications like you suggest to see if I can get that part automated. I'm not really sure how to make those changes though. I'm not an RHEL expert. I really just wanted to test and see if a certain software I had ran under RHEL 6.4. It did. Thanks again.

 

Hi,

I had the same problem. The issue is the X-win server will not start because Parallels tools breaks the framebuffer with the RHEL 6.4 update. This is especially easy to see because a fresh install works fine until you install Parallels tools.

When you see the "select system to boot" message, hit the key that allows you to edit the boot arguments. Add a "3" to the end to force the startup to runlevel 3 (which is a console login without the GUI).

After logging in, type the command "startx" and you will see that it fails. Once you are able to fix this problem, the normal bootup into the GUI login will also work.

I had to downgrade the video driver subsystem back to 6.3 for it to start working, and you also have to add an exclusion to yum to prevent it from updating and removing the fix. This will be necessary until Parallels releases an updated tools that addresses this issue. There is a procedure I found in the CentOS forums for how to do this, sorry I don't have the link.

I put in a support ticket and their answer was "RHEL 6.4 not supported". I responded this is not the right answer and to tell me when it will be fixed and what versions of parallels. At present, I have asked this ticket to be escalated so hopefully someone can give us an idea of when they will fix this. I have a hard time believing they are simply going to stop supporting RHEL.