Freshly installed SLES system does not start correctly on IBM mainframe

This document (7001198) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9

Situation

The installed system does not boot completely after installation: some services are missing and the login prompt does not appear on the 3270 terminal. The last messages on the 3270 terminal are some kernel messages, input on the terminal does not have any effect. However, SSH login is possible. Executing the command runlevel outputs unknown.

Resolution

The reason is that the installation has not finished yet. This happens automatically on all architectures that have a graphical display or a non-block mode text mode terminal. However, since the S/390 or zSeries does not have either and Linux cannot use the 3270 terminal fully, some user interaction is necessary:

X11 Installation

Make sure the X11 server is running on the same system used to install the system when IPLing the installed system. A window with YaST2 will open and finish the installation.

VNC Installation

A message on the 3270 terminal will ask you to connect with a VNC client to the Linux system. The message is probably hidden between kernel messages and is easily missed or the terminal clears the screen before you can read it. In that case, connect the VNC viewer to the Linux system if nothing seems to happen for more than five minutes.

SSH Installation

Same effect as with the VNC installation: the message to connect to the Linux system with SSH can be missed easily. Perform the following steps when the system seems to have stopped:

Use SSH to log in to the Linux system as user root. If you get a connection time-out or connection refused message, try again after a couple minutes
Run the command "/usr/lib/YaST2/bin/YaST2.sshinstall" (not just "yast")
After YaST2 has finished the initialization, log out of the session (if the system does not do it for you). Watch the 3270 terminal: the system should now change to a runlevel and complete the boot process.

Disclaimer

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