Proliant 2500 BIOS/utilities?
 

Hi,

I want to install Slackware Linux 12 on a Proliant 2500 with a
raidcontroller/3 disks, but when I try to access F10 - System Partition
Utilities, it says "no operating system found". I've tried searching for
the right SP, but don't know exactly which one I should have.
I've also tried to boot straight from Slackware CD, bit neither cfdisk
nor fdisk can access a /dev/md.. drive.

Thank you for helping out.

Proliant 2500 BIOS/utilities?
 

you need to use a SmartStart 5.50 CD. Boot from it and do a system erase,
then boot from the CD again, and you will be walked through the setup/config
of the box.

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/fi...oad/22678.html

burn at the slowest possible speed to ensure it works properly.

- LC

--

"Huub" "v.niekerk at hccnet.nl" wrote in message
ll.nl...
Hi,

I want to install Slackware Linux 12 on a Proliant 2500 with a
raidcontroller/3 disks, but when I try to access F10 - System Partition
Utilities, it says "no operating system found". I've tried searching for
the right SP, but don't know exactly which one I should have.
I've also tried to boot straight from Slackware CD, bit neither cfdisk nor
fdisk can access a /dev/md.. drive.

Thank you for helping out.

Proliant 2500 BIOS/utilities?
 

Thank you.

Proliant 2500 BIOS/utilities?
 

NuT CrAcKeR wrote:
you need to use a SmartStart 5.50 CD. Boot from it and do a system
erase, then boot from the CD again, and you will be walked through the
setup/config of the box.

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/fi...oad/22678.html

burn at the slowest possible speed to ensure it works properly.

- LC


Ok. The CD does work, but only offers to install either MS Windows or
Novell Netware. I intend to install Slackware Linux. What do you suggest
me to do in this case?

Proliant 2500 BIOS/utilities?
 

at this point, stop the smartstart process. reboot the system, and run the
F10 utilities and run the System Configuration Utility.

Someone else will need to answer the specifics on what to do with linux, i
only do windows. but this question has come up many times over the years. do
a search of google groups and i am sure you will find your answer.

- LC

--

"Huub" "v.niekerk at hccnet.nl" wrote in message
ll.nl...
NuT CrAcKeR wrote:
you need to use a SmartStart 5.50 CD. Boot from it and do a system erase,
then boot from the CD again, and you will be walked through the
setup/config of the box.

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/fi...oad/22678.html

burn at the slowest possible speed to ensure it works properly.

- LC


Ok. The CD does work, but only offers to install either MS Windows or
Novell Netware. I intend to install Slackware Linux. What do you suggest
me to do in this case?

Proliant 2500 BIOS/utilities?
 

There is no Slackware, fedora, redhat or "named" option, but there is a
single Linux option. All the linux flavors will use that same LINUX setting.
That is standard on Smartstart 5.5 that you downloaded.
Phil


"NuT CrAcKeR" wrote in message
t...
at this point, stop the smartstart process. reboot the system, and run the
F10 utilities and run the System Configuration Utility.

Someone else will need to answer the specifics on what to do with linux, i
only do windows. but this question has come up many times over the years.
do
a search of google groups and i am sure you will find your answer.

- LC

--

"Huub" "v.niekerk at hccnet.nl" wrote in message
ll.nl...
NuT CrAcKeR wrote:
you need to use a SmartStart 5.50 CD. Boot from it and do a system
erase,
then boot from the CD again, and you will be walked through the
setup/config of the box.

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/fi...oad/22678.html

burn at the slowest possible speed to ensure it works properly.

- LC


Ok. The CD does work, but only offers to install either MS Windows or
Novell Netware. I intend to install Slackware Linux. What do you suggest
me to do in this case?

Proliant 2500 BIOS/utilities?
 

The biggest gotcha with linux and an older Proliant like the 2500 is
that the memory detection doesn't work right. It has nothing to do
with the settings in the SCU. You'll need to manually set the memory
size on the command line to get the kernel to boot correctly and then
in the kernel config file on your final install.

There are instructions in the group history that detail how to do
that.

For 2.4 kernels its a mem=
For 2.6 kernels is memmap=

Good Luck!

VinceV

On Jul 24, 7:03 am, "NuT CrAcKeR"
wrote:
at this point, stop the smartstart process. reboot the system, and run the
F10 utilities and run the System Configuration Utility.

Someone else will need to answer the specifics on what to do with linux, i
only do windows. but this question has come up many times over the years. do
a search of google groups and i am sure you will find your answer.

- LC

Proliant 2500 BIOS/utilities?
 

this is what i was hoping for ...

thanks for weighing in with your input, Vince.

- LC

--

"VinceV" wrote in message
oups.com...
The biggest gotcha with linux and an older Proliant like the 2500 is
that the memory detection doesn't work right. It has nothing to do
with the settings in the SCU. You'll need to manually set the memory
size on the command line to get the kernel to boot correctly and then
in the kernel config file on your final install.

There are instructions in the group history that detail how to do
that.

For 2.4 kernels its a mem=
For 2.6 kernels is memmap=

Good Luck!

VinceV

On Jul 24, 7:03 am, "NuT CrAcKeR"
wrote:
at this point, stop the smartstart process. reboot the system, and run
the
F10 utilities and run the System Configuration Utility.

Someone else will need to answer the specifics on what to do with linux,
i
only do windows. but this question has come up many times over the years.
do
a search of google groups and i am sure you will find your answer.

- LC

Proliant 2500 BIOS/utilities?
 

"NuT CrAcKeR" wrote in message
t...
this is what i was hoping for ...

thanks for weighing in with your input, Vince.

- LC

--

"VinceV" wrote in message
oups.com...
The biggest gotcha with linux and an older Proliant like the 2500 is
that the memory detection doesn't work right. It has nothing to do
with the settings in the SCU. You'll need to manually set the memory
size on the command line to get the kernel to boot correctly and then
in the kernel config file on your final install.

There are instructions in the group history that detail how to do
that.

For 2.4 kernels its a mem=
For 2.6 kernels is memmap=

Good Luck!

VinceV

On Jul 24, 7:03 am, "NuT CrAcKeR"
wrote:
at this point, stop the smartstart process. reboot the system, and run
the
F10 utilities and run the System Configuration Utility.

Someone else will need to answer the specifics on what to do with
linux,
i
only do windows. but this question has come up many times over the
years.
do
a search of google groups and i am sure you will find your answer.

- LC


Wow, is that an old unit. Rereading your note, sounds like you didn't
complete the smartstart installation. When you go through smartstart you
will setup your array and wind up with a separate small partition of the
array that will contain the utilities that the F1 key accesses. It may be
simpler to start from scratch with smartstart, do a system erase and flow
through the server setup and partition installation again. This is assuming
you are setting up an array with the drives.

The other problem you may run into is the array driver. I am not familiar
with the drivers that slackware loads, but on some linux flavor's the array
driver doesn't get loaded and the os never sees or finds the array or disk.
That being an older unit, I would think drivers would be on the cd.

As far as ram is concerned, as old as that unit is, using mostly 32 and 64
meg chips, I doubt excessive ram will be an issue loading the os. If you do
have gobs of ram that can be tweaked after you are up and running.

Once you have the unit configured with smartstart, boot from your install
cd. There are a string of kernel switches that should be used when
installing, it will avoid problems during and after installation. I can look
up my old notes and give you more detailed instructions later in the evening
but short of time now.

If someone else remembers the "kernel switches" fill him in. All I remember
off the top is "Linux ide=nodma apm=off, acpi=off, noapic, nolapic,
nopcmcia, noapci, pnpbios=off "

With the array drivers loaded, those switches alone should enable it to
load.
Phil

Proliant 2500 BIOS/utilities?
 

"Phil" wrote in message
...

"NuT CrAcKeR" wrote in message
t...
this is what i was hoping for ...

thanks for weighing in with your input, Vince.

- LC

--

"VinceV" wrote in message
oups.com...
The biggest gotcha with linux and an older Proliant like the 2500 is
that the memory detection doesn't work right. It has nothing to do
with the settings in the SCU. You'll need to manually set the memory
size on the command line to get the kernel to boot correctly and then
in the kernel config file on your final install.

There are instructions in the group history that detail how to do
that.

For 2.4 kernels its a mem=
For 2.6 kernels is memmap=

Good Luck!

VinceV

On Jul 24, 7:03 am, "NuT CrAcKeR"
wrote:
at this point, stop the smartstart process. reboot the system, and
run
the
F10 utilities and run the System Configuration Utility.

Someone else will need to answer the specifics on what to do with
linux,
i
only do windows. but this question has come up many times over the
years.
do
a search of google groups and i am sure you will find your answer.

- LC


Wow, is that an old unit. Rereading your note, sounds like you didn't
complete the smartstart installation. When you go through smartstart you
will setup your array and wind up with a separate small partition of the
array that will contain the utilities that the F1 key accesses. It may be
simpler to start from scratch with smartstart, do a system erase and flow
through the server setup and partition installation again. This is
assuming
you are setting up an array with the drives.

The other problem you may run into is the array driver. I am not familiar
with the drivers that slackware loads, but on some linux flavor's the
array
driver doesn't get loaded and the os never sees or finds the array or
disk.
That being an older unit, I would think drivers would be on the cd.

As far as ram is concerned, as old as that unit is, using mostly 32 and 64
meg chips, I doubt excessive ram will be an issue loading the os. If you
do
have gobs of ram that can be tweaked after you are up and running.

Once you have the unit configured with smartstart, boot from your install
cd. There are a string of kernel switches that should be used when
installing, it will avoid problems during and after installation. I can
look
up my old notes and give you more detailed instructions later in the
evening
but short of time now.

If someone else remembers the "kernel switches" fill him in. All I
remember
off the top is "Linux ide=nodma apm=off, acpi=off, noapic, nolapic,
nopcmcia, noapci, pnpbios=off "

With the array drivers loaded, those switches alone should enable it to
load.
Phil



One more quick brief trick. When you install Linux, at least in my case, I
make it a dual boot in the grub loader. Normally after installing Linux that
"compaq setup" partition is no longer easily accessible and can't access via
the F keys after install.

I use the dual boot so I have the option of going into system setup
utilities, that "hidden setup partition", or booting the os.

I use Fedora and below is a grub loader file, your os will probably be
similar.

===========================
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/cciss/c0d0
default=0
timeout=3

##splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

hiddenmenu

title Fedora Core (2.6.20-1.2962.fc6)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.20-1.2962.fc6 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
ide=nodma rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.20-1.2962.fc6.img

title Compaq System Setup
rootnoverify (hd0,2)
chainloader +1

================================
Notice the last section "title Compaq System Setup". That is where you can
get into the compaq setup on the boot.

Phil