Fedora Core 5 on Compaq Proliant 2500

{Cross-posted to linux.redhat.install}

I was given a Compaq Proliant 2500 server and a Compaq Storage System
last week just to tinker with at home. My goal is to install Fedora
Core 5 (so I can learn more about the Linux environment) and to become
more comfortable with SCSI drive management. I'm not a true Linux
newbie, but I have only administered existing Linux/Apache servers at
work and my only installs have been on desktops with IDE drives.

The server has the Compaq Smart Array 2/P RAID Controller installed and
two 2.1 GB SCSI drives in the drive cage. The Storage System is also
full of drives, but I am waiting for the SCSI cable to attach it to the
server, because he forgot to grab that when he brought me the rest of
the stuff.

I was able to download and use the SmartStart 5.50 CD to erase the
system and congifure the array. I told it to optimize the system for a
Linux install and at the end, it told me it would restart and I should
follow the OS instructions to continue my install.

I put CD#1 in and let the system boot to it.

The install started and reached a certain point and hung for a very
long time. I cycled the power and tried one mor time. It hangs in the
same place every time.

Here's the text that is on the screen when it hangs:

CPU: Intel Pentium Pro Stepping 07
Checking 'hit' instruction... OK.
ExtINT not setup in hardware but reported by MP table
ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
...TIMER: vector=0x31 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=0 pin2=0
...MP-BIOS bug: 8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC
....trying to set up timer (IRQ0) through the 8259A ...
...... (found pin 0) ...works.
checking if image is initramfs... it is
Freeing initrd memory: 4859k freed
NET: Registered protocal family 16
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0068, last bus=2
PCI: Using configuration type 1
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20060127
ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
pnp: PnP ACPI: disabled
usbco registered new driver usbfs
usbco registered new driver hub
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI BIOS passed nonexistent PCI bus 2!
PCI: Device 0000:00:00.0 not found by BIOS
PCI: Device 0000:00:14.0 not found by BIOS
PCI: Failed to allocate mem resource #6:1000000@42000000 for
0000:01:06.0
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:0d.0

Things I am uncertain about:

Since I don't have the SCSI cable for attaching the Storage System, the
SCSI connector on th rear of the server is unterminated. I don't know
if this model is self terminating, or if I need a terminator. If so,
could that be what is hanging it up?

Could it be a bad RAM issue? The system has, I believe, the 64MB DIMM
and two 128MB DIMMs. Memory counts up fine, but it counts to only 274K
and some change. I'm assuming that's a shared memory situation.

By the way, I tried just for fun and giggles late last night booting to
the Knoppix 5.0.1 CD. It wouldn't load either, but I didn't get the
text from that error, other than it was unable to load and was loading
instead a minimal enivornment that gave me a prompt only.

I really want to get this going. Any hints?

Thanks

Steve

wrote in message
oups.com...
{Cross-posted to linux.redhat.install}

I was given a Compaq Proliant 2500 server and a Compaq Storage System
last week just to tinker with at home. My goal is to install Fedora
Core 5 (so I can learn more about the Linux environment) and to become
more comfortable with SCSI drive management. I'm not a true Linux
newbie, but I have only administered existing Linux/Apache servers at
work and my only installs have been on desktops with IDE drives.

The server has the Compaq Smart Array 2/P RAID Controller installed and
two 2.1 GB SCSI drives in the drive cage. The Storage System is also
full of drives, but I am waiting for the SCSI cable to attach it to the
server, because he forgot to grab that when he brought me the rest of
the stuff.

I was able to download and use the SmartStart 5.50 CD to erase the
system and congifure the array. I told it to optimize the system for a
Linux install and at the end, it told me it would restart and I should
follow the OS instructions to continue my install.

I put CD#1 in and let the system boot to it.

The install started and reached a certain point and hung for a very
long time. I cycled the power and tried one mor time. It hangs in the
same place every time.

Here's the text that is on the screen when it hangs:

CPU: Intel Pentium Pro Stepping 07
Checking 'hit' instruction... OK.
ExtINT not setup in hardware but reported by MP table
ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
..TIMER: vector=0x31 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=0 pin2=0
..MP-BIOS bug: 8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC
...trying to set up timer (IRQ0) through the 8259A ...
..... (found pin 0) ...works.
checking if image is initramfs... it is
Freeing initrd memory: 4859k freed
NET: Registered protocal family 16
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0068, last bus=2
PCI: Using configuration type 1
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20060127
ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
pnp: PnP ACPI: disabled
usbco registered new driver usbfs
usbco registered new driver hub
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI BIOS passed nonexistent PCI bus 2!
PCI: Device 0000:00:00.0 not found by BIOS
PCI: Device 0000:00:14.0 not found by BIOS
PCI: Failed to allocate mem resource #6:1000000@42000000 for
0000:01:06.0
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:0d.0

Things I am uncertain about:

Since I don't have the SCSI cable for attaching the Storage System, the
SCSI connector on th rear of the server is unterminated. I don't know
if this model is self terminating, or if I need a terminator. If so,
could that be what is hanging it up?

Could it be a bad RAM issue? The system has, I believe, the 64MB DIMM
and two 128MB DIMMs. Memory counts up fine, but it counts to only 274K
and some change. I'm assuming that's a shared memory situation.

By the way, I tried just for fun and giggles late last night booting to
the Knoppix 5.0.1 CD. It wouldn't load either, but I didn't get the
text from that error, other than it was unable to load and was loading
instead a minimal enivornment that gave me a prompt only.

I really want to get this going. Any hints?

Thanks

Steve



boot from your smartstart CD, run the SCU choose your OS type. It should be
something to the affect of, Unix, Other, Linux. I had to do this on an old
6400R (yes, i know its newer but that isnt the point) before VMWARE ESX
Server 2.5.1 would do more than 1 processor.

Your system should not have a shared memory thingy going on. try moving them
around and see what happenes. Does the boot stop at the same point? does the
amount of memory reported during the POST change ? Try it with a single 128
and see what happens.

Also, grab SS5.50 and burn that at the slowest possible speed (you are doing
SS5.0 you got from someone, no?)

- LC

Also, there are loads of posts in this group about installing various
linuxes on proliant machines. Google for them.

Steve,

I'm not a Fedora Core user so I don't know which kernel it uses.

The Linux kernel doesn't understand the way that the Proliant 2500 (and
other early models) reports memory. I'm betting linux is only seeing
16meg of ram.

The fix for this is to specify memory at boot time.

For the 2.4 Kernel
mem=exactmap mem=640K@0M mem=(actual ram - 1m)M@1M

For the 2.6 Kernel
memmap=exactmap memmap=640K@0M memmap=(actual ram - 1M)@1M

append the appropriate text when you select the kernel to boot from on
a system with 128 megs of ram it woul look like:

linux memmap=exactmap memmap=640K@0M memmap=127M@1M

Good Luck!
VinceV


wrote:
{Cross-posted to linux.redhat.install}

I was given a Compaq Proliant 2500 server and a Compaq Storage System
last week just to tinker with at home. My goal is to install Fedora
Core 5 (so I can learn more about the Linux environment) and to become
more comfortable with SCSI drive management. I'm not a true Linux
newbie, but I have only administered existing Linux/Apache servers at
work and my only installs have been on desktops with IDE drives.

The server has the Compaq Smart Array 2/P RAID Controller installed and
two 2.1 GB SCSI drives in the drive cage. The Storage System is also
full of drives, but I am waiting for the SCSI cable to attach it to the
server, because he forgot to grab that when he brought me the rest of
the stuff.

I was able to download and use the SmartStart 5.50 CD to erase the
system and congifure the array. I told it to optimize the system for a
Linux install and at the end, it told me it would restart and I should
follow the OS instructions to continue my install.

I put CD#1 in and let the system boot to it.

The install started and reached a certain point and hung for a very
long time. I cycled the power and tried one mor time. It hangs in the
same place every time.

Here's the text that is on the screen when it hangs:

CPU: Intel Pentium Pro Stepping 07
Checking 'hit' instruction... OK.
ExtINT not setup in hardware but reported by MP table
ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
..TIMER: vector=0x31 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=0 pin2=0
..MP-BIOS bug: 8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC
...trying to set up timer (IRQ0) through the 8259A ...
..... (found pin 0) ...works.
checking if image is initramfs... it is
Freeing initrd memory: 4859k freed
NET: Registered protocal family 16
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf0068, last bus=2
PCI: Using configuration type 1
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20060127
ACPI: Interpreter disabled.
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
pnp: PnP ACPI: disabled
usbco registered new driver usbfs
usbco registered new driver hub
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI BIOS passed nonexistent PCI bus 2!
PCI: Device 0000:00:00.0 not found by BIOS
PCI: Device 0000:00:14.0 not found by BIOS
PCI: Failed to allocate mem resource #6:1000000@42000000 for
0000:01:06.0
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:0d.0

Things I am uncertain about:

Since I don't have the SCSI cable for attaching the Storage System, the
SCSI connector on th rear of the server is unterminated. I don't know
if this model is self terminating, or if I need a terminator. If so,
could that be what is hanging it up?

Could it be a bad RAM issue? The system has, I believe, the 64MB DIMM
and two 128MB DIMMs. Memory counts up fine, but it counts to only 274K
and some change. I'm assuming that's a shared memory situation.

By the way, I tried just for fun and giggles late last night booting to
the Knoppix 5.0.1 CD. It wouldn't load either, but I didn't get the
text from that error, other than it was unable to load and was loading
instead a minimal enivornment that gave me a prompt only.

I really want to get this going. Any hints?

Thanks

Steve

I have installed FC5 on a 2500. A few things to watch

1. Make sure you use the memory statements as described in other postings

2. Make sure you do the system erase as described etc..

3. Test each of the FC5 discs using the CDROM drive you are going to
install from. The FC5 disks are larger (more data) than previous FC
releases and I have seen a number of early CDROM drives that will fail
to read all the data. If you can't read part of the disc and need what's
on it you'll get a failed installation - happened to me with a DL360
(IDE drive) and a set of FC5 discs which worked perfectly on another system.

NewsReader wrote:
The FC5 disks are larger (more data) than previous FC
releases and I have seen a number of early CDROM drives that will fail
to read all the data. If you can't read part of the disc and need what's
on it you'll get a failed installation - happened to me with a DL360
(IDE drive) and a set of FC5 discs which worked perfectly on another system.

That makes sense to me. The 2500 came, stock, with a 2x or 4x CD Drive.
Are you suggesting that this drive should be upgraded first? I know
that a good working 48x drive can be picked up for around $5...and you
would certainly be happier down the road.

Jeff

Jeffrey Alsip wrote:
NewsReader wrote:

The FC5 disks are larger (more data) than previous FC
releases and I have seen a number of early CDROM drives that will fail
to read all the data. If you can't read part of the disc and need what's
on it you'll get a failed installation - happened to me with a DL360
(IDE drive) and a set of FC5 discs which worked perfectly on another system.


That makes sense to me. The 2500 came, stock, with a 2x or 4x CD Drive.
Are you suggesting that this drive should be upgraded first? I know
that a good working 48x drive can be picked up for around $5...and you
would certainly be happier down the road.

Jeff


I'm suggesting that the media check is a required part of the install
process and should be completed for all of the discs to determine if the
drive can read them. If you also want more speed, go for the upgraded
drive. But you need to be sure the discs are fully readable on whatever
drive you choose as a part of troubleshooting an installation problem.

It's a black-box problem-solving exercise. You have two objects which do
not work reliably together. Which one is bad? Maybe both are... How can
you figure it out...

The FC5 install is failing on me before I ever get to the "test the
media" level. The only opportunity I have to interact with it is at
the linux prompt. That's where I used the "exactmem" commands.

After that, it prepares to install for about 1 minute and hangs.

The optical drive in the system is a newer HP CD/RW. I was actually
thinking about backing it down to a standard CD-ROM before I got RH9 to
load to see if my problem was too much drive as opposed to too little.

You're the first I've seen who said they were actually able to install
FC5 on a 2500. That's good news. Mine has dual PPro 200 CPUs and
320MB of RAM.

I ran XWindows last night and it worked great, but when I logged out, I
got an error that the system had crashed out of the interface and it
hung up the system.

Now that I'm on RH9, I ran an apt update/upgrade and d/l 161 updates.
That took nearly an hour, so I went to bed. Tonight I plan to attempt
a kernal upgrade. Then I want to begin the RH9 to FC1 upgrade.

Steve



NewsReader wrote:
I have installed FC5 on a 2500. A few things to watch

1. Make sure you use the memory statements as described in other postings

2. Make sure you do the system erase as described etc..

3. Test each of the FC5 discs using the CDROM drive you are going to
install from. The FC5 disks are larger (more data) than previous FC
releases and I have seen a number of early CDROM drives that will fail
to read all the data. If you can't read part of the disc and need what's
on it you'll get a failed installation - happened to me with a DL360
(IDE drive) and a set of FC5 discs which worked perfectly on another system.

wrote:

I ran XWindows last night and it worked great, but when I logged out, I
got an error that the system had crashed out of the interface and it
hung up the system.

Now that I'm on RH9, I ran an apt update/upgrade and d/l 161 updates.
That took nearly an hour, so I went to bed. Tonight I plan to attempt
a kernal upgrade. Then I want to begin the RH9 to FC1 upgrade.

Steve

Compaq video cards usually have modified firmware and have great
difficulty working with the linux provided drivers. I have had to
disable the CPQ integrated video and stuff in a standard display card
to get X working on other systems. I usually use the "text" parameter
when installing linux on a server to avoid having to deal with
windowing programs and CPQ video cards.

A point to consider is: why try to run a CPQ 2500 as a workstation? A
server class machine will run quite nicely at init 3 and there are
quite nice management programs (i.e. webmin, vnc, etc) that can give
you a GUI console without putting additional overhead on the server.

In article , NewsReader wrote:
wrote:

I ran XWindows last night and it worked great, but when I logged out, I
got an error that the system had crashed out of the interface and it
hung up the system.

Now that I'm on RH9, I ran an apt update/upgrade and d/l 161 updates.
That took nearly an hour, so I went to bed. Tonight I plan to attempt
a kernal upgrade. Then I want to begin the RH9 to FC1 upgrade.

Steve

Compaq video cards usually have modified firmware and have great
difficulty working with the linux provided drivers. I have had to
disable the CPQ integrated video and stuff in a standard display card
to get X working on other systems. I usually use the "text" parameter
when installing linux on a server to avoid having to deal with
windowing programs and CPQ video cards.

A point to consider is: why try to run a CPQ 2500 as a workstation? A
server class machine will run quite nicely at init 3 and there are
quite nice management programs (i.e. webmin, vnc, etc) that can give
you a GUI console without putting additional overhead on the server.

That is effectively what I do.. I've got a 6400 in my garage all racked
up and almost never use the screen or keyboard on it.. 99.9% of any
management activities are remote.. I do use X on it, but use a laptop
running OS-X which has an X-server installed and do a secure-shell over
to the server and fire up apps remotely. It works great, and while I
do have X installed on the server, it's only from a client capacity
which I can live with. Anyway, YMMV!

-- Rick

It's my goal to be able to manage the server with the command line
only. I use GUI in linux only when I can't figure out the command for
something.

It may be a moot point. I can't get Xwindows, KDE or Gnome to run. X
locks up. The others just error out.

Steve

Rick F. wrote:
In article , NewsReader wrote:
wrote:

I ran XWindows last night and it worked great, but when I logged out, I
got an error that the system had crashed out of the interface and it
hung up the system.

Now that I'm on RH9, I ran an apt update/upgrade and d/l 161 updates.
That took nearly an hour, so I went to bed. Tonight I plan to attempt
a kernal upgrade. Then I want to begin the RH9 to FC1 upgrade.

Steve

Compaq video cards usually have modified firmware and have great
difficulty working with the linux provided drivers. I have had to
disable the CPQ integrated video and stuff in a standard display card
to get X working on other systems. I usually use the "text" parameter
when installing linux on a server to avoid having to deal with
windowing programs and CPQ video cards.

A point to consider is: why try to run a CPQ 2500 as a workstation? A
server class machine will run quite nicely at init 3 and there are
quite nice management programs (i.e. webmin, vnc, etc) that can give
you a GUI console without putting additional overhead on the server.

That is effectively what I do.. I've got a 6400 in my garage all racked
up and almost never use the screen or keyboard on it.. 99.9% of any
management activities are remote.. I do use X on it, but use a laptop
running OS-X which has an X-server installed and do a secure-shell over
to the server and fire up apps remotely. It works great, and while I
do have X installed on the server, it's only from a client capacity
which I can live with. Anyway, YMMV!

-- Rick