Proliant 2500 PCI Video card question

I have 2 Proliant 2500's with dual PPro 200's and Smart Arrays. I'm
lookint to install a linux distro on them and will be using several
GUI applications. The on-board video is definitely not up to the
challenge based on my initial testing.

Does the Proliant 2500 support an add in PCI video card? I've seen
references on google to a motherboard switch that turns off the
on-board video but I haven't seen a post that states it will work.

Has anyone had a positive or negative experience with add on video
cards? Is there a particular slot they need to be installed on?

TIA!

VinceV

Hi

I use a 2500 as a desktop dual booting WinXP and Linux.

It has the onboard video disabled - I think I disabled mine in the BIOS -
and a PCI card in any slot.

Things to watvh out for:

WinXP will find the correct video card

Linux is much more intelligent and finds both even though the onboard one
is diabled. Make sure that your setup uses the correct one or you will get
horrid 640 x 480.

I just installed Mandrake 9.2 and you also have to watch out for the
memory memory - Linux will not find it correctly as it has an EISA
architecture.

On installation boot press F1 when prompted and type linux mem=exactmap
mem=640K@0K mem=???M@1M - substitute the amount in MB that you have.

On first reboot press I when it asks you if you want an interactice boot,
do not accept dm which will take you to a command prompt. Log in as
root. Add the same statement in the append statement you will find in your
/etc/lilo.conf file. I always install mc which makes finding and editing
the file dead easy.

Save and exit the file.

run the command lilo

reboot your computer.

My 2500 has Dual PPRO 200 1Meg cache and 1 GIG of ECC Ram.

I dont play games and the performance is great on a GUI with a 4meg PCI
graphics card

HTH

Tony


On Tue, 04 Nov 2003 14:34:18 -0800, VinceV wrote:

I have 2 Proliant 2500's with dual PPro 200's and Smart Arrays. I'm
lookint to install a linux distro on them and will be using several
GUI applications. The on-board video is definitely not up to the
challenge based on my initial testing.

Does the Proliant 2500 support an add in PCI video card? I've seen
references on google to a motherboard switch that turns off the
on-board video but I haven't seen a post that states it will work.

Has anyone had a positive or negative experience with add on video
cards? Is there a particular slot they need to be installed on?

TIA!

VinceV

Sorry

mem=???-1M@1M

1 meg less than you have.

Tony






On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 19:13:49 +0000, tony bennett wrote:

Hi

I use a 2500 as a desktop dual booting WinXP and Linux.

It has the onboard video disabled - I think I disabled mine in the BIOS -
and a PCI card in any slot.

Things to watvh out for:

WinXP will find the correct video card

Linux is much more intelligent and finds both even though the onboard one
is diabled. Make sure that your setup uses the correct one or you will get
horrid 640 x 480.

I just installed Mandrake 9.2 and you also have to watch out for the
memory memory - Linux will not find it correctly as it has an EISA
architecture.

On installation boot press F1 when prompted and type linux mem=exactmap
mem=640K@0K mem=???M@1M - substitute the amount in MB that you have.

On first reboot press I when it asks you if you want an interactice boot,
do not accept dm which will take you to a command prompt. Log in as
root. Add the same statement in the append statement you will find in your
/etc/lilo.conf file. I always install mc which makes finding and editing
the file dead easy.

Save and exit the file.

run the command lilo

reboot your computer.

My 2500 has Dual PPRO 200 1Meg cache and 1 GIG of ECC Ram.

I dont play games and the performance is great on a GUI with a 4meg PCI
graphics card

HTH

Tony


On Tue, 04 Nov 2003 14:34:18 -0800, VinceV wrote:

I have 2 Proliant 2500's with dual PPro 200's and Smart Arrays. I'm
lookint to install a linux distro on them and will be using several
GUI applications. The on-board video is definitely not up to the
challenge based on my initial testing.

Does the Proliant 2500 support an add in PCI video card? I've seen
references on google to a motherboard switch that turns off the
on-board video but I haven't seen a post that states it will work.

Has anyone had a positive or negative experience with add on video
cards? Is there a particular slot they need to be installed on?

TIA!

VinceV

tony bennett wrote in message m...
Sorry

mem=???-1M@1M

1 meg less than you have.


Thanks for the reply!

I have succesfully installed Linux on a variety of Proliants and knew
about the memory issue. My issue is that Linux configuration has
become more dependent on xwindows and the on-board video just doesn't
cut it.

Do yoy have experience with a particular pci card or would just about
any pci based video card work? Do you know of any that flat don't
work?

VinceV

Hi

I have no direct experience of any that dont work, my current card is a
4MEG S£ Virge.

Since the onboard Cirrus Logic is on the PCI bus I suspect that your
choice of card is limited only by the linux distro's XFree version and its
support for that particular card.

Hope this helps

Tony



n Thu, 06 Nov 2003 07:58:39 -0800, VinceV wrote:

tony bennett wrote in message m...
Sorry

mem=???-1M@1M

1 meg less than you have.


Thanks for the reply!

I have succesfully installed Linux on a variety of Proliants and knew
about the memory issue. My issue is that Linux configuration has
become more dependent on xwindows and the on-board video just doesn't
cut it.

Do yoy have experience with a particular pci card or would just about
any pci based video card work? Do you know of any that flat don't
work?

VinceV

Further to this thread I bought today a Pine 3d Phanton 32Mb PCI card
which has a SiS305 chipset.

At the boot up screen the SiS logo appears, goes away and comes back
repeatedly.

Anyone know a way round this - for £16 in the UK its a lot of card for
the money if I can get it to work.

Meantime back to a trusty old S3 PCI card - the onboard chipset is u/s.

TIA

Tony







On Tue, 04 Nov 2003 14:34:18 -0800, VinceV wrote:

I have 2 Proliant 2500's with dual PPro 200's and Smart Arrays. I'm
lookint to install a linux distro on them and will be using several
GUI applications. The on-board video is definitely not up to the
challenge based on my initial testing.

Does the Proliant 2500 support an add in PCI video card? I've seen
references on google to a motherboard switch that turns off the
on-board video but I haven't seen a post that states it will work.

Has anyone had a positive or negative experience with add on video
cards? Is there a particular slot they need to be installed on?

TIA!

VinceV