Gentoo Linux & ProLiant DL380 G4

[Jaakko Kujala]

I'm having trouble installing Gentoo on a ProLiant DL380 G4.

Everything goes smoothly until the point where I'd like to update my portage tree (package management for gentoo). It seems that every process that needs a lot of cpu/mem/disk usage fails. For example, the portage update hangs when it counts the files that need to be updated, also when I try to update my kernel, recomiple glibc or anything a bit more demanding, the server freezes.

When the freeze does happen, the cursor on the screen blinks but nothing responds (even CTRL+ALT+DEL does nothing) and all the services die as well. I've configured my system logger to log to console so I could debug what goes wrong, sadly no logs are created during the crash.

So the question is, has anyone succesfully installed Gentoo Linux or any other distro with a 2.6-kernel on a ProLiant DL380 G4?

(I think this could have something to do with the built-in cciss-module on the 2.6-kernel.)

[JohnWRuffo]

Jaakko:

Have you updated the bios on the server? There are some known problems fixed with the microcode that can cuase the server to lockup / panic under heavy loads:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/22313.html

hope this helps. -john

[Jaakko Kujala]

I updated the bios with this file :
http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/22290.html

Updating went smoothly but didn't fix any issues. Immediatly after applying the update, I restarted the server and tried to recompile my kernel -> the same freeze as before.

Does anyone know if there are known issues with 2.6-kernels or could this be a hardware problem?

[Jaakko Kujala]

Btw, how can I identify the model of the Smart Array 6i-controller on the server?
I was thinking I'd try to update the firmware of the RAID-controller as well but I can't tell if the model is 641/642 or 6400 (I'm guessing 6400 cause lspci shows 64xx, but I'd like to be sure).

[JohnWRuffo]

The DL380 G4 server has an integrated 6i controller. If you added a SmartArray Controller to the server, it would be installed in the PCI riser cage. You can see what controllers are installed in the server at POST. Each controller has a boot init showing what logical drives are attached. You can also use the RBSU to identify the installed controllers and PCI devices.

To note... HP (that I know of) has not released a 2.6 package that you can use. You may find a CCISS that someone has ported to 2.6 that will work for you from Gentoo.org or other linux forums.

[Vitaly Karasik_1]

DL380G4 is certified for SLEL9 [kernel 2.6], so it's not kernel 2.6 issue.

[Jaakko Kujala]

I first thought that the "Smart Array 6i" is just a general name for the controller and 6400 or 641/642 is the more exact model. But the exact name seems to be 6i.

So yes, it is the integrated controller, no addon-cards are present.

The CCISS-module on the 2.6.10-kernel supports the 6i-controller (at least it's listed on the readme).

So I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that there's some kind of a hardware problem on the server because the server "works" as long as I don't do anything that requires a bit more CPU/mem/disk -usage.

[Jaakko Kujala]

It turned out that the motherboard was broken.
Got a replacement today and now everything's running smoothly.
Gentoo Linux with 2.6.10-kernel, no additional drivers needed.