DL360 G3 bios confusion

[gurpal2000]

I obtained an old DL360 G3 recently. It has P31 03/03/2005 bios as it mentions on startup.

Now for some reason i just can't get into any BIOS screen no matter what 'F' buttons i try. The server just wants to PXE boot every time.

I read about the SW switches and i tried switch 6 which resets the bios. Now that seemed to work because on startup it detected that switch 6 was flipped and it asks you to power down and reset. So i did. Then i see messages such as press [F8] sometimes and then another screen flashes up with F9,F10. I know the keyboard is working for sure.

Also the Dl360 came with a floppy and cd rom. Im trying to get it to boot something/anything off the cdrom, but i guess i need to enter a bios to tell it to right ?

Thanks

[Manuel Boosch]

what do u want to do ?

you can reach the BIOS/RBSU (rom based system utility) by pressing F9, the ilo settings or raid settings by pressing F8. what u described is the normal boot up for a dl 380.

regards

[gurpal2000]

This is just for experimentation, but the end goal is to try to install any LInux OS that works and use this as a server/vmware.

When should i press those keys? Straight after the HP splash screen or whenever it tells you.
Because it said press f8 for ILO and i keep f8 pressed down and i even press it many times really fast and nothing happens.

thx

[Manuel Boosch]

u have ~2 sec. after it tells u to press. when u pressed f9 at the correct time there should be a short message "f9 pressed" down right in the display and the rbsu should appear. maybe u should switch between ps/2 - usb keyboard. next step would be a firmware update of all components.

Firmware & SmartStart:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=de&cc=de&prodNameId=3288130&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=316529&swLang=18&taskId=135&swEnvOID=181

try to boot from smart start and run insight diagnostics

[gurpal2000]

The first keystroke it mentions is F8 for ILO. It doesn't mention any other Fs. That's the problem. It also mentions Ctrl-S for getting into th smart array config and that doesn't work either. It DID once work by chance, but i can't figure out what i did that time.

I don't have the machine in front of me, so will try with a usb keyboard also later today.

thx

[gurpal2000]

Ok i got into the setup screens.
The boot order is cd-rom, floppy, hard disk, net.

I have cdrom and the lights definetly blink when i power the server, but it fails to do anything off the cdrom.

The last screen suggests it looked for floppy and disk and net and doesn't mention cdrom.

could it be that he cdrom is malfunctioning? I know there's nothing wrong with the cdrom disk itself.

Will try an external usb cdrom drive in a bit.

[gurpal2000]

replying to myself :) turns out the cdrom drive wasn't pushed in properly. smartstart is booting right now :)