Installation

[Ayman Altounji]

Has anyone managed to successfully install Linux (any flavour) on a Proliant 4500r server.
I've got 4.3 Gb HDD's, 64 Mb RAM, 100 Mzh processor

[Ayman Altounji]

The Proliant 4500 is not certified for the Linux OS. See the Compaq Linux compatibility list at this web address.
http://www5.compaq.com/products/servers/linux/OSMatrix1.html

Since the Proliant 4500 is all EISA based, you are going to have to perform a text based, custom install of the OS. If your system is using the original EISA based Smart Array controller, this model is not supported in a Linux OS environment. You must have a Smart-2/E model for the array controller to work with Linux.

You have to configure all the hardware in the system so that the hard drive controller, video controller, network controller and other installed devices are on the Linux hardware compatibility list for the Linux distribution you want to install. Then Linux drivers will be available for your hardware configuration. Once the hardware has been configured with compatible devices that have Linux drivers available, you will be able to install the OS.

See these web pages for information on installing Linux on Compaq Proliant systems.
http://www.geocities.com/rlcomp_1999/
http://www5.compaq.com/products/servers/linux/compaq-howto.html

[Ayman Altounji]

Robert,

I'm trying to install Redhat 7.0 (has 2.4 kernel) onto a 4500. Using the Compaq Smart2 Array controller, how do I enter module parameters so that it properly recognizes the Adapter?

Also, the Embedded SCSI Controller uses the NCR53C825 chipset. If the ncr53c8xxx.o only recognizes the PCI (not EISA) version of the chipset, what .o driver should I use that will recognize this EISA chipset?

Thanks in advance for the reply...

[Ayman Altounji]

Have a look at http://jpprime.free.fr/proliant/ for installing the SMART 1 EISA adapter. The Linux Driver does work for the SMART 1 Controller !
There is no driver for the Onboard NCR SCSI so you have to use an supported SCSI Controller.

regards Serge

[Ayman Altounji]

Yes I have, but I had to replace the integrated NCR53C825 SCSI with an Adaptec AHA-2740.

>Since the Proliant 4500 is all EISA based, you are going to have to >perform a text based, custom install of the OS.

Simply being EISA based is no reason to require a "text based, custom install". Most linux distros support EISA out of the box. RedHat dropped install support for the 2740 in 7.0, so I had to us a driver disk to install, but with RH6.1 the support was built in to the boot floppy. My 4500 won't boot from CD, so I had to use a boot floppy, is this true of all 4500's?

Also, neither RH6.1 or 7.0 would recognize more than 16MB of RAM, so don't forget to boot with linux mem=xxxM where xxx is your RAM size. Also, append="mem=xxxM" needs to go into lilo.conf. Rerun lilo after you make the change.

As far as the NCR integrated SCSI goes, I exchanged e-mail with the developer of the linux NCR53C825 driver. He said that this is a PCI *only* chip and Compaq must be using some sort of hardware hack to make it work on an EISA bus. In any case the 4500's implementation is non-standard and quite unlikely to be supported under linux without Compaq's help. I checked some of NCR's whitepapers on this chip and he seems to be correct. No mention of EISA (or a separate EISA version) anywhere.

Good luck, I hope you get yours running!

Joe Wells

[Ayman Altounji]

Well, it is now May & this is what I've learned so far:

There are 2 hurdles one must complete to install Linux OS onto a Compaq PL 4500:
a) get the Smart 2/E Raid controller driver loaded to recognize your storage system
b) get the embedded scsi controller driver loaded to recognize your cdrom

I've found from countless internet searches that the solution to a) above is the following:

1. boot linux text expert
2. when prompted for driver disk, choose no
3. when selecting cd-rom, choose compaq raid controller (which will load cpqarray.o)
4. before loading, load with options "eisa=0x6000" where the number 6 is what ever eisa slot the smart 2/e board is loaded.

(I wish someone could have sent me this info back in January!)

Now, I'm still trying to get the NCR53C825 chipset Embedded SCSI controller to be recognized by the ncr53c8xx.o module. Why?

Because,
a) I don't have any other scsi controllers
b) The embedded scsi controller on motherboard is my boot controller, which allows me to boot from cdrom. Therefore, I don't believe I want to change this since I NEED contingency access to my CDROM if I mess up eisa config.

Also, the answer to "does Redhat 7.0 boot from CDROM" is NO.

I'm halfway there. I need some help with the NCR53C825 chipset, linux module and its optional load parameters. I'm convinced that the ncr53c8xx.o module supplied with Redhat 7.0 will work with this chipset and all I need are the load parameters to get it recognized.

Please drop me a line if you can help. Thanks in advance.