ML310 and Red Hat 9/Fedora Core ?

[Pete_51]

We are about to buy a 2nd hand (ex demo) ML310 p2.8ghz - the application we want to run on this server requires Red Hat 9 or Fedora Core - i dont see any official support info or RH9 an ML310 on the HP site - can anyone tell me from experience if RH9 will install fairly easily using Smart Start on one o these servers? Are there any known hardware/driver limitations with RH9?

Kind regards and thanks in advance
Pete

[Pete_51]

Sorry, i should have added, if ML310 support is not going to happen, we could, possibly go for an ML370 our vendor has available, ML 2 x p800 - would this machine be more RH9 friendly?

Note we have no need for anything special to run, its simply a mail filter/mail gateway, no snmp or anything that i see others hvaing problems with on these machines with this OS in this forum.

[Pete_51]

So does anyone know if this is likely, or possible? To install RH9 on an ML310 SCSI?

[Victor Pendlebury]

Hi Pete

RH9 is not supported on any Proliant : please refer to the HP Supported OS Matrix
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/linux/hpLinuxcert.html

But I know by experience that there is a bug in the RH9 Kernel - sounds to be an issue with the IDE driver : this causes the CDROM not to be recognized.

There is a workaround.

The fix is in the form of a boot floppy that is used in conjunction with the installation CD.

The readme and floppy images are available externally here:

ftp://ftp.compaq.com:21/pub/products/servers/supportsoftware/linux/RedHat/bootdisk.rhl9.readme
ftp://ftp.compaq.com:21/pub/products/servers/supportsoftware/linux/RedHat/bootdisk.rhl9dl.img
ftp://ftp.compaq.com:21/pub/products/servers/supportsoftware/linux/RedHat/bootdisk.rhl9us.img


An updated boot floppy has been created and can be downloaded from: ftp.compaq.com
The floppy is created by using either dd or rawrite.

dd can be used as follows:

dd if=bootdisk.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k

rawrite can be used as follows:

rawrite
Specify the name of the image file when prompted
Specify the "A:" drive when prompted for destination drive.

Once you have created the updated boot floppy, boot the above mentioned ProLiant server on the floppy. You may insert the CD-ROM at any time after the server begins booting on the updated floppy. If prompted, select "install from CD-ROM" and insert the Red Hat Linux 9 Professional CD when prompted.

Installation should continue as normal.

Note: There are two versions of this updated boot disk.

* bootdisk.rhl9us.img is only for retail boxed Red Hat Linux 9 purchased in the US where the md5sum for CD #1 is: "cd8872f2e2e3a42f548ed1bf947709f0".

* bootdisk.rhl9dl.img is for the supported/retail boxed Red Hat Linux 9 purchased outside the US where the md5sum for CD #1 is: "50f414a2135d093a02704b4b513f92ba" or the unsupported version downloaded from sites such as linuxiso.org where the md5sum for CD #1 is: "400c7fb292c73b793fb722532abd09ad".


The md5sum of the updated floppies are as follows:

c2d235cf7c05030e8ae7d849421d4f01 bootdisk.rhl9dl.img
51fd0ef3d8d6c654d17b61e6f7b12fa4 bootdisk.rhl9us.img



Hope this will help

Regards

Victor

[Pete_51]

Mate, thanks so much for all that, that is some very usefull info.

Thanks for taking the time.

If i may trouble you to ask further question.

I ask about RH9/Fedora installation on this machine as i havent bought it yet, when i buy it need to know i can install RH9 or Fedora.

We use the Downloaded from Red Hat Iso, we dont have a boxed version. But if i check the checksums tomorrow and they differe i will buy the correct version.

Since we are not using raid or anything, just SCSI, do i need any of the drivers or software from the compaq site? Just instal RH9, do the updates and thats it?

Thanks so much.

[Pete_51]

Also if i were to use the supported RHEL, could i use WS version, or would i be oblidged to use the RHEL ES etc that costs a LOT of money ?