Linux on HP LH4r

[Mario de Frutos]

Hi everybody!

I'm recently adquired a HP NetServer Lh4r (2Gb of RAM, 4 SCSI Disks and 2 PIII 550Mhz XEON) and i'm having problems to install Debian in it.

I read similar post but i didn't find a solution for my problem.

The problem is that when i try to install Debian Sarge with 2.4 kernel i got an errorsaying Error with "modprobe -v sym53c8xx_2"

If i try to install 2.6 kernel i got kernel panic.

Can anyone help me?

Thx

[Hans-Jürgen Lange]

Hello,

installation should work if you are using the on-board RAID controller. I never used it for to handle a single disk. If it is not possible to let the RAID controller handle a single disk build a RAID0 or RAID1 with two of your four disks. Then install the OS and generate a new kernel. On my LH4r a Linux-2.6.15.5 is running.

Or another thing that may help. Use acpi=noirq on the kernel-commandline. Linux and the smartirq router have different ideas of how interrupts are routed. This often make problems with additional interface cards.

[Bryan Eley]

Hi Mario,

Yes, what you are seeing is a known linux problem for out of the box installs. Debian has a bug listed for something similar to this with some discussion at http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=284961

I also came across a newsgroup thread with the following description (probably what you are seeing):
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"I can't install Sarge on a HP server (NetServer LH4) because I get an error related to Symbios SCSI:
error while loading "modprobe -v sym53c8xx_2".

With dmesg I get this extra info:
sym0: <895> rev 0x1 om pci bus 1 device 7 function 0 irq 11
sym0: No NVRAM, ID 7, Fast-40, LVD, parity checking
CACHE TEST FAILED: reg dstat-sstat2 readback ffffffff.
sym0: CACHE INCORRECTLY CONFIGURED
sym0: gigving up...
Intel ISA PCIC probe: not found

I searched the debian archives and the web but found no help.

I''ve tried disabling acpi, booting with "linux acpi=off pci=noacpi" and also with "linux noapic nolapic" (I actually don't know what these mean).

I was suggested using Knoppix but I don't know how to install Debian using Knoppix.

Furthermore I tried booting with "linux26" but I get Kernel Panic."
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I've heard rumors about a fix for this problem with one of the newer 2.6 kernel releases but haven't seen one yet myself.

Bryan