Need help on RHEL3 installation with SAS controller

[Internship]

I have some problem here,

After installation of Red Hat kernel 2.4.21-27 (Customized) on BL20p G4 with SmartArray E200i and 2x36GB SAS SFF RAID 0, when it's reboot there only says
"
Attempting boot from Hard disk(C:)
GRUB
"
and it stuck.

Previously when installation, i was update the SAS controller driver from HP site:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/25366.html
And the installation going fine.

I am not sure what is the problem, but i guess:
-. Problem with SAS controller, or
-. BIOS geometry, or
-. GRUB loader

Is it any way to fix the problem?Can anyone help me?

Thanks in advance,
Internship

[Andrew Young_2]

Hi.

Sounds like you will need to patch grub as well. We had a similar problem with a smart array controller and patching grub solved the problem.

Regards

Andrew Y

[Internship]

Thanks for the answer, but if you don't mind i would like to ask you the steps to patching grub as you mentioned above.

Regards,
Internship

[Andrew Young_2]

Hi.

Boot the server with the Linux CD1 and boot into rescue mode with:

linux rescue

Allow network connectivity.

Chroot into /mnt/sysimage. Install the grub rpm like you normally would. Reboot.

However you will proably need the latest RHEL 3 update 7 or 8 Disk 1 to be able boot with that controller.

Latest grub version for RHEL3 is 0.93-4.8, but we are running grub-0.93-4.3 without any problems, only difference is we are running BL460p which has the same controller.

HTH

Andrew Y

[Internship]

Hi Andrew,

I already tried your way,

After allow netwok connectivity this happened,

when i tried with RHEL 3 Update 8, there is an error
"
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/anaconda", line 582, in ?
rescue.runRescue(rootPath, not rescue_nomount, id)
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/rescue.py", line 439, in runRescue
runShell()
File "/usr/lib/anaconda/rescue.py", line 168, in runShell
fcntl.ioctl(0, termios.TIOCSCTTY)
IOError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted
"
then it automatically reboot the system. [It's happen when i choose 'Continue' or 'Skip' when try to mount sysimage]

When i tried with RHEL 3 Update 4 or 5, there is an error
"There is no linux partition detected"

I already search the error with Google but i can't found it.
I have no idea what is the problem.

Could you help me?
Or, you have another way to get into shell prompt so i can update the GRUB?

[Andrew Young_2]

Hi.

RHEL3 U3 and U4 won't work because it won't recognise the controller so it cannot read the disk.

Its an anaconda bug, but thats now beyond my level of expertise unfortunately. I did look at the code in question which was not very helpful and couldn't find any articles that were helpful either.

My only other suggestion would be to build a special version of the boot CD with the grub rpm included and then boot without networking.

Regards

Andrew Y

[Internship]

Thank you for your answer,
i think that might solved the problem.

But now it's up to my client for the decision.

And this thread is closed.

[Internship]

Closed