RHEL / CentOS 5 on Proliant DL380 G1

[Ben Hollingsworth]

I know that RHEL 5 and its derivatives are not official supported on older P3 platforms like a DL380G1 or DL360G2. When I try to install it, it does the initial boot, but will get no further than the first prompt where I hit Return. I assume it has to do with the way RHEL configured the kernel in v5. However, Ubuntu and Fedora, which use even newer kernels, boot just fine. Is there any way around this problem that would allow me to install CentOS 5 on an older HP server? That's really my OS of choice for this application.

[Simeon Harwood]

I have seen this sort of problem before. From memory, I think that RHEL will try and install the SMP kernel and boot from it, even though the hardware dosn't support it. When the machine boots, interupt it, and have a look at the bootable kernel options, try and select the non SMP kernel and see if that then boots. If this is the case, then edit the /boot/grub/grub.conf file to set this as the default boot.
My memory is a little hazzy about this, so you might have to tinker about with the kernels that you have got loaded. Also when I saw this probelm XEN was but a twinkle in a developers eye, so make sure you're not trying to use the XEN kernel too.

Sime.

[Ben Hollingsworth]

Thanks, but I'm afraid the problem is appearing earlier than that -- when I try to boot from the install CD. There is no grub.conf to update and no kernel chooser menu at that point. The SMP kernel shouldn't cause any problems (not specifically because of SMP, anyway), as the other distros that I mentioned also use SMP kernels and work just fine.

I'd really prefer to use RHEL/CentOS on this box, but I may have to break down and use Ubuntu server or something if I can't get by this.

[Ivan Ferreira]

Before hitting enter, try typing on of the following options:

- linux noapic nomca nousb nousbstorage

- linux memmap=exactmap memmap=640k@0 memmap=256m@1M

[Ben Hollingsworth]

Ivan, thanks for the suggestions, but neither of those had any effect. Just to clarify, this boots off the install CD and gives me the interface where I can select the type of install or change kernel options. When I give it the "go" signal, it prints "loading vmlinux..." and "loading initrd.img...", then clears the screen, turns on the hard drive activity lights, and hangs. Only the Big Red Button will stop it. I've let it go for hours on an 18GB drive, so I know it's not just in the middle of something.

Any other suggestions?

[Rob Leadbeater]

Hi,

Not an answer, but a quick Google threw up this page:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Subaruboi

which suggests it can be done. Maybe drop that guy a mail !

Cheers,

Rob

[Ben Hollingsworth]

Thanks for the link, Rob. That guy was helpful. As it turns out, whatever problem CentOS/RHEL 5.0 had with my old DL380/360 has been resolved in the current 5.2 release. I downloaded a CentOS 5.2 live CD last night, and it boots up just fine. I'll try upgrading the hard drives from 4.7 to 5.2 in the next day or two, but since I'm already much farther along than I'd been able to get with 5.0, I'm willing to state that my problems appear to be solved.

[Ben Hollingsworth]

Well, 5.2 installed to the hard drive just fine, even though 5.0 wouldn't boot, so that indeed was my problem. RHEL must have fixed something between those versions. Thanks for your suggestions, everyone.