DL380/G1 Linux and System Partition

[ssullivan]

I rebuilt an old DL380 and put in some new drives. I then used the SmartStart 5.5 disk to build the array and create teh system partition. When I initially reboot, hitting F10 brings up the configuration menu just fine.

I then install CentOS 5 and choose to use available free space and it installs just fine (along with Grub). Problem is, it reboots fine, OS works..but hitting F10 no longer brings up the config menu during startup..just jumps right to the grub loader. :(

Been thru a half-dozen rebuilds now trying different options and nothing seems to work. Any thoughts?

[Víctor Cespón]

CentOS is not supported on Proliant servers. When you install using SmartStart 5.5 it creates a small hidden partition with the System Configuration Utility and other things. When you install CentOS, it erases all partitions on disk to create his own.
You can access the System Configuration utility booting with diskettes though.

[KarloChacon]

hi

the application vcespon is referring is this one, Compaq System Configuration Utility, to access BIOS for G1 server using diskettes

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&mode=3&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-UNITY-I13227

regards

[ssullivan]

Actually, looks like the system partition is still there (at least the SmartStart disk has no problems updating it after the CentOS install). Looks like what is happening is the Grub Loader is installing in the array's MBR record. If I set it to install Grub in the partitions boot record, system gets "No OS loaded" error. I think if I reset everthing, use manual config of SmartStart and then when I install CentOS, tell it to only use available free space and not to use the grub loader should leave teh System Partition intact. Then just need to make the CentOS partition bootable. Going to give it a shot tommorrow. If that doesn't work, going to try and convince the client to use Debian. :)

[Jimmy Vance]

You really don't need the system partition. It just holds the SmartStart Utilities. You can nix the system partition and just boot the SmartStart CD if you need to change the system configuration

[~sesh]

In my opinion, it doesn't seem to be an issue with CentOS installing the Grub on your MBR. Most Operating Systems do that (including Windows). However, in Linux you have an option to install grub on a different partition. Installing Debian would be no different as it would also install grub on MBR by default (hd0).

The reason the installation of grub on the boot of the partition (instead of MBR) is not working, is because grub doesn't know which partition is a boot partition. For this you would need a separate partition for /boot. Then you can instruct grub to use that to boot the installed Linux system.

There is a very good howto on installing grub with different options, if you read it, you may get a better idea.

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/html_node/Installing-GRUB-using-grub_002dinstall.html

OR

You can use Jimmy Vance's idea to access the system configuration while leaving your installation intact.