IBM eServer xSeries 300/8672-81X - Compatible with any distro.
 

I recently got my hands on a,

IBM eServer xSeries 300/8672-81X
Intel Pentium(r) III; 1000B MHz (coppermine), 1 GB, IBM scsi
Model: 694X-686A
BIOS Version: ABE120A (05/05/03)
IBM IC35L018UCD210-0 S5BS 18GB SCSI Disk

The problem I am having is that every linux distro I have tried to install or even use a live cd they all stick around agpgart ( S3 Inc. Savage 4 06 VGA ). I have tried gentoo, slackware, debian, knoppix, Kanotix, ubuntu, kubuntu, suse, Fedora core 4 and 5. The box came with fedora core 5 installed and working so I know this is possible (operator error most likely). Has anyone had previous experience installing linux on this box?

They will all install, but once that is done and it starts to boot up, It freezes around the video part or in Fedoras case just sits there saying that it is booting the kernel. I have tried different methods of installing (noprob) but I cant figure this one out.

Any help would be great!!



PS. MICROSUCK XP/2003 works fine on it.

Have you tried booting into run level 3 instead of 5 (non-graphics mode)? This could potentially prevent the freeze and allow you time to install an updated driver for the video while the machine is running.

We're running a couple of those x300's with SLES9 on them but not with X.

Update??
 

Has anyone figured this out yet. I have two IBM xsereis 300's that are paperweights right now becuase I can't seem to get Debian or any of it's children installed on them.

Thanks

Nope
 

I still have no Solution for My problem Yet. I have googled it to death and found no avail. I have questioned friends at work and basically beating my head on the wall. I know it has to be something easy. But like you said the servers I have are just sitting there not getting used because of this. I did what wczimmerman suggested but the box still freezes at the agpart section when loading.

Has anyone gotten around this yet? I just bought 2 off of EBay, and they both had FC5 on them. Not knowing the root passes I reinstalled FC5 on one of them, then tried Cent4 and mine hangs in the extact same spots - either at agpgart or at the uncompressing the kernel and locks up there. I've tried the noapic option, turned off rhgb and quiet - still no go.
There has to be some way around this.....

I'm still trying to figure this out, I have found a few things related to this on the Internet, but nothing that's been useful to me. The noapic was supposed to work, at least it work for someone else (supposedly). I've tried using a pci video card thinking that the on board vga was all messed up, I've even tried installing Debian on a different server and transferring the hdd back to my 300, but still nothing. I've been working on these for about 3 months and the only thing that installs properly is *BSD and IPCop.

Nick

That's interesting since IPCop is RH based.
I've also tried a PCI video card, installing on a different machine and moving the HD to the 300, noapic. I think the people I bought mine from installed from the network, since one of the ones I got had a sticker on it saying the CDROM was bad when it was only unplugged to add another HD.
I'll try and get hold of them later today and see if I can't squeeze some more info out of them.
You figure from IBM that it would be easier....

Alright, finally got it to boot. Couldn't find the option in my FC notes, but I did find it in my Slack notes....
When booting, pass the agp=off option to the kernel. I installed it like this myself:
linux agp=off text
and also added the agp=off option to my grub options. It booted kinda slow, but I removed the "rhgb quiet" options and it seems to have sped up a little.
Hopefully this works for you.

I haven't tried this but I wonder if you can take a shadow file from an existing system and slap it down over one of your FC5...will that work?

jakev383,

Sweet I will try your suggestion as soon as I get time. I hope that it works, this problem has been getting on my nerves long enough.

Thank-you

This is good news! So what you're saying is to pass agp=off during the initial boot? I'm not home right now so I don't have my servers, but I would like to know if this option also work with Debian?

Nick

Should be able to. I tried it on a machine with Slack and it worked, so I think it'd be safe to bet that Deb would work also.

deleting root password
 

Guys, there is a easy way to reset the root password.
- boot into any linux live/install CD
- mount the disk
- edit /mnt/<disk mount point>/etc/shadow
- Delete everything between the first and the second colon in the line that
has root:$2098asdhi052307s0:1234:0:::::
- When you do su, you become root without even being asked for password

Changing root password is easy when you have physical access of the server, so, make sure you lock up your server for security reason.