Installing Redhat Linux 9 on Proliant 5000

GaryOswald · 07-27-2003, 10:18 AM

Hi guys and gals my name's Gary and I've been a Windows user since 1993 so I'm a bit new to this game.

I'm trying to install Redhat Linux 9 on my home server (Compaq Proliant 5000 with 196Mb of RAM, PCI ATI 8Mb @ Work, Compaq SmartArray 2/P controler. 3 x 2.1Gb SCSI HDDs in array to make 1st available partition a 6.3Gb partition and 1 x 9.1Gb SCSI HDD.

When trying to install I get the message VFS: Cannot open root device "" or 48 :05.

Anybody seen this before ? HEEEEEEEELP !

mcleodnine · 08-02-2003, 08:46 PM

Heh. I picked one of those up today with 4x2.1Gb, 512MB RAM, Quad Pentium Pro 200 and Compaq Smart/2 RAID controller. The god news is that it's a supported device. The hard part will be getting the right boot image during the install.

I'm installing slackware 9 and luckily I can boot with the raid.s image, unfortunately I have to do an NFS mount as I can't see the SCSI CD-ROM and the RAID controller at the same time.

You'll probably need to specify some extra boot parameters for the install and I'm not quite sure how to go about that for RedHat. I'll look into your situation this weekend.

GaryOswald · 08-13-2003, 07:11 AM

I've got is sussed mcleodnine

It seems that with certain Compaq kit RH will only detect the first 16 Meg of RAM.

You have to tell RH how much RAM you have and where it starts. I've got 192 Meg so the following got me installed.

linux mem=exactmap mem=640K@0 mem=191M@1M

However during install I picked GRUB as opposed to LILO and seemingly using GRUB on these machines you have the same problem (only detects 16 Meg).

So when I first logged in it thrashed my swap disk like crazy for about two hours before I got p!$$£d off and BGB'd it (Big Grey Button).

I re-installed and picked LILO and specified the additional parameters I used to get RH installed in the first place and it worked like a charm.

It runs about the same speed as when I had the dreaded NT on it so it's what I was expecting (except it won't crash!!).

Deepest of Joys

Cheers mate hope you get your CD working!

mcleodnine · 08-16-2003, 11:13 AM

Yeah I had to do the same RAM gymnastics with mine as well. Managed to get the rig setup using an ATA controller and a IDE CD-ROM. Kind of a cheat

Machine is up and running now with all four CPUs humming along nicely with 512mb of RAM.

Klaus69 · 08-21-2003, 01:49 AM

Hi i`am a newbie in Linux. My Prob is not the Memory stuff. I `am unable to use the Raid Array as Boot Device. Any hints?

mcleodnine · 08-21-2003, 08:58 AM

It looks like you'e got the EISA RAID card so you'll have to do a little bit of extra work to get your system to see the card. It's explained in detail here. As well you should have the Compaq diagnostics partition setup and the tools for the raid controller installed as well. Once you've setup your RAID configurtation you should be able to proceed with the install.

I did mine by having lilo boot from the first active partition, rather than the MBR, so my partition layout looks like this

Code:

Disk /dev/ida/c0d0: 6308 MB, 6308659200 bytes
255 heads, 32 sectors/track, 1510 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8160 * 512 = 4177920 bytes

         Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/ida/c0d0p1   *        10        26     69360   83  Linux
/dev/ida/c0d0p2            27       155    526320   82  Linux swap
/dev/ida/c0d0p3             1         9     36704   12  Compaq diagnostics
/dev/ida/c0d0p4           156      1510   5528400   83  Linux

and my lilo.conf looks like this

Code:

append="mem=exactmap mem=640K@0 mem=511M@1M"
boot = /dev/ida/c0d0p1
prompt
timeout = 55
image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/ida/c0d0p4
  label = Slack9
  read-only

Klaus69 · 08-21-2003, 11:58 PM

Thanks for your advice! Your right it`s EISA Smart-2/E. You mean I have to do the partititioning with ACU like you described overthere and it works? I hav just said I will have one 12G partition and thought the rest will be done through the installation prozess like at a IDE Drive. System hangs with Kernel panic during installation before trying first time to use the CD... I will test your Tip and tell you more later.

Thank you for spending your Time helping me.

Friendly regards:

KLaus

RucasRiot · 09-11-2003, 04:34 PM

Just got my own proliant 5000, and with your help it looks like I just might be able to get slack running on it! It came with 3 9.1 gb drives in the RAID but I don't know how to do the partitioning so that it uses level 0. Can anyone help me?

RucasRiot · 09-11-2003, 05:19 PM

Hmmm, when i boot the slack 9 cd and do "raid.s mem=exactmap mem=640k@0 mem=127m@1m" it freezes at "Loading initrd.img..." when i do "raid.s mem=exactmap" it freezes at "Finished uncompressing, booting the kernel..." and if i just do "raid.s" it starts alright but freezes during install and only sees 16mb ram. Can someone help me?

Oh, I'm using a SIIG IDE card for the IDE CD-Rom to install from. Thanks
Nick

Sindre · 09-22-2003, 07:32 AM

Just installed Debian on my quad ppro 200 proliant 5000 with 1 gig ram, just used the bf24 floppies, and the installer detected it without a hassle (after I've set up the array with smartstart of course).

RucasRiot · 09-23-2003, 09:35 PM

Found out what was wrong with mine, I got a copy of the smartstart cd and it was configured for nt4. I've ordered some ppro-200/1mb off ebay, now all I need are some VRMs. Does anybody know how I can get a larger RAID array than 7 drives?

tulipysc · 09-23-2003, 09:46 PM

I already installed RH9 to my PC. Everything goes smoothly on that day. After 2 day I boot my PC, no problem but the user login is expired, plus the administrator login also unauthorized.

Please tell me what to do. Thank you.

Sindre · 09-27-2003, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by RucasRiot
Found out what was wrong with mine, I got a copy of the smartstart cd and it was configured for nt4. I've ordered some ppro-200/1mb off ebay, now all I need are some VRMs. Does anybody know how I can get a larger RAID array than 7 drives?

I have no problems running both win2k and linux on my proliant, but how exactly do I change "OS-settings" in smartstart? I'm using 5.0 btw

mrant · 11-11-2003, 12:58 AM

I'm trying to install Slack 9.1 onto a proliant 1500. I have a similar problem with the lockups. But i configured the system for linux. using the System Config. disks (I dont have SmartStart, server was being trashed).
any ideas?? im getting really frustrated with this thing. ive been working on it for a few weeks now and still no idea whats wrong

mcleodnine · 11-11-2003, 01:29 AM

The machine id hard-locking on you? (ie: you have to push the reset button?)