I want to install slackware on a hp proliant server.

At first I think there is a conflict with the array drivers,
those are HP Dynamic B120i RAID controller. I booted months ago
with the iso and it didnt found the disk(s) [/dev/sd*]. Now
im booting with Knoppix and it stalls when searching disks at
boot procedures,

Hp provides drivers for windows and RHEL and Suse but I never
used those distros. In the end I think slackware is better
but don't know If anyone could suggest how to proceed.

If there are no specific drivers I'll gladly install slack
on plain disks but don't know how

I managed to set the disk to SATA AHCI mode and got Linux Mint live cd loaded, at this point
I think I could install slack in there.

But (and there is a question in here):
- xorg wont load accelereted graphics driver (not so important)
- assuming i'm in AHCI mode and if I use btrfs partitions I will get even better
redundancy control, right? But what about raw performance?

I have Slackware64 14.0 and 14.1 running on various HP Proliant servers.

I always use software RAID 1 or 5 with these machines. Works perfectly.

And I never install a GUI on a server. On this sort of setup, I leave out package groups E, KDE, XAP and XFCE.

Here's my own documentation, mostly used on Proliant servers:

http://www.microlinux.fr/microlinux/...rver-HOWTO.txt

Cheers,

Niki

The hpvsa driver for HP's entry-level "RAID cards" (I think they are hybrid cards partially implemented in software) is closed source and therefore not part of the standard kernel.

If you want to have RAID, better use the md driver as Niki suggests. Or don't use RAID at all.

Not using RAID on a server is like free-climbing without any ropes.

You can do it.

This server has just one disk, i guess setting RAID on this setup would be useless

I know Alex Honnold does free climbing, that guy's one of my big time heroes (I'm a climber). But his abilities are those of roughly 0.000001 % of the population. And if you don't have his skills, the smallest error will be fatal. So better climb with a rope if you're not Alex Honnold.

This being said, since setting up servers and desktops is my job and I do it every day, you might hear a word of advice. When you buy a new hard disk, the question is not if this disk will fail one day, the question is when it will fail, since all disks eventually fail sooner or later (except that 3x9 GB SCSI disk array one of my clients has on his bone-headed Dell Pentium-III server and that seems to be immortal). On my desktop clients, I usually use one hard disk, since there's only the operating system (all data are on the server, everything, always). But on a server, using only one hard disk is asking for trouble. And it's not a question of money, since the I in RAID is often read as "Inexpensive". What's valuable on your hard disk is the users' data, not the hardware.

Moral: learn to use RAID, and use it.

Greetings Slackers!

I'm happy to report I've been running Slackware-current on the machine mentioned in the title of this post for 2 years, with little trouble. It has a pair of old 2.4 GHz Athlon FX CPUs, giving me a total of 4 nodes, and 8 GB of DDR-2, EDD, registered. I have my boot drive on a 72 GB SAS 10k RPM, though I upgraded the system to actually ROOT off a 146 GB 10k SAS in slot 4. I use 3 old 160 GB SATA 2 laptop drives in a RAID 5 configuration, giving me an effective 297 GB storage for my music and videos. This RAID, while running in the E200, is actuaslly a SOFT RAID controlled by the kernel, NOT the HP E200 controller. I likie it well enough, but need to get a new cache battery to enable the 128 MB cache, and CMOS storage on the controller. This isn't too difficult, one can use a generic rechargeable 3.7 V battery jumpered to the controller, or just get the original battery on Amazon for a few $ more. After much preliminary research, I opted for the soft RAID for portability. I also use a second 146 GB SAS for my new /home, and a 500 GB SATA 2 on a separate SATA RAID controller I popped into the PCIe slots on the PCI-X riser in back. I hope to get a pair of 6 core FX CPUs in time, and max the RAM at 32 GB, the only slightly costly hardware still to be priced on this hardy dinosaur.

I also use an old nVidia GeForce 8400 card in another PCIe slot in back, as the onboard ATI video GPUs are contemptable! This old beast is a SERVER, after all, but now makes a neat workstation, on which I can run Virtualbox and QEMU machines when I need them. HP and AMD really did excellent work designing this series.

One note, HP releases binaries for RedHat, SUSE, Debian and *buntu for the RAID configuration. I advise stgicking with the SUSE rpms, which, with the help[ of rpm2txz serve me VERY nicely. You'll want Firefox for these, as Internet Exploder doesn't port well to Slkackware!

Happy Hacking and Slacking!

Dear Lemonade,

Make yourself a bootable USB to install Slack. Set the BIOS to boot USB keys first. If youy lack a RAID controller, go get some aftermarket PCIe thing, and hook a decent SATA or 2 to that. If you have one of the Smart Controllers from Compaq/HP, then populate it with either a SATA2 or 3 drive, just ONE for starters, then boot your install and make THAT your root. You can use lilo with the RAID controllers. Stick with that. I do and avoid headaches. GRUB is swell with newer, after market stuff, but if your root is in the Smart Controller, you WILL use lilo if you plan to boot from there. Else, make a USB boot key, and use the internal USB 2 port if you like. Apparently, many folks do, as HP made it for them.

Hope this helps you get started. These are GREAT Slackware machines!