IBM xSeries 335/345 support
 

Hi. I'm trying ti install Slackware Linux 9.0 on a IBM xSeries 335 (Type 8676) server with two SCSI disks (18GB each), two processors (Intel Xeon 2.4Ghz) and 1GB of RAM. I'm doing it from a CD to which I burnt an ISO image downloaded from one of Slackware's mirrors.

Problems arise at the 'boot:' prompt, because I've tried the default option, the scsi.s and scsi2.s options and every time I get to the 'root@slackware:/#' prompt and try to use cfdisk I get this error message:

FATAL ERROR: Cannot open disk drive
Press any key to exit cfdisk

If I use fdisk -l /dev/sdX, instead, I get nothing, and thus I'm unable to install the operating system because I haven't been able to properly partition the hard disks.

Which boot option am I supposed to use??? Any "tricks"???

Regards!

Hi,

What happen if you enter fdisk /dev/hdx or fdisk /dev/hda?

tungsten

I get nothing...
 

The 'root@slackware:/#' prompt appears and that's about it, no error message, no nothing...

The Slackware docs don't mention anything about supporting the Ultra320 SCSI controller card (which is the one installed in my server), could this be the problem?

Hi,

Have you done this?
When you starting up your CD it comes up a question if you want to boot. The question is about as follow:

"This prompt is just to entering extra parameters, hit enter to boot the default kernel "bare.i" or press [F2] for a list of more kernel choice"

Maybe you should try kernel scsi.s or scsi.2

Please let me know if it works

Best regards
tungsten

No luck
 

As stated in my first post, problems arise at the 'boot:' prompt, because I've tried the default option (bare), the scsi.s and scsi2.s options and every time I get to the 'root@slackware:/#' prompt and try to use either cfdisk or plain fdisk it's the same thing: the system does not recognizes a thing under /dev :confused:

I'm don't really have a clue about what to do next...

Thanks for your help!

Hi,

I belive that you have tried some other kernels that will be listed when pressing [F3] (after [F2] )

WhenI was setting up my dual processor work station some weeks ago it was not working properly until kernel 2.4.41 noarch was installed.

You should may be try with slack 9.1 to see if some of its kernels working.

Best regards
tungsten

I'm sure this issue has been dealt with by now, but just in case....

If you are still using 9.0, you should boot up with the adaptec.s kernel in order to access your SCSI devices on the xSeries box. 9.0 didn't have adaptec stuff in the "normal" scsi boot disks, but had a completely serperate boot disk to cover adaptec stuff. Note that 9.1 is differant still. The xfs.s kernel will support most adaptec stuff.

You may however, have issues with the IDE CDROM not being recognized for your source location. I am dealing with this one under 9.1 right now and was never able to fix it under 9.0

Hi everyone. I'd like to thank those who took time off to shed some light on this (very) particular matter.

Unfortunately I still haven't been able to solve the problem.

I recently found out that that Slack9.1 was out, and from your advice I'm pretty shure that that distribution might work. By the end of this week I hope to post my Slack9.1 test drive results.

With Slack9.0 I too had issues with the CDROM drive. When reaching the installation of the kernel source package (kernel-source-2.4.20-noarch-5) I got this error message:

Serverworks OSB4 in impossible state.
Disable UDMA or if you are using Seagate then try switching disk types on this controller. Please report this event to osb4-bug@ide.cabal.tm
OSB4: continuing might cause disk corruption.

Is this familiar to anyone?

Actually my problems with the "SOURCE" portion of the
install were not during the install of the kernel
source code but rather in the portion where Slackware
looks to find the CD it should install from. I never
got to the portion where it actually begins to install
anything.

There are known issues with the Serverworks chip set.
There has been some debate as to weather these issues
are a fault of the linux kernel or lower level
hardware issues with the chip set itself.

I have fixed those issues on other servers with
an "hdparm-d 0/dev/cdrom" line in rc.local, this
basically shuts off DMA transfers for the CDROM.

I do not believe that would work with the Slack install
though. I doubt the hdparm util is available with the
boot CD setup.

VeKTeReX

BTW: there is no kernel source on *my* Slackware 9.0 CD. Maybe later versions had it but mine does not. They had to chop a lot of stuff to make it a one CD deal and still hold Gnome 2.x and so forth.

Deselect the kernel source from the package install list and see what happens.

I've been unable to partition a drive at all. Working with an x335 with 1 U320 32GB drive.

I've tried:
9.0 scsi.s, scsi2.s, adaptec.s
9.1 xfs.s, adaptec.s, scsi1/2/3.s

cfdisk can't see a drive, and fdisk can't see anything on /dev/sdX either.

How were you able to get past this to get to the where you're having problems with the cdrom/source install?

I booted my x340 with the adaptec.s boot disk. After that i could see the disks attached to the on board Adaptec controller just fine. Still couldn't see the CDROM though and i have further issues with NFS installs, but i do see the drive.

What SCSI controller is on the x335?

My current problem with Slackware and IBM xSeries is a
bit different. I can't see the CDROM so i tried both
an NFS install and copying the CD contents to local
drive. In both cases i could get to the part where you
select the packages to be installed and the part right
after that where you choose the install type (full,
newbie, expert and so on.) However, After i select my
install type, i get the screen that says in so many
words, your install is finished choose EXIT and reboot.
This is about .5 seconds after i choose the install
type so of course nothing is actually happening and it
is skipping the configuration portion altogether.

This sucks....

the IBM x335 uses (from what I can tell on boot up, and from IBM's site) an LSI Logic MPT controller.

on boot up.. if you go into the config util it's..

LSI Logic MPT SCSI Utility Ver. MPTBIOS-IM-5.03.01

I generally use x335/345/360 servers and I think they're all basically the same, though we generally get additional raid cards for the 360's

hrm.. ok.. on a hunch I tried raid.s instead of any of the scsi kernals.

at this point it seems to be working fine. was able to use cfdisk to define the partitions and formated the swap partition fine. Currently formatting the main partition and it seems to be going ok so far.