Hi everyone,

I am very experienced in the Windows IT world, however I am very new to Linux.

I am attempting to set-up a PowerEdge 2400 with a Perc 2/SC controller and a NEC SCSI CD-ROM 466 drive under Mandrake 10.

Attempting the default install failed, so I tried performing an Expert install - even though I am not an expert .

It appeared to go OK when It asked what SCSI driver I would like. I installed the aic7xxx.ko driver. The install then proceeded and said it needed a driver for the CD-ROM.

I attempted to install the following for the CD-ROM but to no avail:

aic7xxx.ko
aic7xx_old.ko
aic79xx.ko

also I read a post in one of the Red Hat Linux pages about the Megaraid.ko needing to be present so I tried installing this too.

I have spent all day googling and searching linux and DELL forums to see if I could resolve this; however to no avail, therefore I reach out to you.

I need the SCSI CD-ROM drive so that I may continue with the installation, so I am stuck.

BTW this is the only server that I have, so I would really like it if I can get it running using Mandrake.

Your suggestions and help will be greatly appreciated .

Truly,
ServerStorm

Welcome to LQ! Can you post the specific failure messages that are being displayed? My gut feeling is that the default installation ought to be OK, and the expert option generally is designed for people who are already familiar with the installation process, and just want to add, remove, or change the default options (which you already know). The more info you can provide about how the system is responding, the better -- J.W.

Hi and Thanks for the welcoming!

When I attempt to perform the default install here is the specific sequence of events that occur.

The machine boots

Adaptec AIC-7890 SCSI Bios v25701

Load the Expandable Raid Controller
Perc 2/SC Firware 2.10


Loading driver for SCSI Adapter aha| 2940u2/W / 7890
Loading driver for SCSI ADApter Microsoft Intel Corporation ...

exited abnormally ;-( -- received signal 11
sending termination signals...done
sending kill signals..done
unounting filesystems...
you may safely reboot or halt your system

After this if I press ALT + F3 for the logs this is what I get:

* needs ohci-hcd
* succeeded ohci-hcd
* have to insmod usbkbd
* needs usbkbd
* succeeded usbkbd
* have to insmod keybdev
* needs keybdev
* file-not-found-in-archive keybdev.ko (maybe you can try another boot floopy such as 'hdcdrom_usb.img')
* warning, insmod failed (keybdev (null)) (2)
* AUTOMATIC: parameter cdrom for method means returning CDROM drive
* have to insmod ide-cd
* needs cdrom
* needs ide-cd
Succeeded ide-cd
* looking for ide media
* Have to insmod sr_mod
* needs scsi_mod
* needs sr_mod
succeeded sr_mod
* PCI: device 9005 001f ffff ffff is "Adaptec|AHA-2940U2/W / 7890" driver is aic7xxx
*have to insmod aic7xxx
*needs aic7xxx
* succeeded aic7xxx
* PCI: device 9004 8078 ffff ffff is "Adaptec|AIC-7880u" driver is aic7xxx
* PCI: device 8086 1960 ffff ffff is "Intel Corporation|80960RP {i960RP Microprocessor]", driver is megaraid
* have to insmod megaraid
*needs megaraid
* succeeded megaraid
* have to insmod usb-storage
* needs usb-storage
* succeeded usb-storage
* looking for scsi media
* SCSI/2: sr0 is NEC CD-ROM Drive:466
* SCSI/1: sda is a MegaRAID LD) RAID5 34556R

end of log

It may be interesting to note that I have NO USB devices attached. The mouse and keyboard are serial.

I also know that the PERC2/SC SCSI Controller is manufactured by MegaRaid as a Express 200, so it appears that the selection of driver is correct, but as mentioned above the whole installer bails at this point.

I hope this is enough detail because I really don't have that much more to offer.

Thanks again and I look forward to your responses.

Truly,
ServerStorm

Based on the error log. It would seem that the Mandrake after loading the MegaRaid driver fails. I don't know if the firmware ver (2.10) of the PERC 2/SC is causing problems. Earlier today I tried to update the firware using a 2 disk installer rated for the PERC 2 controller; however when it ran it was unable to find the Controller. I went and double checked that I had chosen the correct version of controller, and I had. 2.10 may be the highest firmware available for this era of PERC2 cards?

A feeble attempt to keep this thread active... anyone got any ideas or have heard of anyone successfully running Mandrake 10 on a PowerEDGE. Better yet anyone running Mandrake 10 on a PowerEdge?

Well, this post is pretty old but it appears that it may be applicable to your situation. Basically, it sounds like you do need to go into Expert mode, but to pass in the "no_probe" option manually while you are selecting the controller. I don't know if that will help or not, but good luck with it either way -- J.W.

Hi J.W.

Thanks for your research and post. I tried the no_probe option under expert mode and unfortunately the recurrsive request to Install the NEC 466 SCSI drive appears.

I did notice an interesting thing though.

If I switch to view the Kernel Messages then I get the following:

<6>(scsi1:A:%) 20.0000MB/s transfers (20.000MHz, offset 15)
<5> Vendor: NEC Model: CD-ROM DRIVE:$66 Rev: 1.06
<5> Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
<4>sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 17x/40x cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
<6> Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
<7>Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi1, channel 0, id 5, lun 0
<6>Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
<6>drivers/usb/core/usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
<6>USB Mass Storage support registered.
<4>end_request: I/0 error, dev fd0, sector 0

I am wonder if this means that the CD-ROM driver is being installed only the USB Mass Storage support is where it is failing?

In any case it simple states after those lines:

[Error]
Insmod failed

[OK]

[Error]
No CD-ROM device found

If I include the no_probe parameter it skips the

[Error]
Insmod failed

and proceeds directly to:

[Error]
No CD-ROM device found.

Thanks again for your attempted help!

I have also read conflicting reports that Mandrake does not like to be installed directly on the RAID; however, the PowerEdge 2400 does not come with IDE so as a last resort I have a some options:

1) Not configure the RAID drives with RAID or stripe with RAID 1 and then attempt install

or

2) Get another SCSI drive and don't configure it with raid and not on the same logical drive as the other 3 existing hard-drives

I really don't want to loose the RAID 5 as the parity on each drive and the performance enhancement for Databases are both important functions for this server.

I hope this information sheds some new light and perhaps some new suggestions.

Truly,
ServerStorm

ServerStorm - From the system messages you have posted, it appears that the CD is being recognized (the make and model numbers are being displayed which is always a good sign, and the messages show that your CD is /dev/sr0 ) but I'm surprised that the "insmod failed" message does not indicate which module could not be installed ("insmod" is the command to install a module). Without knowing that, and due to the fact that I'm not really familiar with Mandrake, I'm afraid I can't provide any words of wisdom. I wish I could.

However, a Search here on "poweredge raid mandrake" turned up a few threads, with probably the most useful being this one It's actually about Redhat but I believe the territory is the same. Good luck with it -- J.W.

Hi Everyone,

Well after battling long and hard with Mandrake 10, I gave up and decided to try a different distro of Linux - SuSE 9.1. I was able to get the PowerEdge up and running using this, and while it was not what I considered to be easy, at least it let me get the job done!

The Mandrake install it seems in retrospect was not re-loading the Megaraid_old.ko modules for the PERC2 controller therefore it could also not locate the SCSI drives from which it could boot. I discovered this when I was setting up SuSE and it took me several days to find it.

I have to say a great big thanks to Allen Lair - who has at times posted in LinuxQuestions.org. Out of the blue I wrote him directly and he over several days help provide me with ways in which to trouble-shoot the system. With his help I was able to shape enough thinking and ways to operate within Linux that allowed me to uncover the solution, so big kudos to Allen.

I know that there are likely Mandrake Gurrus out there that would know how to get around such a problem, but with Mandrake it wasn't even slightly obvious and there wasn't much documentation or posts that could really help.

For those of you that are new and are trying to configure a PowerEdge 2400 or for that matter other PowerEdge units that use the PERC2 controller, I have configured a PowerEdge SUSE 9.1 Step by Step in the Linux - Distributions Forum

I figure writing a step by step through the eyes of a newbie may not take for granted certain details that unwittingly a more experienced user may.


Thanks also to J.W. for all the digging you did and the help that you provided.

Truly,
ServerStorm

I have had MDK 10 & 10.1 running on PE 2300, 2400, 2450, 2550 & 1750 successfully. The only difference I have with 10.x over 9.x is when I try and mount the SAN here, the systems see 2 ID's for 1 SAN disk - I suspect scsi_transport_fc does this, but I couldn't be sure. I went back to MDK 9.x as getting SAN4/5 from Dell is a joke, and I was out of time to sort the issue - MDK 9.x is rock solid - sees the SAN disks correctly and runs very well.

It will be sad when support is pulled for the 9.x series entirely as a forced upgrade is not welcome.

Scattamah

Hi Scattamah,

I eventually switched to SUSE 9.1 and was able to get it working well. This is what I am using to this day. Thank you for answering this - it has been a long while - I am glad that I just wasn't going crazy!

Truly,
ServerStorm

Heh - if it wasn't for the SAN, I'd have migrated up to MDK 10.x/2.6 kernel long ago.

My whole issue stems from my Qlogic FC card wanting to jump in front of the megaraid module....and then the scsi_transport_fc module which is something new in the 2.6 kernel. You can imagine my horror when my shiny new PE 1750 mounted the SAN and saw 6 arrays instead of the 3 it should've seen *grins*

Scattamah

Hi Scattamah

better than seeing none at all but horrible none the less

Truly,
ServerStorm

Huy Guys..

I just obtained a DellPoweredge 2400 Which has dual 866 PIII, 1GB Ram, and 50BG Raid hot swappable, and 9 GB hot Swappable
Right now I have Redhat WS Enterprise 3 on one partition, and Ubuntu (presently in use) on this computer. I am also going to install SUSE (I had suse 9.2 on my Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop and ran GREAT!)..

I honestly LIke both Redhat and SUSE, there are times when one does better at sometasks than other,s while at times the other one does better job. So i will have Ebuntu, SUSE and Redhat on this server. Just not sure how to check to make sure these systems OP recognize and use the dual processors. How do I check this??
I know in the bios it shows the two processors there, but not sure if the software like Suse, Ubuntu and Redhat are actually making USE of the second procesor.

Also another question. How do I go about using these programs to run a server? Want to use this server as a server and not just a gigantic desktop PC lol (though I LOVE this computer).
Taliesin

<taliesinsmandolin@tmail.com>

Hi Pouncy,

Depending on what Raid controller you have you may find the install of SUSE 9.2 a little tricky for the PowerEdge. SUSE 9.2 seems to have dropped the inclusion of the Megaraid_old.ke; which my Dell PowerEdge 2400 needed. The way I went to SUSE 9.2 was to install 9.1 and then upgrade the kernel/apps but controlling that the Megaraid_old drivers were retained.

The original install I documented in 'PowerEdge SUSE 9.1 Step by Step' earlier in this thread.

I know that during the installation process for SUSE 9.1 it provided a stop point in the installation that allowed me to review the configuration. It was there that I was able to see that one processor was available (my PowerEdge is a single processor), but beside the listing of my processor it indicated that no other processors were present. It is my guess that your dual processors would be listed there.

As per the question of how do I make it a server:

You have several different options here, you can:

1) set it up as a stand-alone server, which is NOT networked to your desktop computers and then set-up Apache, PHP, email server of your choice, VPN ect. This type of server would typically sit outside of your private network for public consumption.

2) Set it up as a file server and mail/web server. This involves configuring SAMBA shares for Windows where you access these shares under network neighborhood. The email and web servers would need to have both a public and private interfaces through a firewall and appropriate ports would need to be enabled so that the public could access your web and email.

3) Set it up as a domain controller. You could configure DHCP, User accounts, Internal DNS, Email, and Web. SUSE allows for very easy setup as a domain controller and to a degree will guide you through (if using YAST). Again if you needed Windows clients to be authenticated on this domain controller then you will need to do a more involved SAMBA configuration.

The good news is there is a lot of clear info on the web about how to configure SUSE and a Domain Controller as well as really good resources on configuring SAMBA for file sharing and or Domain controlling.

I hope this points you a little more on the right path.

Truly,
ServerStorm