I have a couple of Compaq Proliant servers at home that I received from work collecting dust and I want to put them to good use. I installed OpenBSD a while ago and it worked beautifully except for the fact that it doesn't have SMP support so I installed FreeBSD which worked like a champ! I let the machine sit for a while and just let it go until I recently got my hands on a copy of RH9. I figured why not - lets go crazy and install it on both of my machines.

For clarification:
The "dual" machine is a dual pentium pro 200 with 512k cache each chip and has 256MB of ram.
The "quad" machine is a quad pentium pro 200 with 512k cache each ship and has 384MB of ram.)

I don't know the model number of my machines but they're both identical except I cannibalized another server to make a quad machine. I am confident that they're ProLiant 5000's; I just don't know what series.

I popped the CD in and the syetem surprisingly booted fine without a problem. At the boot: prompt I hit enter which brought me to a nice screen that said that I didn't have enough memory. Clearly this was a mistake. I went ahead and entered "linux mem=393216K" and watched as it booted up. Everything went along just fine until it reported a Kernel panic:

EXT2-fs: unable to read superblock
cramfs: wrong magic
FAT: unable to read boot sector
isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=09:02, iso_blknum=16, block=32
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 09:02

At this point the system was frozen with the caps and scroll lock lights blinking. (percussive mantenance on the keyboard results in various keyboard: unknown scancode or sequence errors) After rebooting I tried entering "linux mem=384M" thinking that maybe it didn't like "K" and I achieved the same results. (Mind you the machine works fine with OpenBSD and FreeBSD but then again those are two totally different Unix kernel based OS'.) At this point I was stumped. I tried using "linux expert" however that returned me to the not enough memory error and "linux expert mem=XXXM" results in a kernel panic. I even tried "linux expert mem=exactmap mem=640@0k mem=383@1m" (or something to that effect - I can't remember the exact params however you get the right idea) but that simply locked the machine after it says "Uncompressing Linux....OK"

I did quite a bit of searching and spent a lot of time on cpqlinux.com reading the documentation but it doesn't necessarily apply to my situation. For whatever reason the system will boot off of that CD just fine, but it will not boot ANY other Linux or Unix CD I have. For a while I thought that the CD's went bad or something but when I pop them in my other machines they work just fine. The RH9 cd I have is a copy of a legit copy that was recently purchased by my company for testing purposes (not that it really matters) and it works on the other machines that we've used it on in the office (Compaq EVO 500's) but then again this is a completely different architechture.

I went ahead and reconfigured the machine with the Compaq SmartStart CD and set it up for Linux. I then created some boot disks for RH9 and popped them in. They worked fine but got me to that same Kernel Panic or not enough memory error. Some documentation that I had read mentioned the fact that it doesn't have drivers for the onboard SCSI SO a CD install wouldn't work, and one would have to do a network install. I don't care what media I use I just want the darn thing to work! I've been working with this since Sunday and I decided to ask around yesterday hoping that someone had any information that could help me. So far nothing.

Any information would greatly be appreciated.
Thank you.

Howzit

Not sure but try gving this a bash. At the prompt type linux noprobe and see how far u get, also try using the Ctrl+Alt+F1, Ctrl+Alt+F3, Ctrl+Alt+F5, this shows u whats happening with your installation and will tell u where it's bombing out.

Another thing u might need a linux bootable driver for your controller card. under the RH CD#1 u will find dir that says images in this dir u will find a file called drvblock.img make a image to disk like this cat drvblock.img > /dev/fd0. This will have a small amount of drivers for controller cards that normally don't fit onto the bootdisk. Boot from the bootdisk then at the installer prompt type linux dd it will go through the normal install then it will ask u for the disk insert the disk u created and hopefully it might work. I mentioned this as I think that there is a probability that u have a Raid controller or SCSI controller of some sort.

If the above doesn't work check what HW u have try get the linux bootloader driver for controllers. Also swapout mem if poosible etc

Good Luck

chow

Thank you I apprecaite the update.

I have Compaq Smart-2/P Array Controller (v1.94) for the hard drives and an onboard SCSI controller for the CDROM. I remember reading on cpqlinux.com that there weren't any drivers/support for the onboard SCSI for that machine - however that information may be oudated as it said that "...at this time (May 2001)..." it wasn't supported.

When I get the Kernel Panic, the system is frozen. I can't do anything: ctrl+alt+del, ctrl+alt+Any-F#-Key but power off and back on. Best I can do is boot up as I normally would and then once I get those memory errors do what you suggested to see what's giong on.

I'll definately try this when I get home this evening and post my results.

Thank you.

I had the same troubles with a couple of proliants I have. a LOT of searching later, here's how it works:

==========================================

If the linux installation is giving an error about not enough memory to install, try the following:

1) figure out how much ram is actually in the machine
2) at the first installation screen type:
linux mem=exactmap mem=640K@0 mem=xxxM@1M where xxx = the amount of ram installed (in megabytes) -1.

For instance, on a machine with 96mb, you'll use:

linux mem-exactmap mem=640k@0 mem=95M@1M

if you've had to do this to install, you'll probably have to go into /boot/grub and add it to grub.conf like this example from a machine with 208mb installed:

default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.20-8)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ mem=exactmap mem=640K@0 mem=207
M@1M
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img

divinesnail01:

I appreciate your feed back. The system has 384M of ram so at the boot: prompt I did type what you suggested which did work in the sense that it did not give me any error messages referencing lack of memory, however - I didn't get to ANY type of GUI. The problem I'm currently having is this:

EXT2-fs: unable to read superblock
cramfs: wrong magic
FAT: unable to read boot sector
isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=09:02, iso_blknum=16, block=32
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 09:02

This happens after I type the memory line and it proceeds with the boot up process. I'm not sure why this is happening. The drives work fine (last I checked - they worked fine in OpenBSD before I performed the system erase utility) and I believe that they have been properly configured using the SmartStart CD. Now - it could be a driver issue but what do I need to type at the startup screen in order to tell the system to STOP DOING ANYTHING and load XYZFile.o from A: or D: (floppy or cdrom) THEN continue? Is there such a thing? I type expert and it brings be back to memory error. expert plus the memory line brings me back to the Kernel panic.

Maybe I need to update the machine using a new SmartStart CD? Flash the BIOS etc. I recently got my hands on an hp Proliand essentials foundation pack which includes SmartStart 6.10 so I'll try to load that tonight and see what happens.

Having the exact same problem, would love to know the solution. The repro scenario is the same: with the mem=228M, I get the kernel panic. without it, I get the "not enough memory" error". Compaq 1500R, dual 166 with 229MB RAM and the Smart 2 SCSI controller

Having exact same problem with ProLiants myself, very fond of them, not fond of running W2KServer. Have never run a Linux box outside of class before, would love to hear a solution.

Specs:
ProLiant 4500R, Quad P166, 512MB mem, Smart-2 SCSI controller.

I know this is a little late, but look at this link:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...twork+proliant

There is probably a way to boot redhat somehow, but slackware 9.1 comes with a kernel compiled to work with the Smart array in the proliant 5000.

Just boot using the raid.s kernel from the cdrom.

The only problem with this method is that the cdrom is not recognized, see the link above for different methods of accesssing the install files.

We are having the same exact problem with a Compaq DeskPro EN.

Is it memory related?? Just before the "Ext2-fs" message we get the following line : crc errorFreeing initrd memory:3007k freed.

Any help appreciated...

Raksha.

mem=256M did not work with me I had to do the exactmap I researched it a little and found that after kernel 2.2 I think it changed from mem=XXXM
to mem=XXXM exactmap da da da

Sorry I can't be more specific about the command/specification to use, but it's been a long time and I can't find the other thread it was in.

again though, just a plain old mem=XXXM did not work

I finally managed to get past the memory error and kernal panic.

I decided to test my memory to see if there was a problem (I am running a quad 200mhz Proliant 5000 with 896meg of memory). When I ran the test, I noticed that the test broke the memory into 3 groups (0-640k, 1024-16384k, and 16384-917504k).

Seeing this, I went through the Smartstart and did a manual linux install. When it came to the boot options, I entered the following command:

linux mem=exactmap mem=640k@0k mem=15m@1m mem=880m@16m

And to my surprise the installation worked just fine!!!

Hope this helps anyone else who had this nightmare issue.

Yo LinuxAvenger... What application gave you the memory values?

Thanks!

I used the smartstart diagnostic utility from the 5.30 CD. Hope you can get your hands on one.

I havent touched this in ages...but a friend of mine have been working on this and we found out that if we use this line at the boot prompt

linux mem=exactmap mem=640k@0 mem=383@1m root=\dev\ida\c0d0p2

It gets past the error message, kernel panic etc however once in the installatuin GUI it does NOT detect the SCSI cdrom in thos Proliant 5000 server. Is there a generic SCSI driver available for RH that I can use at the boot prompt?
Like what if I did
linux exact text dd mem=exactmap mem=640k@0 mem=383@1m root=\dev\ida\c0d0p2

When it prompts for a driver I could type/select from the disk right?

I too am having Proliant 5000 issues.My proliant 5000 shows 262144k on startup.I tried using
"mem=exactmap mem=0x9f000@0 mem=
0xff00000@0x100000" (the amount of memory I have converted into Hex format)for installation, and redhat 9 didint like exactmap so instead I used "linux mem=0x9f000@0 mem= 0xff00000@0x100000" and that seemed to worked but then It couldint find the cdrom. Now the cdrom is a scsi and that might also be part of the problem. I also read that there is a "bug" in linux that wont let Compaq servers have acess to the cdrom during boot, so I got that image file "rhl9dl.img" and used linux mem. now it gets to "uncompressing Linux ... Ok, booting the kernel." and hangs.

Now im not sure what to do because I havent found any mention of a problem quite like this anywhere.

Im not lime green but I am green.

Help would be much obliged.green lime green