Chris Cruft

A showstopper of a problem.  Despite good luck getting the hardware prepped and tested (except the DLT drive) and a RAID array defined, suzuki refuses to boot from the first Fedora Core 3 CD.  Uh oh.  Before panicking, I double check some things

1. The CDs are definitely good.  I built ducati from them and I can boot other machines at work from them.
2. The BIOS settings are definitely correct.  I can boot the Compaq Smart Start CDs with no problem.

Now it is time to panic.  I start to imagine strange incompatibilities between the Linux boot loader and the ProLiant.  The error message is pretty vague -just something about there not being any boot media.  And I am virtually certain that the message is generated by the hardware -not by Linux.

Next, I wasted a lot of time looking for alternative ways of booting into Linux.  Unfortunately, it seems that Fedora Core 3 cannot be booted directly from a 1.44MB floppy -the standard boot image is too big.  But I bump into all kinds of alternatives including starting the boot process from Windows (I would need to install Windows first…) or network-based installations.  Interestingly, suzuki has a Compaq NIC with a funky bootable NIC that I had never seen before.  Of course, the last bootable NICs I had seen with NE 1000/NE2000 and 3Com NICs from my Netware days -things probably had advanced a bit since then…

I mentally conclude that the problem must be with the CDROM drive.  I take the time to shut down my Netware 4.2 server (which NEVER crashes!) and pop the FC3 boot disk into it.  Remember that it too is a ProLiant 3000 -but newer than suzuki.  To my elation, it boots immediately.  The light is starting to shine…a recap:

CDs good (even my other ProLiant can boot from them)

CDROM drive and BIOS settings good on suzuki (can boot Smart Start CDs no problem)

In a surge of inspiration, I look down at the FC3 CDs and reflect on how pretty they are with their blue-hued coating.  Blue-hued coating…blue-hued coating -they are CD-RW discs!  What if the CDROM drive in suzuki can’t handle these particular CD-RW discs?  There were always incompatibilities between earlier CDROM drives and CD-RW discs -and suzuki is an older machine.  I run upstairs to my Windows machine and burn an FC3 Disk 1 onto CD-R media.  I trip back down the stairs, pop the CD into suzuki and it BOOTS!

The rest of the installation is anticlimactic.  I can see that Linux is detecting the dual-processors and installing SMP support -great.  I feared having to build a new kernel for that but it appears to be standard now.

Well, Matt’s server scared me into thinking it had a big problem.  Processor #2 continuously reported a cache failure (error #212).  Funny thing, regardless of the swapping around of processor cards, the error always seemed to be on processor #2…hmmmm.  I did some searching on the web and found a couple of sites

http://www.cpqlinux.com/notes-unix.html and http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=716493758+1109770274918+28353475&threadId=151630

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=187927 and

https://www.redhat.com/archives/psyche-list/2003-February/msg00329.html

that discuss the problem.  The solution, it seems, is

1. Upgrade the BIOS to an up-to-date version.  I think I am now on E39.

2. Clear the NVRAM (completely!) and properly with System Configuration Utility as follows:
1. At the main screen you will have 4 choices beginning with system configuration. At this screen, press CTRL-A to enable advanced mode options.
2. Choose the options “System configuration”, “Configure Hardware”, “Review and Modify Hardware Settings”, and “View and Edit Details.”
3. Scroll halfway down till you see Advanced Features and select “Erase Nonvolatile Memory>”. Press Enter
4. You will be warned twice, then turn off server.
5. On reboot, you should receive a message asking if you want server to be configured - answer Yes.
6. If you get asked if you want to use backup configuration file, say No.
7. Configuration files should load and you will be asked to save and exit.
8. Make sure your boot controller is set correctly in the dialogue screens; if not, go back into *View and Edit Details* to set it.

Pasted from <http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=187927>

3. Tell the SCU that Linux (or other similar OS like UnixWare) is installed.

The first HP Support forum shown in the links list above has a pretty pessimistic conclusion.  But don’t believe it.  I now have dual 333MHz processors working just fine on suzuki.

My brother’s server arrived today. Good news: it has more than a gigabyte of memory (!!!) and a BIG DLT drive (35/70). Bad news, it was poorly packed and the caster wheels are destroyed. Perhaps the tape drive as well –but I can’t tell without a DLT tape and they are expensive enough to make that test one that I will postpone until later.