ML370 (G1), boot options

Geoff Buckingham Geoff.Buckingham at thomsonreuters.com
Tue Jul 29 07:09:16 UTC 2008


The ML 370 (G1) most likely has the same lack of an interactive embedded BIOS configuration utility as the DL360 G1 and earlier Compaq Proliants. You configure boot order and the like form 
Smart Start or an EISA tools partition you install from smart start. 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-freebsd-proliant at freebsd.org [mailto:owner-freebsd-proliant at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Richard Mahlerwein
Sent: 28 July 2008 20:21
To: freebsd-proliant at freebsd.org
Subject: ML370 (G1), boot options

Hi, all.  I've searched the archives as best I can, and also consulted the Great Oracle of Google, but seem to be getting nowhere in a little project I'm doing.

I know it's not always good form to include more than one problem in a post, so I apologize in advance, but since answering one of the three questions may mean the other two no longer need an answer, I feel it's appropriate in this case.

I recently retrieved a ML370 G1 off the to-be-recycled heap here at work.  It'll replace my aging 550 MHz PIII single-processor PC I've had pressed into "server" duty for ages.  The ML370 is in fine physical order and is a Dual PIII 866 with a Smart Array 3200 in it, 2x 36 GB drives and 4x 18 GB.  I have downloaded and used a SmartStart 5.5 CD to verify all seems well and to reconfigure the RAID to my needs.

Issue 1: During my first attempt at installing FreeBSD 7.0, I found I couldn't boot from the CD.  No problem, I thought, I'll just create the floppies and do a net install from there - I was sure it was just a Old CD Drive + Burnt CD = no booting. I created boot.flp and kern.flp figuring if I needed more floppies out of the set I'll keep overwriting those two.  (I'm slowly running out of good floppies!)   I wasn't paying that close of attention, but I realized about mid-way through the install the system never asked me for the kernel floppy.  I was a bit puzzled, but figured maybe the boot floppy saw the CD and passed control to it...

Q1: Does anyone know what likely happened there?  I *DID* at least start the boot from the floppy, I remember seeing that little piece, but afterwards, it was magic...  Will the boot floppy hand off to the CD if/when it sees it?

Issue 2: The install went fine, the only real issue is in the obnoxiously loud and bothersome fan noise.  Options don't seem to be in the BIOS (?!?) but I found the FreeBSD Tools for ProLiant page (http://people.freebsd.org/~jcagle/) and thought "Perfect!"  I noticed it had images for 4.x, 5.x and 6.2.  No 7.0...  Since I had 7.0 already installed, I tried winging it and and installing the various pieces for 6.2 and doing ldconfig and installing compat layers and whatnot, but I couldn't quite get it working.  

Q2: Does anyone have some reasonably easy to follow docs on making at least hpasm work on 7.0?  I've seen a few vague references to it working after an upgrade from 6.x to 7, but docs are surprisingly sparse AFAICT.

Issue 3: So I thought to install 6.3, which I guess will very likely work using the 6.2 build of hpasm.  I changed my boot disk to a 6.3 one, stuck it in the floppy drive and booted, but the system happily and without question booted from the hard drives.  Tonight I hope to find time to do a 6.3 CD + a 6.3 boot floppy and see if I can get it up that way, but I'd love to find out what may be going on with this.  I don't think that will work, because I think it was only booting from CD/Floppy *after* the hard drive boot failed.  I don't really want to delete the arrays so it will fail back over to floppy booting, but at this point I'd try it if there's no easy way.  But, I'm *positive* there's an easier way... 

Q3: How do you change the boot order to include the floppy disk?  

I would appreciate any help someone can give or pointers to other information for me to try proceeding on my own.

Many thanks,
Rich



I tried winging it and doing the 7.0 and addressing issues as they came up (which involved a few hoops with compat_6x, _5x and ldconfig, I think), but I never quite got it going.  I'm thinking about starting over with 6.3, which I believe I will have a much, much greater chance to get working.



7.0 was a bear to get on it, but only because it wouldn't recognize my burnt CD as bootable.  I realize now that I never got to kern.flp, though - boot.flp was all it took.  I don't know if that's because magically my unbootable CD became bootable, or if the bootable floppy figured out there was a CD there and used it.

So I decided reinstalling from 6.3 wouldn't be an issue, except I 
  
 


Rich Mahlerwein

mahlerrd at yahoo.com

Mobile: 715-891-7420
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