Installing Debian Linux on Proliant ML370 G3

..or other "tricky" machines

Author: Matti Paksula (matti.paksula@helsinki.fi)
Last updated: Thu Jul 22 12:40:17 EEST 2004

Background:

When I was installing Debian on this machine, I found these pages by wolfgang(at)riedmann.it, http://www.riedmann.it/linux/linux-proliant.htm and http://www.riedmann.it/linux/debian3smartarray.htm The installation method suggested on those pages is ok, if you don't have access to a Linux system anywhere near/ssh near. I assume that you have before installed Debian, otherwise you shouldn't be doing this at all. At the end of this document there are also a few hints.

In short:

Compile kernel with support for hardware & Debian installer, replace linux.bin on rescue.bin image, install from network and install lilo with custom kernel.

Step-by-step:

1. Compile the kernel (I used version 2.4.26)

With support for Pentium 4, SMP, High Memory support (4GB), Broadcom Tigon3, Compaq Smart Array 5xxx (under Block devices).
Debian installer & bootdisks requires (requirements) support for RAM disk, initrd, ELF binaries, loopback device, MSDOS, ext2 (and your preferred filesystem), socket filtering (dhcp), packet socket (dhcp), unix domain sockets
I did not include module support, so I haven't yet tested if this works with it.

2. Make rescue & root

And replace linux.bin on rescue diskette with your bzImage.

3. Boot with the rescue & install

Hardware is detected as it should. If you didn't include support for modules (as I did not), the installer will not proceed further from modules, but you can choose next steps manually. When you select to install LILO, it will install wrong kernel (the default), but just install it anyway. After LILO is installed, switch to console (alt+f3) and copy your kernel from your bootdisk to /target/vmlinuz and run LILO manually.

4. Reboot & finish + other things.

Download the kernel sources and compile the final kernel.
You can install HP tools with this script http://www.sk-tech.net/support/HPrpm2deb.sh.html by Kianusch Sayah Karadji. It Really works, although it might not be as smooth as HP meant it to be.
XEON processors support hyper-threading, so processor is reported as CPU0 & CPU1. On dual-processor systems there are CPU0-3.
If you want to see load/processor, I recommend procps it has a very nice top replacement.
On RedHat 8.0 I checked /proc/interrupts that interrupts were balanced. This can be done with irq-balance