[ale] Installing RH onto a IBM PC Server 704

[Bob Toxen]

On Thu, Oct 16, 2003 at 09:00:39AM -0400, John Cole wrote:
> Howdy all!

> We have an old IBM PC Server 704 that I'm trying to re-use as a linux
> server.  It has a Quad PPro-200, 1GB ram, 12 4.3GB drives.  RH 7.3 installs
> just fine.  After it reboots it kernel panics on the SCSI controller.  It
> goes into a loop saying SCSI 0:0:0 does not exist for a few seconds then it
> kernel panics.

> Has anyone successfully installed linux (specifically RH) onto this type of
> machine?  What did you have to do to get it working?  Are there any other
> distributions of linux that work better on this hardware?
You might try the rescue CDs/floppies (or install media) from several
Distributions and see which ones can talk to the disk.  I have had luck
installing Slackware on hardware that Red Hat wouldn't talk to.  Trying
Mandrake or SuSE would be worth the try as well.

If they cannot talk to the SCSI device then at least try:

     more /proc/pci
     ls /proc/scsi
     more /proc/scsi/scsi

That should give information on what you're dealing with.  You then can
experiment with loading kernel modules to tlak to the SCSI controller
or building them into the kernel.

> Thanks,
> John Cole, TICSA

> Network Administrator / Security
> Lockheed Georgia Employees' Federal Credit Union
> 430 Commerce Park Drive
> Marietta, GA 30060 
> (770) 424-0060
> (800) 541-8921 
> jcole at lgefcu.org

Bob Toxen
bob at verysecurelinux.com               [Please use for email to me]
http://www.verysecurelinux.com        [Network&Linux/Unix security consulting]
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Quality Linux & UNIX security and SysAdmin & software consulting since 1990.

"Microsoft: Unsafe at any clock speed!"
   -- Bob Toxen 10/03/2002