Linux on 4-proc proliant 5000

[Daemon2]

I have a Proliant 5000 that I would like to turn into a Linux machine for purposes of learning the OS. 4 ppro 200's, 2/256 and 2/512, matched on the boards, 196mb, and four hdd's with the smart 2/p. Will the e-16 bios and the 5.4b scu be compatible with a linux installation? What kind of issues am I likely to hit if any? I've never played with Linux at all, so this is going to be a learning experience.
Thanks

 

[davidcthursby]

Daemon2,

I too am trying to install Linux (in this case RH8.0) on a similar box. I get a problem with a "insufficient memory" error, even though in my case, the box has 1.2GB of RAM.

I believe that there is a problem that relates to the EISA bus not allowing the kernel to detect any more than 16MB of ram. I tried one suggestion of NOT using the GUI installer, and using a line at the boot prompt to specify the exact memory parameters. linux mem=exactmap mem=640K@0 mem=998M@1M. Have a look at

http://www.cpqlinux.com/memory.html

- I am too new at Linux to understand all of this, but it did help a bit...(

It DID install, but whenever I boot the box, it only recognises the 16 MB - makes for a VERY SLOW machine! I have tried adding a similar memory line to the grub.conf file, but GRUB does not recognise this and comes up with an error.

I am going to keep searching, but would be interested to hear from anyone else who can explain in simple terms (total beginner here...) what the problem is and how to fix it.

thanks, Dave