ML370 G1 ( I believe) - How do I enter the BIOS?

[oryandunn]

My friend got this server from his work when they upgraded everything. It's got a PIII 800Mhz proc. When it boots, it does not display any message on how to enter the BIOS. If I remove the battery, it says that it has encountered an unconfigured system, that the default config is used, and I need to select the OS installed. It says that I need to enter the setup utility to view/change settings. How do I enter this setup utility? I've tried every F-key, Esc, and Del. This has been a very fustrating endevor for me to work on this server.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[TheLad]

The "BIOS" on a Proliant server is actually a partition on the hard drive. If you have not installed the partition using the SmartStart CD provided with the server (I believe SmartStart v5.5 for this server), the partition will not have been installed and thus the F10 prompt will not be displayed.

If your server is blank, I would suggest downloading the SmartStart CD from the HP website and running it. This will also aid you in condiguring other aspects of the server such as disk partitions etc... If you have an OS on your server, you can still use the CD to access what you would call the BIOS, but don't install the partition otherwise you risk trashing what you have already on the disks.

I cannot provide you with a link to the SmartStart CD at the moment as the HP website seems to be running slow, but if you search this forum you should find the link in another post.




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[oryandunn]

Thanks for the reply. I found that CD and ran the system erase utility on it. It went through several steps and setup my hard drives. I now see a prompt at the begining for F10, but nothing happens when I press it. Also, I tried to flash the ROM with the latest from HPs website, but it said that flash reprogramming was disabled. Do you know if HP still has documentation on this server? I've not been able to find anything, not even a picture of this on their site. If I type in ML370, I get some rack mount black server, and not the tower server I've got. The only manual I've found is for the G3 370.

 

[TheLad]

You have probably reached the right part of the HP website. The link below also shows a black rack mount but the picture is probably of a G3 but I would not worry about that (a rack mount server is the same as a tower server minus a section of the case and including mounting rails).

If you go to the site below, choose the "Manuals (guides, supplements, addendums, etc)" section, the documents you need should be under there. The site also includes documents for the G2 and G3 but if the document is labelled as just Proliant ML370 (and not Proliant ML370 G2 or Proliant ML370 G3), that is the correct document to view:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...ypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=254940&lang=en&cc=us

Regarding SmartStart, I presume the install you did included the install of the System Partition?

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[oryandunn]

Ok, I reran the system erase and restarted the smartstart. This time, the system partition seems to have installed properly and I can access it with the f10 option. I plan on installing Fedora Core 6 for server duty. How do I partition the drives so that I don't overwrite the compaq partition and how do I setup grub so it doesn't screw up the f10 option? Last time after I ran the smartstart, i immediately installed fedora, and I think that grub overwrote the compaq partition. I saw the f10 option, but pressing f10 didn't do anything.

Another problem I've run into is updating the firmware. Version 04/02/2001 is installed. I've downloaded the latest for the P17 bios from HPs website, but when it boots from the floppy, i get a bad or missing command interpreter error. Any ideas on this one?

Thanks again for your help.

Ryan

 

[oryandunn]

After trying a few other options, I found another way to unsuccessfully update the firmware. After pressing the F10 and accessing the system partition, there is an option in there to upgrade the firmware. When I run that, there is a firmware that is dated 08/04/2001 (i think). This shows up as an option to flash my firmware with. I can also select the floppy drive. If I do that, it says that flash programming is locked and that a cold boot is necessary. I didn't find any options that would lock flash progamming anywhere. Is there a way to enable programming?

 

[blister911]

Have you tried booting from the a Firmware maintenance cd? I believe the latest version is 7.70. If there is not an update for the ML370 on it you can choose to add a supplemental update and insert your Bios floppy disk. It should then find the updated bios.

 

[oryandunn]

Is that downloadable from HPs site? I found a chart somewhere on their site about verison 7.40 and listed compatability between 7.10 ~ 7.60 or so, but only listed G4 and G5 servers. It didn't mention G1 servers.

 

[blister911]

This is the one that it shows for the ML370 G1:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/24777.html

 

[oryandunn]

Strange, that link gives me a 404 error.

 

[TheLad]

I would try it again, it works for me. I have noticed that the HP website does that sometimes..... no reason why though.

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[oryandunn]

Ok, it looks like that link works now. When I get home, I'll download that CD and try to flash the firmware with that.

Last night I reinsalled fedora, but installed grub to the first sector of the boot partition on one of my disks, instead of the mbr. Now, after the f10 prompt displays, it automatically enters the compaq utility, instead of going to grub. Where does grub need to be to be found by the bootloader?

Again, I appreciate all the help.

Ryan

 

[TheLad]

It would seem that your bootloader is setting the Compaq partition as the active partition. I assume you would need to modify the bootloader so that the active partition is not the Compaq partition

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[oryandunn]

I downloaded version 7.5 of the firmware cd, but upon boot, it said that it didn't support my server (even though it is listed on the download page). So, I downloaded version 7.40 of the firmware disk, but this one didn't even boot.

I've tried just about everything to get both the bootloader and the system partition to play nice, but no dice. I've tried putting grub on the mbr of my second raid array, the first boot partition of my second raid array, and on the first boot partiton of the primary raid array. The system partition is the first partition on the primary raid array, but it is marked as partition 3. So, I created a /boot partition that was marked as partition one and told grub to be installed there. With this setup, I still get the F10 prompt, but when I press F10, it just goes to grub imediately. I can also wait till the prompt disappears, and grub will run. If I put grub anywhere else, after the f10 prompt disappears, the compaq system utilities will automatically run. Any ideas on this one?

Thanks