All, I've got a Compaq Proliant DL590/64 Itanium (1) server, and was wondering if anyone had managed to get this piece of kit running with Debian ? I've googled fairly heavily around getting Debian running on this machine, and there seems to be a couple of major roadblocks (and very other little information). Seems like its either really easy, or no-one is trying to do this.
The HP Enablement Kit for Linux (which is mentioned on the debian ia64 port WebPages) doesn't appear to work for the Itanium 1 DL590/64. I get partway through the load process, and the system Kernel Panics and halts. I haven't been able to dump out the exact point at which it crashes, it scrolls by way too quickly. I can understand this one, as the CD only really mentions Itanium 2, so I'm presuming the kernel on the CD is specifcally compiled for the I2. I've downloaded the Sarge ISO's (debian-30r3-ia64-binary-1.iso), but seem to be having a number of issues, namely no support for the Compaq Smart Array controller. If I boot from the sarge CD's, the init process starts up ok, however I get a number of "hda/b/c: lost interrupt" messages. It does appear to work its way through them, however then doesn't appear to have support included for the cpqarray (installer says it cant find a hard disk, therefore I must be installing a diskless workstation). One of the suggested fixes for this was to update the firmware, which I have done, but it doesn't appear to have fixed the problem. I've also downloaded the latest weekly build from 3-Jan-05 of the IA64 install. This install behaves quite differently. The system boots, it gets to the page asking for the installation language and the system freezes. Another of the suggestions posted is to recompile the kernel with the cpqarray support included and to use the correct "switches" for the Itanium to resolve the "lost interrupt" messages. Being a bit of a linux n00b, I'm not really sure how I do that without having the system up and running in the first place. So, I guess my questions therefore are; a) have I really made a major mistake from the outset ? b) do I infact need a recompiled kernel to fix these issues, and c) if so, can I download it from somewhere, or does anyone have instructions on how to do this without access to a running Itanium system ? Slightly frustrating having a 30k dollar server that is doing a fantastic impression of a paperweight. Cheers. Glenn
