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kiranghag

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installing fedora on dell 1850

i m trying to install fedora on a dell 1850 server.
this box has a dell PERC raid controller. the controller seems from LSI logic. dell supports this system for redhat distros. and provides megaraid2 driver for the same. system assistant cd looks only for redhat cds and will not take my fedora cd
:-(

i tried with the various net links but managed to get only this
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=pes_linux&message.id=2219&query.id=71779#M2219

the another link given below
http://wiki.osuosl.org/display/LNX/Debian+on+Dell+Servers?showComments=true&decorator=printable
provides info about how to install the card under debian.

can someone help me proceed?
i want to use the driver under fedora
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kiranghag

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please make it fast since i wont get to work with the server for more than a day from now
thanks in advance guys
Hi,

  Fedora Core 3 should have the LSI megaraid2 driver built-in. However, you can download the driver from Dell website:
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&SystemID=PWE_1850&category=0&os=LE30&osl=EN

  Since you don't provide the RAID controller model (4/DC, 4/Di or 4/SC), you need to download the right driver and make a floppy.
Then boot from CD and insert the floppy when it ask for special driver.

Wesly
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jlevie

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>>which uses a 2.4 kernel and you are trying to use them on Fedora Core 2
>>which has a 2.6 kernel.

i had the same doubt. i trtied downloading the driver from the site and supplied it during installation. but unfortunately, the setup does not proceed after i supply the driver floppy. i can reboot the box using ctrl-alt-del but it wont give any error or dialog box (i m using text setup)

can u please tell me if the dell setup will take redhat 9 cd..
as of now, the dell setup prepares disk partitions for but supports only windows servers and redhat AS and ES. there is no option to install any other os.

i do not have redhat cd with me at the moment. hoping to get a redhat 9 cd tomorrow. hope it has the support

Dunno if RH 9 will install or not. The only things that I see as supported are RHEL 3
The driver from Dell is vendor specific, which means you can install on the specific Linux/RedHat version
they specified.

I know Fedora Core 2/3 are kernel 2.6.x. However, without knowing the exact model of RAID controller
card, I cann't tell which driver kiranghag should installed.

I've dealed with Dell PE1770 and PE6650 with different LSI PERC RAID controller recently.
I think the Fedora Core 3 (Core 2 probably not) should have the newer megaraid2 driver built-in.
So you use Fedora Core 3, then boot from the CD and type in "expert noprobe dd"
1. boot: expert noprobe
2. At the "I don't have any special device..." select 'Add Device'.
3. At the "What kind of devices would you like to add", select 'SCSI'.
4. Scroll down and select the "MegaRAID2" driver, and select 'OK'.
5. Select any additional devices in your system manually by selecting 'Add Device'
   or select 'Done' to proceed.

Wesly
thanks to both of you for the comment.

the supported distros are application server and enterprise server from redhat.

the model of the card is LSI PeRC 4e/Si. the driver i downloaded was for the same model but for the above distros.

as i said, when i supply the disk during installation, the setup kinda hangs after it reads the disk. initially i had a problem with the disks so i had bought few new disks for this..the disks are reading fine since i can read them of completely using "dd", without errors.

i will try to see if i get the media for the RHAS/ES.

:-(
Oops, I got inconsistence typo.
"expert noprobe dd" is for the driver on floppy.
"expert noprobe" is for the driver on Fedora CD.

You might want to try the second one ( without "dd" ).

Wesly
dont worry for the typo...i m not a newbie.
infact just "expert" gives me driver disk prompt...no need for dd if its given
> when i supply the disk during installation
boot: expert noprobe
don't need to supply the disk, it just allows you manually select the driver from Fedora kernel or module without
probing the hardware. Unless there is no MegaRAID2 in Fedora, or you should be able to load it.

Wesly
progress!!
fedora is NOT supported...

i managed to get redhat 8.0 and 9.0 media.
8.0 could not detect the driver. but redhat 9.0 gulped tthe driver disk properly and i could install Redhat 9.0.

I didnt try doing it with the server assistant CD though. i didnt want to disturb the existing partitions. if i try that, will let you guys know.

but now the network card is not being detected. thankfully the kernel drivers are given on dell cd. but they need the source to be present on the disk. but now the media with me does not have the kernel source rpm

i m currently downloading kernel source but i didnt get the exact version. i chose to download nearest higher number. but it doesnt seem to be smp...i hope it works...waiting for the download to complete..
thanks again for the link..
by now the update must have been completed in the office. will go early n check

the system had kernel 2.4.20-6 and the link u gave is 2.4.20-8
will that cause any problem while compiling the kernel on the machine.
i understand that the kernel can be compiled on any machine for any version but since i m going to make modules also, will that cause any problem?

i asked this since i would be extracting the above kernel on that box and make the driver for nic. just hoping that it would compile nicely for the newer server and fit into my current (old) running kernel as well
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Or you can download the latest kernel and kernel-source.
rpm -ivh kernel*.rpm  <== install multiple kernels is allowed and you can boot up on different kernel.

Wesly
it didnt work...
i downloaded the source for 2.4.20-6 and tried to compile the network card driver along with it. it warned me that the running kernel and source to be compiled are different and driver may not work.

i still compiled the network card driver it but it didnt detect the card.
so i compiled the kernel and loaded it. even after i had running kernel same, it didnt work

finally i got hold of redhat enterprise linux media and got the things up..

:-))