Debian woody on PowerEdge 2600

[Mahmud Jami <netjami@yahoo.com>]

I have successfully install Debian at my Dell PowerEdge 2600 without any problem.

It is a PE2600 with :

   - 2 CPU
   - 6 SCSI H.D.D
   - 2 GB RAM
   - Intel GIGA ethernet
   - AMI MegaRAID

I took help from Matt Domsch's Linux page http://domsch.com/linux/. I took the "bf_mega.bin" image.

After installation using the "bf_mega.bin" I found some problem. I found that I have less that 1 GB RAM and I couldn't add any additional modules. So, then I have made my own kernel image. Here I write down the STEPS that I have done, and by following these steps anyone can install Debian easily on a PE 2600.

Step 1
_______

Boot your PE 2600 with OpenManage disk. Then set date/time and configure your desire RAID. RAID 5 should better if you have more than three hard drive. Then exit your OpenManager.

Step 2
_______

Download the "bf_mega.bin" from http://domsch.com/linux/debian. Make a boot disk with bf_mega.bin, and a root disk with "root.bin" ( can found on Debian CD1). You can use the "rawwritewin.exe" software to create these floppies from Windows.

Step 3
_______

Boot your PE2600 system with "bf_mega.bin" boot disk. When it prompt for root disk then insert the root disk (root.bin). Partiton your system. Configure hostname, configure network, Install base system, Install kernel modules and drivers. But DON'T REBOOT.

Step 4
_______

Now switch to another linux consol (Alt+F2, tty2). Insert the boot disk "bf_mega.bin" again. Mount the floppy. Copy the "linux.bin" file from boot floppy to /target/boot/. Then edit /target/etc/lilo.conf using nano-tiny to boot the "linux.bin" file. Back to first consol, make your system bootable and you can restart it now.

 

#mount /dev/fd0

#cd floppy

#cp linux.bin /target/boot

#edit /target/etc/lilo.conf

 

At this time your Debian on PE2600 is okay, but you can't add any additional module to your system but you MUST need to add additional modules for your own purpose. So, configure your own kernel now.

Step 5
________

Run dselect. choose "kernel-source-2.4.22-3". Remember PE2600 "megaradi" and Intel GIGA ethernet module is available only with kernel 2.4.21 ++ version.

Now,

cd /usr/src/
tar -jxvf kernel-source-2.4.22.tar.bz2
cd kernel-source-2.4.22
make menuconfig
Select the following as ESSENTIAL modules:
Processor type and features>>
         High memory support 4GB (If u have 1 GB+ RAM)
         Symmetric multi-processing support (If you have 2 CPU)
SCSI Support >>
         SCSI Support
         SCSI Disk Support
         SCSI CDROM Support
         SCSI TAPE Drive Support
         SCSI low-level drivers >>
                 AMI MegaRAID support ( most important!! for your RADI)
Network Device Support >>
         Intel(R) PRO/1000 Gigabit Ethernet support ( most important for
 Intel GIGA ethernel)
File System >>
        Choose your desire filesystem (ext3, raiserFS etc)

Now select ALL YOUR DESIRE KERNEL MODULES. Save your new kernel.

Run "make dep; make clean; make bzImage; make modules; make modules_install"

Copy arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/

Edit lilo.conf. Reboot and boot with with your new kernel.

Thanks.

Mahmud Jami.

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