Compaq Proliant 1600 Server - video lockup (cirrus logic)

[jvin248]

I have a Compaq Proliant 1600 Server (dual 400Mhz Pentium II) that I've been trying to run Knoppix 4.0 Live-CD, without success.

The system will lock up at the point where the X video process is launched (typically after "Init 5") - cannot get to any other tty screen, etc and forces power-down reboot.

Windows 98SE boots correctly from a hard drive partition and shows that the display adaptor "device is working properly" (video driver Cirrus Logic 5446 PCI, and lists cirrusmm.drv, cirrus.vxd, vmm32.vxd, vdd.vxd, vflatd.vxd).

I have tried several other hardware and software solutions to see if anything improved:ATI PCI video card, a separate cirrus logic based PCI card, three different monitors (Gateway, Samatron, NEC), different Linux distros (Knoppix 4.0, Kanotix live 2005.4, DSL, Slax 5.0.6, Edubuntu 6.06 beta 2, and Debian Sarge hard disk install that worked as long as it remained in text mode but froze after starting Xdm server). I am currently downloading SUSE 10.1 to try that...

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Hardware specifications:
Compaq Proliant 1600 server
2x Intel Pentium II at 400Mhz (dual processors)
320MB Ram BIOS 'A08 (8/17/98)

Video adapter: VGA on system board
Chipset Cirrus logic CL-GD5446 visualmedia, ramdac cirrus internal CL24 truecolor
vidoe bios Cirrus logic, quadtel 1.31, vesa support VBE 2.0, SVGA 1MB,
supported VESA modes: 800x600x16; 800x600x256; 1024x768x16

Monitor: VGA analog color Samtron 76e/77e (also tried a NEC multisync & Gateway VX900)

Motherboard:
Intel chipset 82443BX/ZX 440BX/ZX (AGP)
Intel southbridge 8237eb/mb PIIX4E/M
PCI bus version 2.10
Super IO chip: Winbond W83877TF
Network adapter integrated netelligent PCI TLAN

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Specific knoppix 4.0 boot testing options and results
boot: knoppix vga=0
after "Init 5" the screen flashes, shows Xfree86..., clears and locks up (power off required)
boot: knoppix acpi=off pnpbios=off napic noapm
after "Init 5" the screen flashes shows Xfree86..., clears and locks up (power off required)
boot: failsafe debug -b 3
after stage 3, type exit, results “bash: no job control�, type exit twice more, “autoconfiguring devices...Init runlevel 3�, type exit and response is “logout� over and over. Just prior to “Init 3� showed “video is GD544x GD 5446 using Xfree86(vesa) Server, Monitor is GWY0013, H:30-95kHz, V: 50-160hz, using modes “1600x1200�...�640x480� even though the monitor was hooked to the ATI PCI board.
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My goal is to install a Knoppix/Debian variant and run this as a LTSP server for a couple of old clients but I can't get passed the server installation.

John

[jvin248]

Changes I found to make this system boot Linux...

At the "Boot:" prompt you need either (Knoppix) "knoppix nousb" or (DSL) "dsl nousb" for live-CD booting. Apparently there is a partial USB implementation on the motherboard (no output connectors to the case through) that causes everything to hang during hardware detection processes. Others with this system have experienced keyboard & mouse hangs but mine seems ok). I couldn't get SUSE 10.1 to run (maybe needed an older kernel).

I ended up getting simplyMepis 3.3.1 (debian based) to install to the hard drive. I used the 2.4 Linux Kernel (2.6 didn't work, I remembered there were some routines pulled from 2.6 that 2.4 has to support older systems) and added the "nousb" option to the standard option list.

I installed LTSP 4.2 and have a client now booting to this server, except I'm currently working on improving the graphics display to the client (in the "lts.conf" file add Xserver=vesa and X_color_depth=8 seem to work but are nearly unreadable, this same client boots on an Edubuntu 5.10 Breezy box with acceptable graphics so I know it's not the client's issue). The 1600's direct server display is fine (800x600 though). A couple of helpful urls if you go the LTSP route: (http://docs.sun.com/source/817-5625-10/Linux_Troubleshooting.html) and (http://www.mail-archive.com/ltsp-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net/msg22895.html). LTSP 4.2 boots surprisingly fast compared to an Edubuntu 5.10 boot (6.06 is supposed to have the speed of LTSP 4.2).

Good luck!

John

[ckamin]

Video adapter: VGA on system board
Chipset Cirrus logic CL-GD5446 visualmedia, ramdac cirrus internal CL24 truecolor
vidoe bios Cirrus logic, quadtel 1.31, vesa support VBE 2.0, SVGA 1MB,
supported VESA modes: 800x600x16; 800x600x256; 1024x768x16

Look at the 1MB value for V Ram. Some GUI's require more than that and it's probably what has prevented you from using many distros with their default configurations. You can try a different desktop in Knoppix by specifying which one to use on startup. Try using "desktop=icewm" for a desktop with lower overhead.