:: CoffMan WebLog ::

A new fabricant problem surges when you try to install linux (particulary debian) on some hardware .
The Hardware is a Xeon Rack , the ProLiant DL380 Generation 3 consists of :


Compaq's SMART Array Controllers

Broadcom Network Card


the rest of the hardware installs well .

Follow up:

Installation Disks and hard drive support

When you try to install debian the first problem is the install disks (the set of disks with 3.0 version)does not contain drivers for hard drive.

I download a set of disks from the Debian homepage, the set are :
Disk1 : root.bin (from /3.0.23-2002-05-21 Imagenes/images-1.44/bf2.4)

Disk2 : rescue.bin (from /3.0.23-2002-05-21 Imagenes/images-1.44/bf2.4)


with that disk set the installation must contain drivers for Compaq\'s SMART Array Controllers (cciss drivers if you want to compile at hand)
Then you can install Debian from this install disks.

When you finish that, you must compile a kernel (or use one from apt-get) and put the drivers for the network card.

Network Card

Download drivers for Broadcom 57xx NIC (BCM5700 particulary) from www.broadcom.com

and the archive is : linux70.zip
Next you must compile the kernel, and install it, read kernel howto .

The next is compile and install the drivers for the NIC.


#unzip linux.zip
#tar xzvf bcm5700-7.0.0.tar.gz

it creates a directory hierarchy like this :
Server/Linux/Driver/bcm5700-7.0.0/src

go to it :
#cd Server/Linux/Driver/bcm5700-7.0.0/src

#make
this creates bcm5700.o

(try it with insmod bcm5700.o)


copy it to /lib/modules/2.4.18/kernel/drivers/net
(substitute 2.4.18 for your kernel version)

add this line to /lib/modules/2.4.18/modules.dep
/lib/modules/2.4.18/kernel/drivers/net/bcm5700.o:


next execute :

#depmod -a


and voila, you can restart and install it at boot time with
/etc/modules.conf

alias eth0 bcm5700
/etc/modules

eth0



Note: The installation on Suse 8.0 does not require install disks, the drivers cciss are included on the cdrom kernel.



good luck