Compaq Proliant 2500 Memory problems....

[brain]

A quick tip on putting Gentoo (and prolly any other Linux) on a Proliant 2500.

Linux does not correctly detect the amount of memory installed on these Proliants. Only 16MB (the onboard amount) is seen while the add-on memory module sits unused.

Using a "mem=XXXM" command at the kernel load line will not work either. The only way to get these servers to work with Linux is to specifically tell the kernel the memory amounts, and where to put them. Look at the following.

1.
At boot, write down the exact number of memory that your server counts at boot. In this case, let's say it is 327680 (what mine was}.

2.
Take this number and perform the following calculations:

• 327680 - 1024 = 326656
  326656 / 1024 = 319

319 is now the number we need.

3.
Append the following to your kernel boot line:

Code: Select all

mem=exactmap mem=640k@0 mem=319m@1M

Replacing 319 with your amount derived from the above calculations. If you use to high of a value on the last "mem=" argument, your kernel will likely crash before it has a chance to get to mounting root.

4.
That's it! You should have a working Proliant 2500 running Gentoo


One footnote, the 1.4_rc1 CD does not allow the user to append kernel arguments for booting. This could obviously cause problems for people who need to things like this to get the install to work correctly. Are there plans to change this for the actual 1.4 release?

[r3pek]

in case that anyone is booting a livecd that is based on a 2.6 kernel, substitute every "mem=" for "memap="

[ak7]

To make the math easy try...

gentoo-nofb memmap=exactmap memmap=640k@0m memmap=([Total ram in megabytes] -1)M@1M