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eoin dubh
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:21 pm    Post subject: Net App F230 or F330 Reply with quote

Has anyone tried a Gentoo install on a Network Appliance F230 or F330 filer with attached RAID array? I have a couple of them with 4 drive arrays of 7 drives each. The main board uses PCI cards and I think that the original OS was a *Nix derivative. Currently there is no OS installed.
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Redhatter
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It might help to know the CPU and other hardware used... ;-)
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eoin dubh
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Redhatter,

It's kind of hard to tell. It uses a Pentium CPU and Intel chipset but the mainboard is a proprietary unit. It has a proprietary SCSI RAID controller. Network Appliance will not sell any info on the unit. They will not sell manuals of any version of the original OS. You have to buy a support contract to even get them to talk to you. I am going to dig a bit more into the unit and see what else I can find about the components.
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 1:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Heh... looks like you've got some reverse engineering to do ;-)

Your job is made slightly easier by the fact that it's an x86 architecture -- and Linux supports that natively. It also makes it very easy to produce a userland & kernel for it.

However, the hardest bit IMHO will be getting a bootloader up and running.

Your best bet would be to open the box up, start looking at the various chips and googling the names that are written on them to see what they are. I'm currently in the process of doing this with a Tektronix XTerminal along with Alec Voropay.

Even if you haven't got the technical skills to actually write code, you can still publish what you find, that way, someone who does can come along and assist with the port. ;-)
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Stuart Longland (a.k.a Redhatter, VK4MSL)
I haven't lost my mind - it's backed up on a tape somewhere...

Gentoo/MIPS Cobalt developer, Mozilla herd member.
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eoin dubh
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 6:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here are the chips that I can identify:

CPU Intel P5-133
System I/O controller Inetl PCEset S82378ZB
Local Bus Accellerator Intel PCIset S82433NX
PCI/Cache/Memory Controller Intel PCIset S82434NX
PCI Bridge IBM IBM27-82351

There is also a gLogic ISP1040B 2405101 and a digital 21140-AB DC1010CA 21-40673-02.

The SCSI RAID controller has:
IBM IBM27-82351
Paradigm PDM 44028S10J
PLX F730 163 PC19060ES Rev 1
There are two other chips, the processors I think, that have heat sinks glued onto them that do not6 want to come off.

I will keep trying to get more data.
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