Hello Boardies,

i found this Howto at the Strongbolt Site an i have some problems to get the CentOS running on my RAQ4.

After connecting the Harddrive to the RAQ and switching on i get @ the end ... console not init, and a Init Error ... The RAQ ís updated to the cobalt-2.10.3-ext3-1M.rom Rom image. Check: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=83123

Is here anyone who can help me, and all the others ... to get the CentOS working under our nice blue boxes ... ?

What i did ...

- CentOS install, F5 for Rescue Mode, and automountig
to /mnt/sysimage

- now chroot /mnt/sysimage and root with su-

- mounting USB Stick and CD Drive ...





http://www.osoffice.co.uk/strongbolt_howto.html


Step 1 - Base Install
Install centos 3.6 on an old i386 with the absolute minimum amount of packages. Do not install a boot loader.
I prefer to have the 2 drives plugged in at this stage, and configure raid using disk druid.
Upon completion of this, PUT DISK1 BACK IN AND REBOOT
________________________________________
Step 2 - Getting ready for the Raq
Boot the old i386 into linux rescue, using centos 3.6 disk1
Whilst in rescue mode, chroot to the installed root.
Remove the previously installed modules.
# rm /etc/modules.conf
Make a temporary cdrom mounting drive:
# mkdir /mnt/tmp
# mount the cdrom using:
# mount /dev/hdd /mnt/tmp
# cd /mnt/tmp/RedHat/RPMS
Replace the i686 C Librarys with i386 ones.
# rpm -i --force glibc-*.i386.rpm
# rm -Rf /lib/i686
Now the same for openssl
# rpm -i --force openssl-*.i386.rpm
I am lazy. I have decided to dump all the files I need for this stage on a usb stick, Centos install disk 'linux rescue' does recognise this device.
otherwise you could enable the network and download the files you need from: http://www.osoffice.co.uk/linux/
Unmount the cdrom and mount the usb stick.
# umount /mnt/tmp
# cd ~
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/tmp
# cd /mnt/tmp
Install the panel lcd programs available here
# rpm -i panel*.rpm
Get your kernel installed, I have one available.
If you choose to use the kernel I built it is available here.. but I compiled it on gentoo so i
dont have an rpm.
Copy the kernel over
mv vmlinux.bz2 /boot/
get the kernel modules in place. I have a tar.gz file here
extract the modules.tar.gz /lib/modules/2.4.25/

Take out the virtual consoles
# vi /etc/inittab

you can remove or comment out the following lines:
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6
Make the lcd device file. The correct way is:
mknod /dev/lcd c 10 156

Make the locks directory for lcd panel
#mkdir /etc/locks

You have now finished with this stage. You can power down the pc, and take the drives out.
________________________________________
Step 3 - Booting the New operating system.
Put the drives in the raq, and connect your null modem cable.
upon boot, let kudzu configure devices. Kudzu will also add the correct parameters to make your serial console work.
You may have to manually get the ethernet devices up, by creating the following file:

#vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

Restart the network:

#service network restart

This file should contain something like this :


DEVICE=eth0
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=192.168.0.5
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=192.168.0.1
Yum needs to have the gpg key installed in order to update. I prefer to update things before installing Bluequartz.
rpm -import http://mirror.centos.org/centos-3/3.6/os/i386/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-3
yum update
Remove un-needed services
#chkconfig --del cups
#chkconfig --del isdn
#chkconfig --del pcmcia
#chkconfig --del kudzu
________________________________________
Step 4 - Installing Bluequartz
Bluequartz requires several rpms to be installed before it can install;
#yum install php bind-chroot openssh telnet-server expect net-snmp perl-DB_File ntp perl-URI
get the bluequartz install files from http://bluequartz.org/
Check to see whether or not there is an updated version of BQ, then download the setup files.

#wget http://bluequartz.org/pub/BlueQuartz/5100R/CentOS3/tgz/BlueQuartz-5100R-CentOS3-i386-2006011501.tar.gz
or if the bq servers are a bit slow, thry our mirror:
# wget http://www.osoffice.co.uk/linux/BlueQuartz-5100R-CentOS3-i386-2006011501.tar.gz
#tar -xvzf BlueQuartz-5100R-CentOS3-i386-2006011501.tar.gz
#cd BlueQuartz-5100R-CentOS3-i386-2006011501
#./install.sh
#./update.sh
Enjoy your new updated cobalt raq!! Or 'Strongbolt' (as I like to call them) :)
________________________________________
Additional setup Notes:
Step 5
Remove the audit service errors:
#echo 'alias char-major-10-224 off' >> /etc/modules.conf
#echo 'alias char-major-4 off' >> /etc/modules.conf
#echo 'alias char-major-6 off' >> /etc/modules.conf
#echo 'alias hid off' >> /etc/modules.conf
#echo 'alias keybdev off' >> /etc/modules.conf
#echo 'alias mousedev off' >> /etc/modules.conf
#yum install mysql-server mysql php-mysql squirrelmail
#service mysqld start
#chkconfig --add mysqld
#chkconfig --levels 345 mysqld on
#cd /home
#wget http://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/phpmyadmin/phpMyAdmin-2.7.0-pl2.tar.gz
#tar -xvzf phpMyAdmin-2.7.0-pl2.tar.gz
#mv phpMyAdmin-2.7.0-pl2 phpmyadmin
#echo 'Alias /phpmyadmin /home/phpmyadmin' > /etc/httpd/conf.d/phpmyadmin.conf
Create the phpmyadmin config file:
vi /home/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php
<?php
$cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri_DisableWarning'] = TRUE;
$cfg['PmaNoRelation_DisableWarning'] = FALSE;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = localhost;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['port'] = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['socket'] = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['connect_type'] = 'tcp';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['compress'] = FALSE;
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass'] = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user'] = '';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password'] = '';
$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'osoffice';
?>

I hope anyone can help ... so we can make a Harddiskimage for all the others.

Thanks

Phil

Philip2,

I've put together a more detailed "HowTo" on the CentOS 3.6/BlueQuartz into a RaQ3/4 at the following link. (add a "." after the www !)
I've not tried the RAID install, but would expect it's just a matter of setting the base drives up in Disk Druid on the first setup machine.

If you are starting from scratch get the CentOS 3.7 ISO's, obviously some of the version's of files may have now been updated since I wrote the Hot To.

If you have CebtOS 3.6 discs, running YUM will update you to CentOS 3.7

www dincom.co.uk/bq

Best Regards,
Howie.

Hi Guys,
I've also encountered this problem whilst trying to install Centos 3.6 on a Raq3/4 (with rom ver 2.10.3-ext3).
I followed the very detailed instructions at www,dincom,co,uk but when I booted the drive in the Raq, the system hung with 'Kernel Panic' on the lcd.
The last few lines from the serial port log are shown below:
.....
LVM version 1.0.8(17/11/2003)
Initializing Cryptographic API
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 131072 bind 65536)
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 88k freed
Warning: unable to open an initial console.
Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Manchap

Hi there manchap,

I think you will find your problem is that you are booting from the ROM and not the HDD.
To change this you have to boot holding the "S" button until you see the "Select Option" menu displayed. Then release the button.
If you are watching on a console connection this will also be just after the drive has completed spinning up.

You will have to set boot options twice.

If you now press the "S" button again it will scroll through the boot options, ROM/NET/DISK etc you will also be able to navigate to the "Config boot disk" and select hda.

Finally getting back to the top level boot options where you will have to select Disk

I'll check later to the exact menu order.

Best Regards,
Howie.

Hi there again manchap,

I've just added a section called "Setting LCD Boot Options to boot from HDD" on the dincom site.

www dincom.co.uk/bq

This will step you through the process with pictures !!


Best Regards
Howie.

I've also updated the main procedure to take account of the boot options

Best Regards
Howie.

Thanks for the information Howie.

However, the main reason I was having problems was because the 'slave' machine on which I initially installed Centos 3.6 was an AMD Athlone K7 machine. I wrongly thought it was a K6 like the Raqs.

After reinstalling on a K6 things went more smoothly according to your 'HowTo'.
A couple of minor points -

For some reason the Raq couldn't get an IP address from my dhcp/router so I had to setup the network manually which also involves editing /etc/resolve.conf to specify the IP address of a name server.

Any attempt to download config.inc.php (for phpmyadmin) from your site yields an empty file because the embedded php statements get interpreted by your server. I tried ftp but couldn't get in.

Thanks, again, for the great 'HowTo'. I'll keep an eye on your site for more like that.
Best Wishes
manchap

Thanks for the update,

You could have tried a wget to get the php file that may have worked.
Any how, I've now added another file in the mirror to get over your issue. It's named 'config.inc.php.as_a_text_file.txt' so this can be downloaded or saved as, then rename to just 'config.inc.php'

Best Regards,
Howie.

Hello,

I'm learning Linux. Is CentOS better than Fedora?

Hello,

I'm learning Linux. Is CentOS better than Fedora?

CentOS is a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Server. It's a little more robust and stable than Fedora, where the bleeding edge development is done.