Support Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 for HP Integrity Servers
19. The ELILO bootloader can pass command-line options to the Linux kernel. The max_addr=
and mem= options limit the amount of memory used by the kernel.
Some versions of the kernel handle these arguments incorrectly, resulting in an MCA that
crashes the system during boot. If the system boots successfully, there is no risk of a crash
due to this problem.
Booting with max_addr= or mem= is sometimes useful for debugging problems, but is not
a tested feature. A similar effect can be achieved by deconfiguring (with the EFI dimmconfig
command) or physically removing DIMMs.
20. System panics may occur on Integrity servers running Linux that have fibre channel (FC)
storage arrays directly connected.
If you plan to connect FC storage to Integrity Servers running Linux, you must connect
through a FC switch.
21. This problem is specific to the LSI1068 SAS I/O controller in the rx2660, BL860c and the
BL870c.
The mpt driver included in RHEL 5.2 does not have the necessary agent components required
by HP System Insight Manager.
To fix this problem, HP has qualified a special version of the mpt driver, which can be
downloaded from the drivers area of www.hp.com.
22. The agent components required by HP System Insight Manager are not currently supported
in the Xen kernel of RHEL 5.2. Therefore the special version of the mpt driver is not required
when using the RHEL 5.1 Xen kernel on the rx2660, BL860c or BL870c.
23. This problem affects all Integrity servers running RHEL 5.x.
On large multiprocessor machines, an application that opens and closes many block devices
can cause enough lock contention to trigger the soft lockup detector.
This does not cause a system crash or affect system operation, but it produces alarming
kernel messages.
24. The driver load and disk device file name order during installation may not be the same as
that for the final installed system. To avoid mount errors, use either LVM or disk labels.
25. When using the HP Integrity Integrated Lights-Out (iLO 2) Remote Serial Console during
RHEL 5.x installation, the firstboot program that runs during the installation may generate
large amounts of output and fail. The firstboot program may be re-run after logging in as
root without the display problems.
26. When installing using a graphics console, at least the Base group of packages must be selected
for IPv4 networking to be operational. If installing using the text-based console, there is no
package group that has to be selected for IPv4 networking to be operational.
27. After installing the operating system, the system just installed may not boot or a previously
installed system may boot instead. To resolve this problem, enter the following commands
in the EFI shell:
Shell> reconnect -r
Shell> map -r
Then reboot. This can be done by exiting the shell (using the exit command) and reselecting
the EFI boot menu entry.
If this does not resolve the problem, try turning off the boot entry caching with the EFI
ioconfig command:
Shell> ioconfig fast_init off
Fast initialization: Disabled
28. To create a system that can boot either RHEL 4.x or RHEL 5.x, the RHEL 4.x system must
be installed and configured before installing the RHEL 5.x system.
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