Support Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES v.4 Update 4 for HP Integrity Servers

the Red Hat Network. For additional instructions on installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux
on an Integrity server, consult the HP integrity Essentials Foundation Pack for Linux User's
Guide.
20. Installation to a software RAID 6 volume may result in a kernel panic. If this occurs, try
using a different RAID type such as RAID 5.
21. The cdrecord program may hang when burning a CD-RW disk with unsupported media
using certain models of CD/DVD-ROM Combo and DVD+RW drives shipped in rx1600,
rx1620, rx2600, rx2620, and rx4640 servers.
Use only approved HP CD-RW media to prevent burn hangs. Try different brands of media
if HP media is not available.
22. Due to a bug in the RHEL4 Update 4 installation routines, the wrong driver is loaded for
the following HP fibre-channel host bus adapters:
• AB429A and AB379A QLogic 4 Gb/s PCI-x HBAs
• AD300A and AE311A Qlogic 4 Gb/s PCI-express HBAs
• 403619-B21 2-port 4Gb FC mezzanine adapter for BL860c blade server
This bug results in a nonfunctioning HBA during and after installation, and thus Boot from
SAN cannot be performed.
This problem affects installation of RHEL4 Update 4 onto storage connected to these devices
on all supported Itanium servers.
Use the following procedure as a workaround.
The elilo boot loader is the IA-64 initial program loader that starts the Linux kernel (both
for installations and post-install). Normally, systems are configured to automatically boot
without any user intervention. This workaround around requires user intervention as follows.
During installation, when the system prints the ELILO: prompt, you must enter a string to
override the default boot parameters. The loader allows you two seconds to start typing the
string or the system will proceed to boot using the default values. The following string
should be entered at the prompt:
ELILO: linux nostorage
If you are installing from a serial console, add console=ttyS0 , as in the following example:
ELILO: linux nostorage console=ttyS0
Booting in this fashion causes the Red Hat installer to only load device drivers for discovered
network interface controllers (NICs) and CD or DVD+RW drives, but to not load device
drivers for any other discovered storage HBAs. Later you are asked if you want to add
devices beyond these. Answer the question Add Device.
If you have these specific I/O cards, you should load these storage device drivers in the
following order, as they appear in the Red Hat installer driver list. You can specify drivers
for devices that are not in the system, so if in doubt, load them all:
1. Compaq Smart Array Controllers (cciss)
2. Symbios 53C896 or 53c10xx (sym53c8xx)
3. LSI Logic Fusion MPT SAS Driver (mptsas)
4. LSI Logic Fusion MPT SCSI Driver (mptspi)
5. Qlogic 2400 (qla2400)
6. Qlogic 2300 (qla2300)
7. Emulex FC Controller (lpfc)
When you have loaded the appropriate drivers, you can then select the Done option and
proceed with the installation as normal.
10 Support Notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES v.4 Update 4