HP/DEC/Compaq

Hi,
I've accrued an rx2600 server today - dual CPU, 10G of ram, bells, beeps, blue LEDs and build-in blackjack. And that's for $36, so I could not not to accrue it.

Tried to install debian - but rumors says that debian/itanium port is not very active - and it failed to install ulilo (or what's the name of lilo for itanium?). It forced me to create and setup partition (calling it EFI boot partition) during installation, and made me remember old Compaq PCs with setup partition, but anyway - lilo failed to install without saying anything meaningful (so next thing I'll try will be Gentoo).

So I've found https://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=linsmartsetup IFIL Smart Setup (whatever it is) - looks like it should create that magic partition. And do some other useful things, for sure.
And it even boots from CD, but says: "Smart Setup EBSU v5.8 - The HP Setup & Configuration Utility does not support the current platform."

Questions:
- whaaat? It does not like rx2600?
- do I really need this software?
- what is EFI boot partition, anyway? A boot-manager alike or what? What to read about it? Must it exists for running HPUX or Windows?
- what's the best (modern/updated) Linux distributive? (on PC my choice is Slackware)
- can it run HP NonStop and is it an interesting system to look at? [or better start to explore OpenVMS right now?]

Found a correct way of installing elilo on Itanium. When Debian tries to do it, it fails with 'elilo returded with 1 : failed'.
Unmounting /efi helps.
Drop to a shell, chroot /target . umount efi (see df output). Run elilo. It will complain 'Missing vmliuz.old' but will do the work.
From EFI prompt, "Boot Option Maintenance Menu" , navigate to this drive and directory and boot it (and later add this location to EFI menu)

Spend two days while digging that out, hope this will help someone.

I've been using SuSE on the Itanium-based Altix systems, with decent results. You should be able to download an ISO from them at no cost.

It's been a month or so, but I believe that /boot/efi under SuSE just needed to be a small VFAT filesystem - I think the main filesystem(s) were using XFS, but I'd have to fire up a machine to confirm that.

an rx2600 runs hpux 11.23 or later. if you want linux get a peecee

foetz wrote: if you want linux get a peecee

Or an Altix or a Prism, which might be more fun ...

hamei wrote:

foetz wrote: if you want linux get a peecee

Or an Altix or a Prism, which might be more fun ...

sadly yes

foetz wrote:

hamei wrote:

foetz wrote: if you want linux get a peecee

Or an Altix or a Prism, which might be more fun ...

sadly yes

If I had bought an Altix or Prism and SGI hung me out to dry the way they did all the Altix / Prim custoemrs, I'd have burned Bozo at the stake. I have no idea why there isn't more violence in commerce today ...

hamei wrote: I have no idea why there isn't more violence in commerce today ...

maybe there should be

foetz wrote: an rx2600 runs hpux 11.23 or later. if you want linux get a peecee

Sure, installing Linux was just an attempt to feel the computer - to read dmesg, lspci and to feel how fast gcc runs.

Hpux 11.23 is not very interesting for me because I own A500 server (and some 700-familiy machines), and 11.31... I'm not sure I want this computer to run it, I suppose there are much more interesting OSes.

hamei wrote: Or an Altix or a Prism, which might be more fun

Altix and Prism are completely new words for me, I'll try to read something about them, thanks.

By the way, can anyone explain me the current legal status of obtaining OpenVMS? There is something called "Hobbyist license", but it's required to be a member of DECUS since 1978, or like that, but I've never been in touch with DEC legacy (even I own http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKNC UKNC computer (but before I will solder a FDC [in plans for next month] I promised myself not to touch it)

dreadbit wrote: Hpux 11.23 is not very interesting for me because I own A500 server (and some 700-familiy machines), and 11.31... I'm not sure I want this computer to run it, I suppose there are much more interesting OSes.

BLASPHEMY!

dreadbit wrote: By the way, can anyone explain me the current legal status of obtaining OpenVMS? There is something called "Hobbyist license", but it's required to be a member of DECUS since 1978, or like that, but I've never been in touch with DEC legacy

Yep, the hobbyist program still exists, even though it's just one (great!) guy at HP that's pulling it. I'm not sure anyone cares about DECUS membership anymore - my own DECUS chapter dissolved one year after I joined, so I do still have a membership number, but I suppose you can get licenses without it. Try poking John Egolf at HP if joining a local chapter would turn out to be difficult.

I dual boot my zx6000 (basically a workstation rx2600) between HPUX 11.31 and VMS 8.4. Plenty fast and a nice machine to work on

For OpenVMS Hobbyist Program, take a look at these responses: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=16728429&p=7367264 and viewtopic.php?f=18&t=16728429&p=7367264&hilit=DECUS+Hobbyist#p7368258

Try to join DECUServe.org first, then you might need to wait a day or three for your new membership number to make it into the system at plato.ccsscorp.com. But the URL in that domain (from the second post linked above) should get a quick response.