[NTLUG:Discuss] Compaq's & Linux

[Kelledin]

Many Compaqs (especially older ones like yours) require a small 
partition set up at the beginning of the drive, just for BIOS 
setup et al.  This is partition type 12, "Compaq diagnostics"; 
you can create it using fdisk or cfdisk, or with the Compaq 
diagnostics disk.

You don't necessarily have to destroy your existing partitions, 
if you have something like Partition Magic or the like to 
resize/move partitions.  But I would do the reformat and 
reinstall anyways, just because i still don't trust 
PartitionMagic to grok ext2 all that well.  If these systems are 
only functioning as DNS servers, then simply back up everything 
in /etc, /usr/local/etc, /usr/local/var, and /var/named, and do 
the reinstall.

I don't know what's happening with your NICs, but I suspect it's 
a power management thing.  It sounds like you suspect the same 
thing.

On Monday 05 August 2002 10:46 am, Bug Hunter wrote:
>  You might try pinging another unit on the network once every
> xx minutes or so using crontab
>
> crontab -l
>
> 5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55,0 * * * * /usr/bin/ping -c 5
> 1.2.3.4
>
>
>   that should force enough activity for them to keep running.
>
> On Mon, 5 Aug 2002, Douglas King wrote:
> > I am trying to use some "old' Compaq DeskPro DP2000 series
> > 5200MMX desktops as DNS machines.  I have Red Hat 7.2 loaded
> > on them.  It "appears" that the NIC's are going to sleep
> > after a period of time, and the machines won't "serve up"
> > DNS requests.  The either case a "page not found" or
> > something of that nature.  After several hits on the
> > machines, they perform correctly.  All the settings are
> > correct (the best i can tell), but need to fix this problem.
> >
> > NOW, here is what I know, and maybe you have input after
> > this.  I have checked the bios settings, but on these
> > machines, they want their own partitions for the bios
> > settings, which I don't have.  I have booted to their
> > special bios boot disk, but it will not let me change any
> > settings unless I allow it to create these partitions.  I
> > already have everything loaded and up to date with Red Hat. 
> > Will I "toast" my drive if I allow it to create this bios
> > partition?  Is so, what are my other options?  Is there
> > something in Linux that will force these NIC's to "stay
> > alive"?  If so...WHAT?
>
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
Kelledin
"If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does 
it still cost four figures to fix?"