[parisc-linux] Newbie found an hp 712-80 :)

[Ralf Hildebrandt]

On Tue, Nov 12, 2002 at 10:11:41PM +0000, no one wrote:

> Yesterday I realised that the cute little box sitting by the bin for
> 3 weeks was actually a computer - a hp 712-80 to be precise; and I am

Yes, that happened here as well. The HP-UX on the box was toast.

> It came with no floppy, no harddrive, and no memory - I've bought a
> el-cheapo 2nd hand generic 2Gb SCSI drive; and now need to squeeze
> linux onto it :)

You still need memory :)

> As soon as I find myself some simms, I'll be able to get past the
> pretty hardware-failure screen (look! it even draws where the
> failing/missing part is on the motherboard!) and have the following
> installation method planned out.

I like that.

> 1) Setup dhcpd on my slackware box to serve the 'lifimage' for the latest net-boot iso
> 2) Lan-Boot the 712 with a crossover-cable into the main computer, via dhpcd
> (don't want to confuse true lan dhpcd requests...)
> 3) This lifimage will load a kernel and a initrd with the standard debian install tools.
> 4) I could now 'ifconfig eth0 down', plug the hp into the actual lan, bring the net connection back up (dhcp or static lan config...)
> 5) Do a install from my closest debian mirror.

Yup.

> I'm sure there must be a fatal flaw in there somewhere... after
> reading through all those fearful references to NFS-roots et al., it
> seems so simple now that I've written it down :)
> 
> Also, I read somewhere that you can flash the latest firmware to the
> machine by serving it the firmware as a net-boot image - is this
> correct?

Yes. Simply make the HP boot the firmware upgrade via tftp.

> Would it be safer by some other method? - for instance (no
> idea of actual possibility), copy the firmware to /boot & get AILO
> (sic?) to boot it...

On HP it's PALO.
-- 
Ralf Hildebrandt (Im Auftrag des Referat V a)   Ralf.Hildebrandt@charite.de
Charite Campus Mitte                            Tel.  +49 (0)30-450 570-155
Referat V a - Kommunikationsnetze -             Fax.  +49 (0)30-450 570-916
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