Re: Compaq ProLiant: Viable?

["Adam N. Thompson, MCNE, MCSE" <athompso@commerced.com>]

Bruce Lane wrote:
>         Those that noted my earlier message will know that I'm trying to get a
> Compaq ProLiant (486DX2/66, 32MB RAM) to work as a router with OpenBSD 2.6.

I hadn't followed the earlier messages, so I may be totall off-base
here...

> turned off), and I still get (soon after network startup) three "Stray
> Interrupt 7" messages in a row, and then the entire system freezes. Nothing
> short of a power cycle will recover it.
> 
>         Strange thing is, I've disabled the parallel port (which is what I thought
> was causing the 'Stray Interrupt' messages). Still no go.

Some Compaqs had issues with parallel port signals floating high/low;
the solution would be to *enable* the parallel port device in the ECU
and also ensure that the lpt (lp0?) device under OpenBSD is also
activated and assigned to that device.

You may want to pull all the cards, and clear (reset) the EXBDA NVRAM
(CMOS).  Then re-run the ECU and reconfigure all the inboard devices to
their defaults.  The key step there is shorting the motherboard jumper
to make sure you've cleared the EXBDA.  You may want to put one NIC back
into the system before running the ECU, right after clearing the
configuration.

Disable shared interrupts.  This may be a "BIOS" setting, or it may be
an ECU setting.  I can't remember on those machines.  You will probably
have to run the ECU in "expert" or "advanced" mode to get to that
setting.  (It's a command-line option.)

>         Has anyone else used a ProLiant for OpenBSD? If so, what did you set the
> "Operating System" type to in the EISA config utility?

SCO Unix or Unixware should be a reasonably good match.  No-one has ever
really been able to explain to me what that setting does.  I do know
that the MS-DOS versus NetWare settings have different interrupt
handling characteristics.  The "NetWare" setting would be OK with the
observations that "NetWare" handles IRQ 15 in a special way - avoid
putting anything on IRQ15 if you're running in that mode; NetWare mode
also somehow manages to alter IRQ priority; serial and parallel ports go
to the BOTTOM of the list, and EISA bus IRQs go to the TOP of the list. 
No, I have no idea how the hell Compaq managed that!

-- 
-Adam Thompson, MCNE, MCSE, CWT, A+
 Vice-President / Chief Technology Officer
 Commerce Design Inc.
 athompso@commerced.com 
 tel: (204) 942-1648
 fax: (204) 989-8080