Difference between revisions of "Booting: this page is retired for v10 on left for reference only"

From SME Server
Jump to navigationJump to search
Line 59: Line 59:
 
*To enable the [[Booting#Rescue_Mode_Help|rescue mode]] type
 
*To enable the [[Booting#Rescue_Mode_Help|rescue mode]] type
 
  sme rescue
 
  sme rescue
 +
 +
=====SME 8=====
 +
Here is a summary of what has changed:
 +
 +
- There is no longer a noraid boot option
 +
- New boot option raid=[none,0,1,5,6]
 +
- There is no longer a nospare boot option.
 +
- New boot option spares=[0-(disks-2)]
 +
- New boot option drives=[hda,sda,xvda,...]
 +
 +
The installer without anything being passed should behave identically for disks
 +
< 10 with the exception that it won't include any device that is housed on a
 +
drive that needs the usb-storage or spb2 module.
 +
 +
If you want to include drives that are on USB or firewire you must use the
 +
drives= option and specify all drives (not just the usb/firewire drives) that
 +
you want to use.
 +
 +
If you don't want to use raid at all specify raid=0 or raid=none (they are
 +
identical, 0 means none).
 +
 +
If you don't want a spare you should use the spares= option and specify a value
 +
of 0.  By default 1 spare will be added for disks > 3.  Another spare drive
 +
will be added for every additional 7 drives you add (10, 17, ...).
 +
 +
If you specify a raid level but don't have enough drives it will fall back to
 +
the next highest raid level (ex. 5 drives, 2 spares, raid 6 will fail back to
 +
raid 5 as 5-2=3 useable drives).
 +
 +
This will need extensive testing before 8.0 goes final.  There are lots of
 +
possibilities and combinations.  It should allow those with a control complex
 +
to setup their raid/space the way they want to.
  
 
====General Boot Help====
 
====General Boot Help====

Revision as of 11:08, 4 June 2010


Server Booting

This article describes the booting process of SME Server.

Installation

When booting from the installation CD you will get a boot prompt where you can simply press Enter to start the standard installation (or upgrade) routine. On i586 (e.g. VIA C3) based machines type smei586 and press Enter.

After showing the boot prompt for some time SME will start the installation process automatically. It will then afford you the opportunity to test the installation medium.

Afterwards you can choose which language you want to use for the following installation process.

Boot Options

You can use the function keys F1 to F5 to get more information about different boot options.

Important.png Note:
If installing on a i586 machine you will need to replace sme with smei586 in the following commands.


Installer Boot Options

  • Normal installation
sme
  • Install on i586 system (only for old cpu like k6, via, PII etc)
smei586
  • Installation hangs and the last screen shown is "Welcome to SME Server".
sme ide=nodma
  • Installation errors when disks previously used with fake raid.
sme ide=nodmraid
  • Install on IBM IntelliStation M Pro stalls
sme acpi=off
  • Intel DG965 Motherboards will not install (G33xx)
sme pci=nommconf acpi=off all-generic-ide 
  • SATA Driver installation error
sme acpi=off
  • To install SME without software RAID type
sme noraid
  • Asus P5W DH DELUXE with fake raid
sme noraid
  • To install SME without a logical volume manager type
sme nolvm
  • If you are sure you want only RAID 1 you can force the installer to do so by typing
sme raid1
  • In case you have 3 or more hard disks in your server and don't want to have a spare disk you can type
sme nospare
  • If you want to have /, /tmp, /var, /home/e-smith/files and swap on seperate partitions type
sme multipart
  • If you have a driver disk type
sme dd
sme rescue
SME 8
Here is a summary of what has changed:
- There is no longer a noraid boot option
- New boot option raid=[none,0,1,5,6]
- There is no longer a nospare boot option.
- New boot option spares=[0-(disks-2)]
- New boot option drives=[hda,sda,xvda,...]
The installer without anything being passed should behave identically for disks
< 10 with the exception that it won't include any device that is housed on a
drive that needs the usb-storage or spb2 module.

If you want to include drives that are on USB or firewire you must use the
drives= option and specify all drives (not just the usb/firewire drives) that
you want to use. 

If you don't want to use raid at all specify raid=0 or raid=none (they are
identical, 0 means none).

If you don't want a spare you should use the spares= option and specify a value
of 0.  By default 1 spare will be added for disks > 3.  Another spare drive
will be added for every additional 7 drives you add (10, 17, ...).

If you specify a raid level but don't have enough drives it will fall back to
the next highest raid level (ex. 5 drives, 2 spares, raid 6 will fail back to
raid 5 as 5-2=3 useable drives).

This will need extensive testing before 8.0 goes final.  There are lots of
possibilities and combinations.  It should allow those with a control complex
to setup their raid/space the way they want to.

General Boot Help

Certain hardware configurations may have trouble with the automatic hardware detection done during the installation. If you experience problems during the installation, restart the installation adding the noprobe option. With the standard installation that would be

sme noprobe

or e.g. if you don't want a software RAID:

sme noraid noprobe

and so on.

Kernel Parameter Help

Some kernel parameters can be specified on the command line and will be passed to the kernel. This does not include options to modules such as ethernet cards or devices such as CD-ROM drives.

To pass an option to the kernel use the following format:

sme <options>

If a different installation mode is desired, enter it after the option(s).

For example, to install on a system with 128MB of RAM using noprobe mode, type the following:

sme mem=128M noprobe

To pass options to modules, you will need to use the noprobe mode to disable PCI autoprobing. When the installer asks for your device type that needs an option or parameter passed to it, there will be a place to type those in at that time.

Rescue Mode Help

The installer includes a rescue mode which can be used when a system does not boot properly. The rescue mode includes many useful utilities (editor, hard drive and RAID tools, etc.) which will allow one to restore a system to a working state.

To enter the rescue mode, boot your system from the installation CD-ROM and type:

sme rescue

More

Some problems with booting that cannot or will not be fixed through development of SME7 and solutions how to bypass them can be found here.

You can run Memtest86 to check your RAM by typing

memtest

at the boot prompt and pressing Enter afterwards.