• Rp3440 && kernel && Buster && ispconfig && buildd info.

    From Mike Hosken@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jul 11 10:00:01 2019
    Thanks for the help Dave, the machine states that it’s a rp3440 but does require a license to activate the other cpus. According to wurth who I brought it off, it once had a license for all four cores, they can’t help as they lost everything for it
    paperwork wise. Was brought in 2008 run for 3 months then deactivated and not powered up till 11 years later.

    Question time.

    If all is lost then that is what it is, was going to setup as a buildd server so glad it will be able to at least do that. Question what would the best kernel and parameters to run on a single core machine to give better performance. Currently running
    buster distro kernel version 4.19.0-5-parisc64-smp

    I am looking at another rp3440 which Ive seen the cpu info and it runs all four, is a firmware clone a possibility?

    When the extra ram arrives and some 300gig drives I’ll put the rp3440 in a colo as a buildd instance. What are the ideal specs and is the /srv directory the main building area.

    Would bad ram cause a kernel panic on 4.19-05 but not on an early stretch kernel??

    A quick update on buster I’m sorting out the net installation cds and should be ready tomorrow. The CD and DVDs work as expected.

    I’m currently working on getting ispconfig working on hppa servers which is an excellent fit for our architecture since they run forever.

    Mike Hosken

    Sent from my iPhone

    On 11/07/2019, at 03:48, John David Anglin <dave.anglin@bell.net> wrote:

    On 2019-07-10 10:46 a.m., Mike Hosken wrote:
    Does anyone know how to either get a license or a bi-pass hack to activate the second cpu currently disabled by firmware

    Cat cpuinfo only shows cpu 0
    If the machine actually is a rp3440, the other cpus can be enabled in the service menu. Otherwise, it's a rp3410
    and you need to pay HP for license for additional cpus. The panama buildd is in this situation and we didn't find
    a place to get the upgrade.

    Dave

    --
    John David Anglin dave.anglin@bell.net


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  • From Frank Scheiner@21:1/5 to Mike Hosken on Thu Jul 11 15:00:02 2019
    Hi Mike,

    On 7/11/19 09:59, Mike Hosken wrote:
    Thanks for the help Dave, the machine states that it’s a rp3440 but does require a license to activate the other cpus. According to wurth who I brought it off, it once had a license for all four cores, they can’t help as they lost everything for it
    paperwork wise. Was brought in 2008 run for 3 months then deactivated and not powered up till 11 years later.

    Have you already checked the info strap (located directly right of the
    drives, there's an info icon nearby) for any license stickers? I'm
    unsure if such a license could be placed there, but it could be worth to
    check. I currently can't check on my two rp3440s, as the one that is in
    reach currently (with two processors) has that strap removed by the
    previous owner and the other one (with one processor) is in storage.

    UPDATE: Found this howto from HP ([1], sadly only available from the
    Google cache) which only in the title speaks of both rp3410 and rp3440.
    Hence I'm wondering, if the rp3440s maybe are not pre-limited in this
    regard, even if they ship with one processor only. And for the rp3410 it
    looks like the upgrade actually only activates the second core (although
    HP speaks of processor) of the one singular processor installed not a
    second processor. So could it just be that all other cores are
    deconfigured on your machine maybe?

    [1]: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:-GK8yZpxT-8J:https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display%3FdocId%3Demr_na-c01608350+

    In "Configuration Menu" of BCH:
    ```
    he cpu

    ---- CPUCONFIG Help
    ----------------------------------------------------------

    CPUCONFIG in the configuration menu displays configuration data
    on the processors present in the system or schedules them for
    configuration or deconfiguration on the next hard boot.

    CPUconfig Display config/deconfig status of
    all processors in system
    CPUconfig <proc> Display config/deconfig status of
    processor number <proc>
    CPUconfig <proc> ON Configure or Reconfigure processor
    number <proc>
    CPUconfig <proc> OFF Deconfigure processor number <proc>

    <proc> [0|1|2|3] Processor number

    NOTE: Cannot deconfigure the processor in a uniprocessor system
    or a system in which there is one remaining configured
    processor. Configuration changes will not take effect until
    the next time the system is hard booted.

    Short Command for CPUconfig: CPU
    ```

    OTOH the key seems to be derived from the serial number, so HP(E) could
    still have the license number linked to your serial number in a customer database maybe. Not sure where to check that, though. :-/


    Question time.

    If all is lost then that is what it is, was going to setup as a buildd server so glad it will be able to at least do that. Question what would the best kernel and parameters to run on a single core machine to give better performance. Currently running
    buster distro kernel version 4.19.0-5-parisc64-smp

    Maybe best wait for 4.20 or newer as per [2] (Jan 2019).

    [2]: https://parisc.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page#PA-RISC_NEWS


    I am looking at another rp3440 which Ive seen the cpu info and it runs all four, is a firmware clone a possibility?

    When the extra ram arrives and some 300gig drives I’ll put the rp3440 in a colo as a buildd instance. What are the ideal specs and is the /srv directory the main building area.

    Would bad ram cause a kernel panic on 4.19-05 but not on an early stretch kernel??

    Don't know, but if you suspect a bad memory module, you should try all
    modules intermixed in the minimum configuration - I think four modules
    in 0a, 0b, 1a and 1b for a rp3440 (see page 72 in [3]) - and check if
    4.19.0-5 still panics then.

    [3]: http://h20628.www2.hp.com/km-ext/kmcsdirect/emr_na-c01404120-3.pdf

    Say, does your other rp3440 have the same problem? And does it happen
    during OS boot or afterwards?

    For the record: my second rp3440 shows no issue with 4.19.0-5 neither
    when booted from network nor when booted from disk. So seems likely that
    this is not a general problem with rp3440s but with your specific
    machine or hardware/software configuration.

    Other thought: Since a while the initramfs size grew heavily - e.g. from
    4.2M when 4.18.0-2 was current to 9.6M when 4.19.0-4 was current for a
    stripped down config only using a few modules for network booting and to
    23M for a "standard" initramfs for booting from disk. Is there a chance
    that there are limits for the size of a initramfs in earlier palo
    versions, assuming you might be using an older version of palo (I'm
    using palo 2.00)?

    Maybe a log of the kernel panic could allow for a better analysis of the
    issue.

    Cheers,
    Frank


    A quick update on buster I’m sorting out the net installation cds and should be ready tomorrow. The CD and DVDs work as expected.

    I’m currently working on getting ispconfig working on hppa servers which is an excellent fit for our architecture since they run forever.

    Mike Hosken

    Sent from my iPhone

    On 11/07/2019, at 03:48, John David Anglin <dave.anglin@bell.net> wrote:

    On 2019-07-10 10:46 a.m., Mike Hosken wrote:
    Does anyone know how to either get a license or a bi-pass hack to activate the second cpu currently disabled by firmware

    Cat cpuinfo only shows cpu 0
    If the machine actually is a rp3440, the other cpus can be enabled in the service menu. Otherwise, it's a rp3410
    and you need to pay HP for license for additional cpus. The panama buildd is in this situation and we didn't find
    a place to get the upgrade.

    Dave

    --
    John David Anglin dave.anglin@bell.net



    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)