Compaq ProLiant DL300 (Generation I) SmartStart

[mrj10e12]

Hello all.

I have a bit of a problem here.
I do have a SmartStart 5.5. CDROM which came with this old server box.
(It is one of the oldest of Compaq's ProLiant line called DL300 - Not the G2 model.)

However, this box also have an array controller that needs to be set up in order to access the SCSI array of 4 x 18.2 GB HDD's.

I wanted to set up FreeBSD on the box, (and a number of other linux distros) to play around with for a while, but unfortunately it seems the driver disks I have are corrupted.

So now I am wondering, if anyone on LinuxForums have experience using Linux on a box like this, and possibly if someone could point me to where I can find the original SmartStart 5.5 and the Boot floppy for download.

I have googled and gone through thousands of pages (not kidding) for well over three months now, and the drivers are not even available from HP/Compaq anymore.

It's a waste and a shame if I cant use the machine because it's an otherwise great PIII 1GHZ/1GB RAM box more than sufficient to run Linux of just about any kind.

(I ran VectorLinux and Knoppix Live CD on it before I lost the array controller and it also picks up on WinPE without a hitch but cant see the SCSI array anymore.)

A foot note on this machine is that I altered the original hardware specs by installing a DVD-ROM replacing the original slimline CD-ROM and also added a 2 port USB adapter in one of the 32 bit PCI slots.

I am not sure if the DVD is the reason to the CD not picking up on the SmartStart disk I have as the slimline CD-ROM was plugged to a special port on the motherboard, rather than going to a standard EIDE controller port.
Any advice/help is appreciated.

EDIT: - additional information ===================================

with http before (since I cannot post url's here)

://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=US&swItem=MTX-597d7cb6b45d493285e27c1412&prodTypeId=15351&prodSe riesId=327479

Points to the correct software but the page download link to ftp is broken.

with ftp before (since I cannot post url's here)


//ftp.hp.com/pub/products/servers/supportsoftware/ZIP/smartstart-5.50-0.zip

points to the download path of the above page but the file is not existing.

[mrj10e12]

A bump and reply to self so others wont have to go through this driver-h*** I did.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The file described above, as SmartStart 5.50 is supposedly not available for download anymore from hp/Compaq in spite of being linked as downloadable from their web site.

None of the other DL range servers have the link in their driver list either, although it has a support page for the other parts.

In one forum thread on HP/Compaq it was stated;

Sep 10, 2004 14:52:34 GMT Unassigned
Tony:

You can purchase SmartStart 5.50 from HP here:
(add http before)

://h18004.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/subscription/PSM_subscription.html
for around US$25.00
SmartStart 5.50 cannot be downloaded.

Immediately following this it said...

Hi Tony:

You don't hae to purchase the smart start cd for that server; you can do manual install.

The embedded ROC Raid Controller has RBSU or Orca; with F8 you can access the bios for that controller and create your logical drive.

once the logical drive is created; you can then manually install Windows or any other o/s.

Once the o/s is installed you can then Autorun the latest Smart start to install latest proliant support packs.


Best regards,

Tarek.

In the final message to this thread, a helpful soul had posted the following link, which I hope to prove being the solution for my long search...

The file is supposedly located at

(add ftp before link)

://ftp.pwsz.elblag.pl/vol.1/compaq/smartstart-5.50/CPQSMST550.iso

FTP in to the folder instead as it also gives you a required fdd file and a readme text file.