Floppy Images for Compaq RILOE and Etch Install

All images on this page are prepared to be booted via the ”Virtual Floppy”-option on first generation ”Compaq Remote Insight Lights Out Edtion”-Boards (or short RILOE or just RILO). You can not 'dd' these images to a floppy, because of a short header in the files… a python-script to convert the files both ways is found below.

Please note the following things:

• All screenshots on this page are taken from the RILOE Java applet. Display on your machine might look a bit different if you use telnet or any other presentation system
• Some people out there use riloe boards without the internal wiring or without keyboard cables (where needed). This method will lock up your machine with both “incomplete” setups. You might end up driving to your datacenter. Reseting the machine is needed just as much as using at least the keyboard as an input device.
• Some of the older RILOE first generation boards¹⁾ are not capable of showing any output in the applet, when the video board is in graphics mode. The debian installer by default will try to setup the framebuffer interface (and in case of most the RILOE boards will succeed since they emulate a supported ATI graphics board). Just keep that in mind when loading the kernel … there will be a different command to enter for both variants… just keep that in mind.

Here are all five images for the RILOE to install Debian Etch using the Virtual Floppy Function

• etch_installer_boot.riloe.img
• etch_installer_root.riloe.img
• etch_installer_cd-drivers.riloe.img
• etch_installer_net-drivers-1.riloe.img
• etch_installer_net-drivers-2.riloe.img

Since I could not get the etch root filesystem to be recognized, I prepared a disk with gPXE and installed the whole system, loading kernel and initrd from … well… the debian ftp (via HTTP) archive :). I was _VERY_ surprised that this was even possible. Installation Illustration follows… since there is some caveat…

• gpxe_network_boot.riloe.img

First of all… the 'RILOE remcons' Java applet is… in many ways strange about keyboard handling. Using a german keyboard, I had to reconfigure the RILOE via the 'F8'-interface²⁾. Rebooting the RILOE is also necessary and possible by going to a configuration page on the webinterface and just hitting 'apply'. The F8 interface looks like this… don't confuse this with the CPQ SMART Bios extension that's configuration menu is also invoced with F8… The RILOE menu prompt for the F8 key should look like below and appear after the SMART controller has finished initialisation.

After this, my RILOE seems to have created a new SSL-cert³⁾ and login failed with an error about a reused certificate serial. I fixed this by temporarily moving the 'cert8.db' in my firefox folder to a safe place. Removing the cert via the firefox configuration works, if the cert was seen before… in my case, that didn't fix it.

After successfully connecting to the RILOE webinterface, insert the gPXE virtual floppy, choose “Boot Once” from the available choices and reset the machine quickly changing to the remote console, where you will see this sceen:

You should quickly press Ctrl+B to enter the CLI… otherwise, gPXE will look for DHCP and - if there is no boot argument supplied, boot on and fail. If gPXE already started DHCP inquiry, you can abort that with Ctrl+C and then press Ctrl+B. Failing here doesn't hurt… reinsert the floppy and start over.

We will have to go on configuring the NIC for use with gPXE. If there is DHCP, just type do the following on the prompt:

gPXE> dhcp

otherwise type (replace net0 with any interface you find useable… use 'ifstat' to list interfaces)

gPXE> config net0

which will bring up the following nice and shiny configuration dialog:

You at least should configure 'ip' and 'netmask' there… 'dns' and 'gateway' are also needed. Save the config using Ctrl+X and go on like this:

gPXE> ifopen net0

This is equivalent to 'ifconfig <iface> up' or 'ip link set dev <iface> up' on a linux system.

66Mhz RILOE users use:
gPXE> kernel http://misc.jpoetry.net/stable/linux

33Mhz RILOE users and people with low bandwidth or non masochistic people use:
gPXE> kernel http://misc.jpoetry.net/stable/linux debian-installer/framebuffer=false

this loads the current kernel for debian stable installation from misc.jpoetry.net (which proxies to http://ftp.de.debian.org/ because their URL seems to long to type). Feel free to use it. Please note that you have to specify a nameserver and a gateway in the prevoius step.

gPXE> initrd http://misc.jpoetry.net/stable/initrd.gz

this loads the current initrd for debian stable installation. This is as well proxied to http://ftp.de.debian.org like the above.

In both steps you might replace “stable” with “testing”⁴⁾, “unstable”⁵⁾ or “di-cur”⁶⁾

gPXE> boot

This launches the loaded kernel … and should drop you in an instance of your beloved debian-installer. Proceed as usual from here…

I fiddled a bit with the images generated by the original tool by HP/Compaq⁷⁾ that needs a Microsoft Windows operating system and fails to run in Wine or with a current ⁸⁾ version of ReactOS. I successfully used a virtual Windows XP Professional in an VirtualBox environment but this had a lot of overhead and fails to work in a standard debian installation⁹⁾. I wrote a quick and dirty python-script to enable the image creation with a Linux operating system (and on the go without all the overhead). The use is pretty much selfexplaining (I hope) but there is a bit of documentation and examples.

The script is able to do the following things:

Create RILOE-Ready floppy images from both - RAW- and CPQ-images

./CPQflop.py --cpq --infile=<imagename> [--outfile=<newimagename>] [--comment="My comment"]

• –cpq → create CPQ-image from infile
• –infile → use this image as source
• –outfile → use this image as destination file. If not specified, use infile as outfile (this does replace the file without asking)
• –comment → add this comment (max of 232 chars) to the image. If not existent and if the source is also an CPQ image, use the old comment. Otherwise, use the infilename as comment.

Create RAW floppy images from both - RAW- and CPQ-images

./CPQflop.py --raw --infile=<imagename> [--outfile=<newimagename>]

• –raw → create RAW-image from infile
• –infile → use this image as source
• –outfile → use this image as destination file. If not specified, use infile as outfile (this does replace the file without asking)

Show info about a random image (type, contained size, md5/sha1 sum, meta-data)

./CPQflop.py --show --infile=<imagename>

• –show → show info
• –infile → use this image as source

Output might look like this:

Information about image:
  Image filename :  empty_image.img
      Image type :  CPQ-image
     Floppy size :  1474560 bytes (1440kB 3.5")
      Floppy MD5 :  b37823c7a90d1917f719ba5927b23da8
     Floppy SHA1 :  fe0786be0f9207ee934cc07917006ae7b8cb350a
  Floppy comment :  Just an empty testimage 

Legend: [optional], <replace me>

DOWNLOAD The script is found here: CPQFlop.py DOWNLOAD

Since it is a VERY annoying process to create the System configuration disks without either a SysCfg-managed system at hand or a Windows/DOS operating system, here are the 4 images for german and the english language (see below for supported systems):

• System Configuration Utility Disk 174496 gr 1/4 us 1/4
• System Configuration Utility Disk 174496 gr 2/4 us 2/4
• System Configuration Utility Disk 174496 gr 3/4 us 3/4
• System Configuration Utility Disk 174496 gr 4/4 us 4/4

According to HPs README file, this should work as the stated below:

SOFTPAQ NUMBER: SP19619, SP19620, SP19621 SP19622, SP19623, SP19624
PART NUMBER:    174496-076, 174497-076, 174498-076, 174499-076 
TITLE:          Compaq System Configuration Utility
VERSION:        2.58 Rev A 
CATEGORY:       Diagnostics-Setup 
DIVISIONS:      Systems

PRODUCTS AFFECTED:  
ProSignia,         ProSignia VS,    ProSignia 200 Family, ProSignia 300,
ProSignia 500,     ProSignia 740,   Systempro,            Systempro/E,
Systempro/LT,      Systempro/XL,    Deskpro/L Family,     Deskpro/M Family,
Deskpro/XL Family, Portable 486,    ProLiant 800,         ProLiant 850R,
ProLiant 1000,     ProLiant 1200,   ProLiant 1500,        ProLiant 1600,
ProLiant 1850R,    ProLiant 2500,   ProLiant 3000,        ProLiant 2000/4000,
ProLiant 4500,     ProLiant 5000,   ProLiant 5500,        ProLiant 6000,
ProLiant 6400R,    ProLiant 6500,   ProLiant 7000,        ProLiant 8000,
ProLiant 8500,     ProLiant CL1850, ProLiant ML370,       ProLiant ML530, 
ProLiant DL380,    ProLiant ML570,  ProLiant DL580,       ProLiant CL380,
ProLiant DL360,    ProLiant Servers and TaskSmart N2400.  

Copyright 1995,2001 Compaq Computer Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered 
trademarks of their respective companies