On 28 Jun 2025 12:04:55 -0700, Peter wrote in message
<20250628190504.194A2227C09@???>:

> From:    Arnt Karlsen <arnt@???>
> Date:    Mon, 23 Jun 2025 02:22:07 +0200
> > > https://easthope.ca/SCSIcard.jpg  

> >
> > ..put a clear, focused picture of the entire card there.
>
> https://easthope.ca/SCSIcard.png from the best camera at hand. 1280
> pixels wide. Most of the chip markings legible. For the silkscreen
> on the board I'll need a better camera about 2 weeks out.

..ok.

> > ..what happens if you swap the 512MB ram chip
> > in bank 1 with the 1GB ram in bank 4?
> >
> > ..your current setup looks veird to me, I usually see the
> > same size ram chips paired into the same memory channels,
> > usually memory banks 1 and 2 forms channel 1 and banks 3
> > and 4 channel 2.
> >
> > ..if that fails, try removing the 512MB ram, the adapter
> > card may be stuck looking past some hardware address limit
> > for that elusive SCSI CD Boot Drive, or some such.
>
> Removed the two 512 MB cards and put the 1GB cards in XMM1 and XMM2.
> Behaiour as previously.

..ok, it boots up ok with the 512MB sticks in ram slots 3 and 4?

> The Radeon card with SCSI card absent gives
> a display. https://easthope.ca/SystemBIOSmainPage.png
> cf. original posted last weekend. https://easthope.ca/SystemBIOS.jpg
>
> Both cards installed yields only a black display as earlier.

..are you able to change the scsi address on the scsi card?

..have you tried plug in a scsi drive into the scsi card?

..set up a ssh server, so you can ssh in when/if it boots
up dark but otherwise ok.

..if my ssh idea fails, we're down to the serial console
off a bootloader idea.

> HP offered a BIOS revision. Not on their server now.
>
> PC Galore might have a later SCSI card.
>
> > ..are you able to set up a serial console to another pc?
>
> Worked 10-15 years ago. Can bring a serial crossover cable from UBC
> next weekend.

..excellent, see my other response on usb serial port adapters.

> > ..another way is give it a wee boot drive to try make it happy.
>
> Will try the serial crossover cable before that.

..you may need to set up a serial console, or 2, off a boot loader like
grub, on any working boot device (usb stick, floppy disk, cd, dvd, scsi
hard disk etc) before any serial wiring will work, if the problem is as
I guess, an hardware conflict of some sort blocking the boot.

..if the damned thing boots up, you will be able to use serial consoles
or even ssh to log in and set up your machine the way you want it.

..easiest way ofcourse is with ssh, _if_ it boots up.
Then it's a simple case of banning kernel modules out
of your way, and load the modules with the opptions
you need, to get things working ok.

> My instinct is to create the boot content with the system installer.

..you only need a boot loader, like grub, on e.g. an usb
stick, or off a pxe boot server.

..a pxe boot server recipe: https://zacks.eu/pxe-boot-server-on-linux/

...which will also need serial console boot loader setup recipes:
https://www.debuntu.org/how-to-set-up-a-serial-console-on-ubuntu/
https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-setup-serial-console-on-debian-linux/
https://linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/Remote-Serial-Console-HOWTO/configuration.html
https://developer.toradex.com/software/development-resources/configuring-serial-port-debug-console-linuxu-boot/
https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-serial-console-howto/
https://www.privex.io/articles/using-serial-sol-config/

..a potential failure scenario:
https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/no-serial-console-for-u-boot-until-linux-has-run/65829

> Don't know how to splice into the extant installation. Documentation
> can help. Without such documentation, a full reinstallation will be
> almost fool-proof.
>

> Thanks,                       ... P.

--
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt Karlsen
...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry...
Scenarios always come in sets of three:
best case, worst case, and just in case.