1.1.1. New versions of this document

New versions of this document will be announced regularly on the Usenet groups news:fr.comp.os.linux.annonces and news:comp.os.linux.annonces. They will also be updated on the various anonymous ftp sites which archive such information, mainly ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/.

Hypertext versions of this and other Linux HOWTO are available on many web sites, including http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO and http://www.freenix.org/unix/linux/HOWTO. Most Linux distributions on CD-ROM include the HOWTO, often under the /usr/share/doc, directory, and you can also buy printed copies from several vendors. Sometimes the HOWTO available from CD-ROM vendors, ftp sites or printed format are out of date. If the date on this HOWTO is more than 6 months in the past, then a newer copy is probably available on the Internet. The site of reference for this HOWTO is http://www.hyper-linux.org/HP-HOWTO/current

Old versions of this document are also available at

If you make a translation of this document into another language, please let me know so that I can include a reference to it here. The following versions are currently available : http://www.HyPer-Linux.org/HP-HOWTO/old

• French by <Bruno@HyPer-Linux.org>

• English by <Bruno@HyPer-Linux.org>

• Japanese by <junichi_shimoda@hp.com>

As english isn't a native language for me, I would really appreciate any correction on the english version.

1.1.2. Suggestions and contributions

I rely on you, the reader, to make this HOWTO useful. If you have any suggestions, corrections, or congratulations :-) don't hesitate to send them to me <Bruno@HyPer-Linux.org>, and I will try to incorporate them in a next revision.

I've created a mailing-list dedicated to this document. Every person interested to contribute can register at mailto:sympa@eurolinux.grenoble.hp.com?subject=subscribe%20hp-howto,

I am also willing to answer general questions on HP hardware and software with Linux, as best I can. Before doing so, please read all of the information in this HOWTO, and then send me detailed information about the problem.

If you publish this document on a CD-ROM or in hardcopy form, a complimentary copy would be appreciated; mail me for my postal address. Also consider making a donation to the Linux Documentation Project to help support free documentation for Linux. Contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator, Guylhem AZNAR <guylhem@rrremovethis.oeil.qc.ca>.

2.1.1. Free Software or Open Source software

A free software (or Open Source software) is a software distributed with its source code, allowing its study, its transmission, its adaptation. The problem, in english, is the use of free, which has both meanings of "at no cost" and "without constraint". Here, it's the second use which has to be considered, hence the use of Open Source. To remember, think of free as speech, not beer.

Depending on the licenses used for its development, the constraints for users of such a software are various. The most open licenses (like the BSD one) allow code appropriation by third parties, including the resell of the resulting software (with or without modification) in commercial products, without any problem, and without owing something else to the originators than the mention of their copyright. Other licenses (like the GNU Public License or GPL) force every modified GPL software to be free GPL software itself ; this doesn't allow the use of such programs in a commercial one. Many other licenses exist, more or less open: the Artistic License (perl), the NPL one (mozilla), the QPL one (Qt) ...

A vast majority of free software is today under the GPL license, even if the BSD world takes always a great place, however less visible, mainly in the press. Linux is placed under the GPL. To have more information on these definitions and the licenses, please refer to the following reference sites :

2.1.2. Examples and counter-examples

First of all, free software and freeware shouldn't be mixed up. A freeware is not necessarily a software provided with its sources, on the contrary of a free software. On the other side, on the contrary of a freeware, you may be charged to obtain a free software (it's not in contradiction with the license used). The ambiguity, as stated before, comes from the word "free" . A freeware is then free of charge, but not necessarily "free of sources". (As well, the shareware has nothing to do with free software).

So examples of important and well-known free software are the Linux and FreeBSD operating systems, the Apache Web server, the SaMBa SMB server, GNU C and C++ compilers ... A contrario, examples of well-known freeware are the Internet Explorer browser, the Eudora Light mail reader, ...

2.1.3. Linux

Linux is a free operating system, superset of the POSIX norm. "Linux" points out the kernel alone. By extension, the name is also given to distributions based on that kernel plus a set of tools from the GNU project.

Linux is by consequence a Unix system, except that it doesn't use any proprietary code and is furnished under the GPL license, implying the availability of the sources. As every Unix system, Linux is multi-tasking and multi-user. It's also extremely portable, and it is available officialy today on processors such as Intel (i386 to Pentium IV), Alpha, Motorola (680x0 and PowerPC), Sparc, StrongArm, Mips. Without mention of the ports, operational or in process on PalmPilot, Itanium (ex-Merced), PA-Risc, Crusoe ...

The system is today perfectly stable and mature. Versions "x.y.z" of the Linux kernel, where "y" is an even number, are stable and only bug corrections are generaly applied when "z" increases. Versions "x.y.z" of the Linux kernel, where "y" is an odd number, are development versions which may be instable and are reserved to developers or intrepids.

From time to time, when the kernel development stabilizes a "freeze" is announced to furnish a new "stable" version (even), and the development goes on on a new version (odd).

The current stable version is the version 2.4.16 (this last number may evolve following the rythm of corrections). Development has on the other side begun again with a 2.5 version.

Numerous presentations of Linux are currently available. Among them, you should consult the one made by Michael Johnson at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/INFO-SHEET.html

2.2.1. Free software philosophy

In fact, the philosophy promoted by the free software movement is not that different from the one proposed by the scientific movement till a long time already: to put in common ideas and collective knowledge to allow the progression of the research and the growth of this knowledge. The knowledge of the human genome is one of the examples of such a collaborative work.

The computer engineering environment, and especially the software one, seems to have turn away till the last 20 years from these base concepts of the scientific world. It prefers on the contrary to keep the customer captive instead of giving him the information needed to exploit his computing environment the best he can. That's indeed following such a problem at the begining of the 80's that Richard Stallman, who was doing researches in artificial intelligence at the MIT, decided to create the GNU project. This project is the foundation of the current free software movement.

The main ideas promoted by this movement and stated by Richard Stallman himself are :

• Liberty: every user should be free to copy, diffuse, modify a program, either to share it with others, or to adapt it to his own needs. As well, he should be able to analyse it to understand, imitate, improve, verify its operations, as well as every scientific result is published and seen by the peers for verification, study, understanding and realisation of derived works. Could you imagine a vaccine against the liver cancer that another laboratory couldn't derive to make a vaccine against the pancres cancer. Of course, the negative impact of patents at that level is obvious.

• Equality: every person should have the same rights on the software. Thus the provider isn't priviledged and can't keep customers to whom he furnished his work captive. Could you think that only the producer of our vaccine could use it ? With software patents, if you don't pay, you cannot use them (think to discussions around RANT and W3C standards).

• Fraternity: this mode of working encourages the whole computer engineering community to cooperate and thus to produce software more and more reliable and useful to all. Could you imagine that a discovery like the vaccine above couldn't help everyone and favour other discoveries. Again with software patents, nothing like that is possible.

More over the utopy of these ideas, we can find other reasons which allowed free software to spread so widely today. They are detailed in Section 2.2.2.

The free software movement materializes itself also through a community of people. That community, informal meeting of personnalities, is heterogeneous in its contents, actions, ideas, even if all share the same belief in the freedom of the software. That community created for itself the tools needed to its communication : Internet and Usenet. And these communication tools are based of course on a lot of free software to work. Among the outstanding persons of this movement, we can present :

• Linus Torvalds, conceptor of Linux.

• Richard Stallman, GNU project conceptor.

• Eric S. Raymond, writer of several and excellent articles, which inspired so many vocations.

• Larry Wall, author of Perl and of the patch tool, and philosopher.

• Alan Cox, mister "do everything".

• Tim O'Reilly <ask_tim@oreilly.com>, free software advocate and editor of several books dedicated to them.

All these personalities are, above all, excellent computer engineers, which allows them to be recognized as major actors of the free software movement. Their human and communication qualities are also strong characteristics of their nature. In any case they aren't considered for their power, but for their knowledge.

Of course, the free software community is built of thousands of programmers, whose complete list would be too tedious. All share the will of producing useful work, free, and to be recognized for their technical qualities above all.

2.2.2. The choice of free software

To use free software to bring solutions in a computing environment is a choice. First, it is in favour of a plurality of solutions, mainly in the personal computer world which tends to be monopolistic. Then, the choice is made, and that's what is finally important, on the own qualities of free software, which are detailed just below.

Independantly of its qualities, it's possible to give other reasons of various nature, in favor of free software, depending on the type of the person met.

2.2.3. Wrong ideas on free software

Advocating free software consists also to mention some generally accepted ideas concerning them and to fight them.

2.2.4. Real problems around free software

It would not be honest to negate certain remaining problems linked to free software. Some have begun to disappear, other are inherent to the system, other at last will take time to diappear.

The first problem, inherent to the model of free software, is the multiplicity of tools and distributions available. So, if you want to setup a mail server, you have to choose between Sendmail, Exim, PostFix, Qmail, Smail. As well if you want to install Linux, you may choose between the distributions RedHat , SuSE, Slackware, Mandrake, Turbo Linux, Debian. This represents often a problem for the newcomer, but the esperienced user will always prefer to have a large choice he will confront to his particularities and to his experience. As long as an actor respects the rules by freeing his code (it's the case of the rpm and deb formats for example), there is little risk from the comunity point of view. The key point is that the choice is made only taking in account technical criterias.

The second problem, inherent also to the free software birth, is the necessity to have strong Unix and Internet competences, to manage such solutions. The power available through these systems is proportional to the competence of their administrators. And that will stay true even with the growth of more and more grahical solutions to manage them. On the other side, you capitalize the investment in time to learn their functions and that doesn't disappear, because you don't have to re-learn eveything from one version to the other (I use the same editor, vi, for the last 15 years). Don't forget that systems you use daily seem to be simple, uniquely because you passed enough time to learn them. For Internet competences, it's a statement of the obvious to say that this investment isn't lost. At last, even with the work of translators to provide information in french and other languages, a good knowledge in technical english is definitively a plus.

The last problem met in the implementation of free software solutions is to suceed in convincing some managers to go against the prevailing opinion. The aim of this chapter is precisely to give all sorts of argumentations to achieve that goal, but you need each time to show conviction to get his way in the end. As soon as these solutions will be adopted by big firms principaly, resistances will disappear.

2.3.1. Linux and other proprietary Unix (HP-UX, Tru64, AIX, Solaris, Irix)

The situation taken by all the hardware manufacturers places Linux today in the entry level (when it's taken in account) and their own Unix system in the middle and high level. Reality is sometimes more cruel than the situation wanted by the marketing department :-). Technically, a Linux distribution has no cause to be envious of the manufacturers Unix solutions, except for the moment the set of commercial applications and some high-end hardware configuration support. And we can often see that users dope their Unix workstations with free software to complete their usage.

To be precise in the talk, we should consider manufacturers Unix solutions as split in stations and servers.

On the station side, there's no doubt in my mind: for a customer, the only reason today to buy one is linked to the availability of a software or a hardware which wouldn't exist in the free environment, or due to intrinsic performances of the machine. In the first case, we can see that this argument should have a short life time, because logically every software editor (except maybe hardware manufacturers) and every hardware manufacturer has interest in porting their applications or allowing the use of their hardware on all the major environments in the market. As shown by Oracle, Informix, Sybase, ... Linux becomes today one of the major environments. In the second case, the difference in term of performances between the Linux dominant platform (IA-32) and the other competitors decreases and will disappear with the generalisation of the IA-64 architecture, which seems to be adopted largely by a majority of actors. More over, Linux is often available natively on the processors of these actors (Sparc, Mips, PowerPC, 68xxx, Alpha, Crusoe, PA-Risc). I think Linux may represent the famous unique and standard Unix that everybody dreamed of from a long time, without succeeding to impose it (the open and free characteristics brought by Linux are not without influence on that). I think that at the end hardware manufacturer Unix workstations will be restricted to some niches such as high end computation, virtual reality, ... and that as long as solutions are not available on a free environment. Linux offers all the functional qualities of the other Unix systems, and thus of the workstation, on a more various hardware platform and potentially at a better price, if on PCs. So it is the natural choice of every computer engineer with a strong Unix culture (old customer of the workstation) who will prefer that solution to the migration to a Microsoft system typically. With IA-64, we can see that Linux was the first operating system available (including graphical support).

On the server side, in addtion to the points mentionned previously for the stations, problems are more complex. Ram, disks, processors capacities, extensions of every kind make them difficultly repleacable by machines with a IA-32 architecture for example. More over, certain solutions such as high availability clusters for example have just been put in production in a Linux environment, compared to years of operation under Unix. The other brake is often linked to investments already done around software solutions deployed on these servers. Whatever their natural life time is much higher than those of the stations. Changes will thus be made more slowly in that domain. Here we can consider rightly Linux solutions as an entry/middle level solutions, when hardware manufacturer Unix servers are the middle/high level. The introduction of Linux in place of these machines will begin only with a massive availability of applications, mainly in the management sector. Again IA-64, with increased SMP capabilities (16 processors today), higher bandwidth, ... will make things change.

The advantages of the hardware manufacturer solutions, explaining why they are so often chosen when applications are critical, are linked to the homogeneity of the solution (hardware and software mastered by the same entity, which can't invoke a third party in case of problem), and to the support and maintenance guarantees furnished.

Finally, there is not so much antagonism between these systems, because they are full cousins. Their association allows today to computer teams "pro-Unix" to have solutions from start to finish, without having to lose in functions, as it's so often the case with other operating systems available for personal computers.

2.3.2. Linux and SCO/Caldera

The comparaison between Linux and the SCO systems seems to me quite unbalanced. First, all the previous points are vaild here also. More over, SCO isn't a hardware manufacturer, so the homogeneity advantage disappears. The IA-32 Intel platform is supported by both systems, so cost is identical. On the other hand, the software solution has a disproportionate cost (few software provided in the base install, thus a lot of expenses to extend, as well as to increase the number of users). Having to manage one OpenServer, I can say that performances are far beyond those of a Linux system. More over, its conception is older, abounds of symbolic links which makes management complex. The hardware supported by SCO is less numerous than those Linux supports. Only stay as an advantage the installed base and the set of applications available. But for how long ? Caldera now owns both SCO software (Openserver and Unixware) and its own Linux distribution. But instead of trying to free technologies from SCO, they are proprietarizing their linux (1 license per server).

2.3.3. Linux and Windows NT/2000/XP

The comparaison is here more difficult, because Windows NT/2000/XP isn't an open system, as the precedings, which is already redhibitory for certain users. An excellent comparaison was made by John Kirch between Unix and Windows NT Server. I recommend to people searching to have an enlightened opinion on this subject to read it; it's updated regularly and was written by a specialist of both Microsoft and Unix operating systems. Financially, obvious advantage for the free software. And it's more obvious, as for SCO, if you consider the set of complementary software you need to use a server. The author evaluates the difference from 1 to 100 all the same ! Technically, either on the functions provided or on the reliability, the administration, the performances, the hardware supported, and more over the security, Unix systems and particularly free systems outperform what is proposed by Windows NT/2000/XP. The fact to have a GUI non independant from the kernel contributes greatly to the instability of NT/2000/XP, because it's more difficult to avoid errors in a GUI (there is no mastering possible of the user comportment in front of it) rather than in a kernel.

Which are the real advantages of Windows NT ?: the marketing power of Microsoft which persuades the world that computers equal Windows and which leans on the enormous installed base; its office applications (a monopolistic situation on the market) only available in this environment; the confusion maintained between the various flavours of Windows (95/98, NT, 2000), and between the server and client functions; its agreements with the biggest hardware manufacturers which often require them to provide a Microsoft system with their platforms; its technological initiatives to occupy the market in first, based on proprietary code and that often without respect of known or documented standards, or its policy to embrace for killing a movement (described in the "Haloween documents").

The lack of hegemony in the servers sector is the best reason to hope that a plurality of solutions may exist in the future for computers users, also at the desktop. The new XP licensing schema, the passport tool, the registering mechanism during installation are real brakes for users thinking to migrate from a current platform to a new one, as well as the hardware costs linked. In that perspective, an opensource solution should and will be more and more considered.

3.1.1. General information

HP became recently concious of the importance taken by Linux and free software in general, and on its machines particularly. Thus a web site dedicated to Linux in HP environment is now available at http://www.hp.com/go/linux.

In France, there is for a longer time a site on these themes, under the responsability of Jacques Misselis <Jacques_Misselis@hp.com>, hosted by l'École Centrale de Lyon at the address http://hpwww.ec-lyon.fr/hpeduc/education.

On the other side, the firm Medasys for which I worked between 1996 and 2000, put at disposition of the community a certain number of information since 1997, available at http://www.medasys.fr/linux. This HOWTO is the result of this work.

HP also realised a synthesis document (PDF format) concerning his position in front of Linux, the White Paper HP Linux Strategy (1999-04).

HP is a member or sponsor of Linux International,Open Source Development Lab, and Linux Standard Base.

3.1.2. Particular announces

HP also communicates through its web site around Linux and free software. You'll find some links here.

• FireHunter announce (10/06/1998)

  http://www.hp.com/communications/solutions/isp/tools/pressroom/releases/pr032999a.html

• Covision program announce (01/27/1999)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/jan99/27jan99b.htm

• Linux support on NetServers and IA-64 announce (01/27/1999)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/jan99/27jan99.htm

• PA-Risc port announce (03/01/1999)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/mar99/01mar99e.htm

• Informix HP association announce (03/02/1999)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/mar99/02mar99i.htm

• Kayak Linux support (03/17/1999)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/mar99/17mar99e.htm

• World Linux support announce (04/20/1999)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/apr99/20apr99a.htm

• HP OpenView announces (05/17/1999)

  http://www.openview.hp.com/solutions/itsm/press/press.asp?docid=314

• Availability of Apache on HP 3000 (Summer/1999)

  http://www.businessservers.hp.com/falladvisor/sum99/Summer99/apache.html

• Visualize Linux support announce (06/21/1999)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/jun99/21jun99g.htm

• Open Source Software commitment by HP (08/09/1999)

  http://internetsolutions.enterprise.hp.com/linux/news/PRelease4.html

• Aberdeen group analysis on HP position on free software (08/09/1999)

  http://internetsolutions.enterprise.hp.com/linux/news/aberdeen_white_paper.html

• HP Linux vision (01/01/2000)

  http://www.hp.com/visualize/programs/news/archive/linuxvision.html

• HP announces the certification of its DAT and DLT products under Linux (02/02/2000)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/feb00/02feb00c.htm

• HP Brings Award-winning 3-D VISUALIZE Graphics to Linux Desktop (02/02/2000)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/feb00/02feb00b.htm and http://internetsolutions.enterprise.hp.com/linux/feb02page.html

• HP and Intel Release IA-64 Developer's Kit for Linux (06/13/2000)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/jun00/13jun00a.htm

• HP Announces Linux Support for State-of-the-art 3-D Graphics Accelerators (07/25/2000)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/jul00/25jul00b.htm

• HP Expands Commitment to Linux (08/14/2000)

  http://www.hp.com/pressrel/aug00/14aug00.htm

• HP adds Linux support for its Chai appliance platform Software (09/26/2000)

  http://www.linux.hp.com/news_events/press_releases/linux_chai.html

• HP NetServers make Linux Hum for Solid State Design

  http://netserver.hp.com/netserver/docs/download.asp?file=cs_solid.pdf

• Medasys chosen by Hewlett-Packard France Education/Research as Linux competence center

  http://hpwww.ec-lyon.fr/hpeduc/education/offre/linux/educ_linux.html

• Hewlett-Packard France Education/Research announces commitment to Linux promotion

  http://hpwww.ec-lyon.fr/hpeduc/education/offre/linux/hp_linux.html

• HP's open letter to the Open source Community (10/18/2000)

  http://www.linux.hp.com/news_events/open_letter.html

• HP Ultrium Tape Drives Certified to be Linux Compatible (11/21/2000)

  http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/21nov00b.htm

• Bruce Perens, Open Source advocate, joins HP (12/04/2000)

  http://www.itworld.com/Comp/2362/LWD010404hpdrivers/:w!

• OSDL opens today with 19 sponsors including HP (01/24/2001)

  http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/24jan01b.htm

• HP Extends Linux Support for Enterprise Solutions (01/31/2001)

  http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/31jan01a.htm

• HP's commitment for Linux during Linux-Expo Paris 2001 (02/02/2001)

  http://www.france.hp.com/main/une/temoignages/linux/expo.php3

• HP opens print driver source code (04/04/2001)

  http://www.linux.hp.com/news_events/perens.html

• EMEA announces around Linux (Trusted Linux, Mandrake Certification, ...) (08/2/2001)

  http://www.HyPer-Linux.org/HP-HOWTO/mirror/Press/PREMEA20010822.pdf

• B. Maillard Interview (HP France) (08/24/2001)

  http://solutions.journaldunet.com/itws/010824_it_hp_maillard.shtml

• HP Expands Open Source Offerings with Linux Security Software and Embedded Software Platform for Intelligent Devices (08/27/2001)

  http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/27aug01b.htm

• HP Builds Supercomputer from Off-the-Shelf Parts (Oct. 2001)

  http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2001/oct-dec/supercomputer.html

• HP's Linux stratégy

  http://www.hpbriefingroom.com/north_america/linux/index.html

• HP, Red Hat Provide Selected Universities Worldwide with Grants of Red Hat Linux Software

  http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/06nov01a.htm

• I've participated to a conference organised by Cyperus during the Linux-Expo Paris 2001. You could see it at this address rtsp://discovery.oleane.net:554/2001/janvier/linuxexpo/linux207.rm

HP France has also published an article on Linux and free software in its May 1999 issue of HP Computer News, an article on HP Linux support in the September 1999 issue, and an article on Linux RedHat solutions on HP Visualize workstation in the November 1999 issue.

3.2.1. Intel based computer range

Page last updated the 2001-12-21.

That computer range is today the main set of HP machines supported by Linux, and that till many years. In case you didn't already do it before, some preliminaty readings are recommended before to try to install Linux on these platforms.

The Linux Installation HOWTO contains a great number of information to install Linux. If you bought linux on a CD-ROM, chances are that installation instructions are provided with it (the little booklet inside the disk case, and/or files on the CD).

The Linux Kernel HOWTO should be read to have details on kernel construction. I will just mention here points which are specific to HP hardware.

Outside particular indication, Linux support means during the installation of a RedHat/Mandrake type distribution. In special cases, a kernel rebuild will be necessary to support completely some hardware elements. You should note that what is true for one distribution is generally true for another, as these functions are linked to the kernel or the XFree86 server, and not to the distribution itself.

In case of problem, the first reflex should be to update the BIOS of the HP machine, and to verify whether the problem is always there. If yes, you may then contact HP support, if your configuration is supported by HP (This document focus on what is working, superset of what is supported, and has no value in that area). On the other hand, if your machine is working correctly, don't update the BIOS without reason, this is always a risked operation. BIOS updates are available from http://www.hp.com/cposupport/software.html

#rpm -q firegl2

[...]
Section "Device"
[...]
Options "crt_screen"
[...]

3.2.2. The monitors range

The following table provides all information on the support for this hardware by XFree86.

3.2.3. PA-Risc based computer range

The PA-Risc range is achitectured around a processor designed and realised by HP. First versions were produced in 1987. Currently the versions are named PA-8000 (8200, 8500, ...).

The initiative to port Linux on the PA-RISC architecture was taken during the Atlanta Linux exhibition in October 1998. HP has announced in February 1999 its sponsorship to this port of Linux. This port is a native one, which is different from a preceding project which used MkLinux on machines based on PA-7200. The work is currently done with The Puffin Group bought by Linuxcare, and more precise information on the status may be found on the official Web site. In particular, interesting starting points may be found on http://www.parisc-linux.org/faq.html and http://www.parisc-linux.org/hw.html. Consult also ESIEE site (712 on Linux/PA) which participates actively to the port : http://mkhppa1.esiee.fr/en/ The last version is 0.9.3. It supports the following systems L1000, L2000, A500, A180, B, C, J, D, R, 742, 725, 735, 755, 705, 710, 720, 730, 750, 712, 715.

This version supports 32 and 64 bits modes, SMP (1-4 way), RAM up to 16 GB, HP-UX compatibility, X-Window, KDE, Gnome, 80% of Debian packages.

Debian has accepted PA-RISC as a supported architecture for the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (woody) stable release. http://www.debian.org/ports/hppa/.

Thomas Marteau has written a HOWTO on the way to boot concretely a Pa-Risc suystem. It's available at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/PA-RISC-Linux-Boot-HOWTO/index.html.

FAQ is also available at http://dsportal.eservices.hp.com/dspp/tech/tech_TechDocumentDetailPage_IDX/1,1701,276,00.html.

There is on the other side for these machines a Linux project based on the MkLinux micro-kernel. This project as developped within OSF. The web site mentionning information is at http://www.gr.opengroup.org/mklinux/hppa/mkpa-rel.html. Links to more parisc ports are at http://parisc.workstations.org/.

3.2.4. The IA-64 range

HP has developed in collaboration with Intel a new generation of 64 bits processors called Itanium (IA-64). The first processor of this new generation, called Itanium, was born in September 2001. The initial port of Linux on IA-64 was published the 2nd of february, 2000 and the sources of the project are available through ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/ports/ia64. This is the place of the latest sources for this project. More information on this topic may be found on these pages: http://www.hp.com/products1/linux/itanium/index.html (LSO), http://devresource.hp.com/devresource/Topics/IA64/IA64.html and http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/index.html (HP Labs) or on the reference site http://www.linuxia64.org

HP, as a founding member of the IA-64 Linux project, works on the port of the kernel, the initial version of gcc, gas, ld and emacs. Another major contribution of HP to this project is the availability of the software development kit available at http://www.software.hp.com/ia64linux. It allows to develop applications as well as kernel code on Linux/IA32 for IA64 platforms and moreover to test them through a simulator.

You may find some useful tools for IA-64 architecture on the ftp site of the HP labs.

Debian has accepted IA-64 as a supported architecture for the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (woody) stable release. Cf: http://www.debian.org/ports/ia64/. The IA-64 installer CD image is now available by either HTTP or FTP from these locations: http://gluck.debian.org/ia64/cd-20010810.iso.gz and ftp://gluck.debian.org/ia64/cd-20010810.iso.gz.

MandrakeSoft has announced that its Mandrake 8.1 for IA-64 version supports perfectly HP Itanium configurations as related on http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/press/pr?n=/pr/products/1444en=en

The following key features which are all unique to IA-64 are described by Stéphane Eranian:

• IA-64/EPIC goes beyond pure VLIW. Code is portable from one implementation to another. The timing dependencies are protected by stop bits. This allow unmodified code to run with no recompilation. Of course better performance is achieved by recompilation.

• Very large register set: 128 floating point, 128 general registers.

• Predication: a very elegant way of removing the cost of branch in if-then-else statments.

• Speculation: a elegant mechanism to hide memory access latency by allowing load instructions to be hoisted from the location where they are needed without risking unwanted faults (like NULL pointer).

• Register Stack Engine: a mechanism similar to the register window found a SPARC but much more powerful and dynamic. The window size varies on demand. Take advantage of the large register set and is used on function calls.

• Hardware support for software pipelined-loop: this is the most powerful construct which takes advantages of : predication, large registers. This is a renaming scheme for general, floating point or predication registers which allows one to unroll loops without incuring the code expansion seen on other architectures.

• All the multmedia-type instructions are support in IA-64 mode.

• IA-32 hardware emulation: possibility to run unmodified Linux/ia32 applications on Linux/ia64 (requires some OS support).

• On the system level: full 64 bit address space. Hardware walker to TLB misses.

• Banked registers (16 of them) to help speed up interrupt processing.

Stéphane Eranian and David Mosberger will publish begining of 2002 a book called 'Design and implementation of the Linux/ia64 kernel' (Prentice Hall)

Verify the correspondance between logical drives and peripherals
Shell>map
Go to the logical drive corresponding to the CD-ROM
Shell>fs1:
Boot the system
fs1:>eli linux
Install your distribution as usual
The only difference is that you need to create a so-called 'EFI' partition of type FAT32 (Id:b) of around 128 MB. This partition will be mounted as /boot/efi later
After the installation, reboot and redo the initial sequence, verifying again the correspondance (which may have changed because the CD-ROM isn't available anymore, the numbers indicating the order of detection of bootable devices)
Shell>map
Shell>fs0:
Shell>dir
Verify the name of the kernel to boot
fs1:>eli linux-up
To automize the boot, you need to remove all options from the EFI boot except the EFI Shell and create a file in the EFI partition (/boot/efi) called startup.nsh containing:
fs0:
eli linux-up
fs0:

CONFIG_PARTITION_ADVANCED=y
CONFIG_EFI_PARTITION=y

3.2.5. X Terminals

HP proposes now NCD X terminals to replace the Envizex/Entria range.

The HP X terminal range (Entria, Envizex) is usable with a Linux server. More over, a Linux server may be a boot server for X terminals. To do it, a certain number of operations are mandatory.

We suppose we have a HP-UX machine named hpux, on which is installed Enware, a Linux server, named linux and an X Terminal with MAC address 08:00:09:db:8d:1c. The gateway on the network is at IP address 192.168.1.254, and the DNS name server at 192.168.1.1.

Commands to do are :

Enware Home Directory
hpux #cd /opt/hpxt/enware/xthome


Creation of a tar archive of this software
hpux #tar cvf ~ftp/en.tar * .??*


Download of the tar archive
linux #ftp hpux
Connected to hpux.
220 hpux  FTP server (Version wu-2.5.0(1) Wed Aug 25 12:50:08 EDT 1999) ready.
Name (ftp:Root):ftp
331 Password required for  ftp.
Password:(type your mail address here)
230-
[...]
230-
230 User ftp logged in.  Access restrictions apply.
ftp>lcd /tmp
Local directory now /tmp
ftp>get en.tar
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for en.tar (57638340 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
57638340 bytes received in [...]
ftp>quit
[...]


Creation of the target directory on the linux machine
linux #mkdir -p /tftpboot


Go there
linux #cd /tftpboot


untar the archive
linux #tar xvf /tmp/en.tar


Launch the X Font Server working on port 7100
linux #/usr/X11R6/bin/xfs -port 7100


Creation of the bootpd configuration file
linux #cat >> /etc/bootptab << EOF
global.prof::sm=255.255.255.0::ds=192.168.1.1::gw=192.168.1.254::ht=ethernet::bf=bin/C3253A:	 # Adjust to your X-terminal
tx1:hd=/tftpboot:tc=global.prof:ha=080009db8d1c:ip=192.168.1.100:
EOF
Install bootpd say from  http://rpmfind.net
linux #rpm -Uvh bootp-2.4.3-7.i386.rpm


Verify the existence of such a line in  /etc/inetd.conf, and restart if needed the server by killall -1 inetd 
linux #grep bootps /etc/inetd.conf
bootps dgram   udp     wait    root    /usr/sbin/tcpd  bootpd


Now enkoy your X terminal by booting it

For a more detailed description, as well as the software related to that operation, consult also the page http://www.cb3rob.net/~sven/xterm.

3.2.6. The printing product range

# REMOTE POSTSCRIPT 1200x1200 a4 {} PostScript Default {}

lj4000::sd=/var/spool/lpd/lj4000::rm=lj4000::rp=raw::if=/var/spool/lpd/lj4000/filter::mx#0::sh:

#ifconfig eth0:0 192.0.0.1

#route add -net 192.0.0.0

#telnet 192.0.0.192

#gs -h
GNU Ghostscript 6.51 (2001-03-28)
Copyright (C) 2001 artofcode LLC, Benicia, CA.  All rights reserved.
Usage: gs [switches] [file1.ps file2.ps ...]
Most frequently used switches: (you can use # in place of =)
 -dNOPAUSE           no pause after page   | -q       `quiet', fewer messages
 -g<width>x<height>  page size in pixels   | -r<res>  pixels/inch resolution
 -sDEVICE=<devname>  select device         | -dBATCH  exit after last file
 -sOutputFile=<file> select output file: - for stdout, |command for pipe,
                                         embed %d or %ld for page #
Input formats: PostScript PostScriptLevel1 PostScriptLevel2 PDF
Available devices:
   x11 bbox x11alpha x11cmyk x11gray2 x11gray4 x11mono bmpmono bmpgray
   bmpsep1 bmpsep8 bmp16 bmp256 bmp16m bmp32b deskjet djet500 laserjet
   ljetplus ljet2p ljet3 ljet3d ljet4 ljet4d lj5mono lj5gray cdeskjet
   cdjcolor cdjmono cdj550 pj pjxl pjxl300 uniprint omni bj10e bj200 bjc600
   bjc800 faxg3 faxg32d faxg4 pcxmono pcxgray pcx16 pcx256 pcx24b pcxcmyk
   pbm pbmraw pgm pgmraw pgnm pgnmraw pnm pnmraw ppm ppmraw pkm pkmraw pksm
   pksmraw tiffcrle tiffg3 tiffg32d tiffg4 tifflzw tiffpack tiff12nc
   tiff24nc psmono psgray psrgb bit bitrgb bitcmyk pngmono pnggray png16
   png256 png16m jpeg jpeggray pdfwrite pswrite epswrite pxlmono pxlcolor
   dmprt cdj880 ap3250 appledmp atx23 atx24 atx38 bmpa16 bmpa16m bmpa256
   bmpa32b bmpamono bmpasep1 bmpasep8 ccr cdj1600 cdj500 cdj670 cdj850
   cdj890 cdj970 cfax cgm24 cgm8 cgmmono cljet5pr coslw2p coslwxl cp50
   declj250 dfaxlow dfaxhigh djet500c dl2100 dnj650c eps9high eps9mid epson
   epsonc escp fs600 hl1250 hl7x0 ibmpro imagen inferno iwhi iwlo iwlq
   jetp3852 la50 la70 la75 la75plus lbp8 lj250 lj3100sw lj4dith ln03 lp2563
   lp8000 lq850 lxm5700m m8510 mgr4 mgr8 mgrgray2 mgrgray4 mgrgray8 mgrmono
   miff24 necp6 oce9050 oki182 okiibm paintjet photoex pjetxl plan9bm sgirgb
   r4081 sj48 st800 stcolor sunhmono t4693d2 t4693d4 t4693d8 tek4696 xes
   x11cmyk2 x11cmyk4 x11cmyk8 x11rg16x x11rg32x ljet4pjl lj4dithp dj505j
   picty180 pr201 pr150 pr1000 pr1000_4 jj100 bj10v bj10vh mag16 mag256
   mj700v2c mj500c mj6000c mj8000c fmpr fmlbp ml600 lbp310 lbp320 lips2p
   bjc880j lips4 lips4v escpage lp2000 npdl md50Mono md50Eco md1xMono hpijs
   DJ630 DJ6xx DJ6xxP DJ8xx DJ9xx DJ9xxVIP AP21xx hpdj md2k md5k stp lxm3200
   lx5000 lex7000 lex5700 lex3200 lex2050 gdi epl5800 epl2050 epl2050p
   alc8500 alc2000 cljet5 cljet5c nullpage
Search path:
   . : /usr/share/ghostscript/6.51/lib : /usr/share/ghostscript/6.51/vflib :
   /usr/share/ghostscript/fonts : /usr/share/fonts/default/ghostscript :
   /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1 : /usr/share/fonts/default/amspsfnt/pfb :
   /usr/share/fonts/default/cmpsfont/pfb
For more information, see /usr/share/doc/ghostscript-6.51/Use.htm.
Report bugs to bug-gs@ghostscript.com, using the form in Bug-form.htm.

3.2.7. Digital imaging product range

3.2.8. All-in-one range (OfficeJet)

These products gather many functions : printing (all), scanning (all), copying (all), and faxing (some).

More information from their dedicated web site : http://hpoj.sourceforge.net/suplist.shtml

3.2.9. The Storage products range

Redhat 6.0/6.1
Qlogic QLA2100F or QLA2200F with driver V2.23
Private Loop or Direct Fibre Attach
No boot support
XP256 has to have firmware >= 44.14.00 Mode 00
For direct attach XP512/48 has to have firmware >= 11.22.00 Mode 00
For attachment to a switch XP512/48 has to have firmware >= 12.19.00

Redhat 6.2
Emulex LP8000 with driver V4.10g
Private Loop or Direct Fibre Attach
No boot support
For attachment to a switch use Brocade 2400/2800 with firmware >= V2.1.9f) 
XP512/48 has to have firmware >= 12.19.00 Mode 00

{ "HP", "XP512", "*", BLIST_SPARSELUN}

3.3.1. HP softwares under Linux

3.3.2. Third party softwares linked to HP for Linux

3.3.3. Free softwares under HP-UX

Numerous free software for HP-UX are available at http://hpux.cs.utah.edu/. HP hosts also a certain number of free software tools for HP-UX at http://h21007.www2.hp.com/dspp/tech/tech_TechTypeListingPage_IDX/1,1704,10312,00.html

Hp proposes also tools to help porting Linux applications to HP-UX. Cf: http://devresource.hp.com/LPK/ and http://devresource.hp.com/STKL/index.html.

An open source version of hpterm may be found on http://sourceforge.net/projects/hpterm/.

KDE 2.1 s also available for HP-UX.

3.3.4. Free softwares under MPE/IX

Numerous free software for MPE/IX are available at http://jazz.external.hp.com/src

An HP700/92 terminal emulator is available at http://www.aics-research.com/qcterm/

4.1.1. Linux as file server

The sharing service uses 2 MB of RAM, and 2 more MB per share. In case of a unique share (users space for example), it leads to a 2 MB consumption per user. In the proposed case, we estimate that each user has 100 MB of disk space on the server, with an evolution to 200 MB 3 years later. Processor resources used are relativeley small, an entry level model will be sufficient from that point of view. We will priviledge the I/O speed with Ultra 3 LVD SCSI at 160 MB/s, if the budget allows it, and 15.000 RPM disks.

4.1.2. Linux as print server

The sharing service uses 2 MB of RAM, and 2 more MB per printer shared. In case of a unique share (One printer per user typically), it leads to a 2 MB consumption per user. In the proposed case, we estimate that each user prints simultaneously files of 5 MB in average, thus we need to have that space available on the server. Processor resources used are relativeley small, an entry level model will be sufficient from that point of view.

4.2.1. Web Server

The Web service uses 2.5 MB of RAM, in static mode (simple HTML pages) and 5 MB of RAM in dynamic mode (HTML pages generated from perl, PHP, ...) per user. The disk space needed is function of the nature of the server, knowing that most of the consumption comes from images. Processor resources used are important, thus it could be useful to consider the increase in frequency and the addition of processors, because this type of traffic could be quite well done in parallel. With Apache 2.0 and the support of threads, it will become even more obvious. We will priviledge also the I/O speed with Ultra 2 LVD SCSI at 80 MB/s, if the budget allows it, and 10.000 RPM disks.

4.2.2. Mail Server

Generally, this machine is used as both SMTP (sending and reception of messages) and POP/IMAP server (keeper of messages and manager of client accesses). The SMTP Mail service uses 2 MB of RAM per user. The POP/IMAP Mail service uses 2 MB of RAM per user. The disk space needed becomes more and more important as long as attachments (images, various documents) take the greatest place in exchanges via e-mail. We consider in that case that an average mail box size is 50 MB. Processor resources used are important, thus it could be useful to consider the increase in frequency and the addition of processors, because this type of traffic could be quite well done in parallel.

4.2.3. Firewall/Proxy/Web-Cache server

Generally, this machine is both a Firewall server, a proxy (in both directions) and a cache for the Web because all requests go through it. The Firewall service uses 1 MB of RAM. The Proxy service uses 0.3 MB per incoming relay. The Web cache service uses 0.5 MB per user. The disk space needed is function of the parameters of the cache Web server. In that case, we consider 20 MB per user. Processor resources used are important, due to the analysis of IP packets. Thus it could be useful to consider the increase in frequency.

4.2.4. Directory server

Generally, this machine use a software like OpenLDAP to fulfill its goals. The LDAP service uses 1 MB of RAM and 10 kB of RAM per user. The disk space needed is of the same kind, so 10 kB per user. Processor resources used are moderated.