rebooting 370DLE

[Jared Hodge]

I thought I'd ask Supermicro about the problem.  Here is their response.


Technical Support wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> We do have a new beta bios that fix the headless boot.  That mean no video
> card needed.  Here is the beta bios.  It also has the Serial Redirect
> Console build in under Advanced in the bios.  So you can use Terminal screen
> to boot up your system.
> 
>  <<3dl0317.rom>>  <<fwhflash70.zip>>
> Make sure you use Flash not AMIflash.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> John
> 
> 
>  -----Original Message-----
> From:   Jared Hodge [mailto:jared_hodge at iat.utexas.edu]
> Sent:   Wednesday, April 04, 2001 6:58 AM
> To:     support at supermicro.com
> Subject:        [Fwd: rebooting 370DLE]
> 
> I thought I'd let you know that there have recently been some concerns
> on the 370DLE's BIOS which were voiced on the Beowulf user's mailing
> list.  Since I'm looking at buying several of these, I thought I'd give
> you a chance to address these issues.  The main concern is the ability
> to boot without a video card (without an integrated video adapter
> either).  This would be advantageous in my line of work.  A few other
> issues are also voiced below.  If you would like to respond to these
> (perhaps you have a newer version of the BIOS coming out?) you can reply
> to me and I will forward your comments on to the mailing list.  Thanks
> for your help.
> 
> Josip Loncaric wrote:
> >
> > "Michael T. Prinkey" wrote:
> > >
> > > I assembled several systems using the 370DLE sometime ago.  The only
> > > solution was to downgrade to some 1.1 BIOS release that I found on their
> > > ftp server.  Eventually, I ended up putting a PCI video card in each of
> > > the systems to avoid the BIOS downgrade and reintroducing whatever bugs
> > > the newer BIOS had fixed.
> >
> > We also had to downgrade the 370DLE BIOS to R1.1 because the newer BIOS
> > file 3L3C122.ROM (1/4/2001) leads to halt on reboot.  The machines would
> > go down normally, then lock up instead of rebooting, and we had to press
> > the "reset" buttons on every reboot.  This was unacceptable, so we went
> > back to BIOS R1.1 which reboots normally without manual intervention and
> > does not cause other problems for us.
> >
> > BTW, we also use cheap PCI video cards in our 370DLE systems.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Josip
> >
> > --
> > Dr. Josip Loncaric, Research Fellow               mailto:josip at icase.edu
> > ICASE, Mail Stop 132C           PGP key at http://www.icase.edu./~josip/
> > NASA Langley Research Center             mailto:j.loncaric at larc.nasa.gov
> > Hampton, VA 23681-2199, USA    Tel. +1 757 864-2192  Fax +1 757 864-6134
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org
> > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit
> http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
> 
> --
> Jared Hodge
> Institute for Advanced Technology
> The University of Texas at Austin
> 3925 W. Braker Lane, Suite 400
> Austin, Texas 78759
> 
> Phone: 512-232-4460
> FAX: 512-471-9096
> Email: Jared_Hodge at iat.utexas.edu
> 
>   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>                          Name: 3dl0317.rom
>    3dl0317.rom           Type: unspecified type (application/octet-stream)
>                      Encoding: base64
>               Download Status: Not downloaded with message
> 
>                             Name: fwhflash70.zip
>    fwhflash70.zip           Type: Zip Compressed Data (application/x-zip-compressed)
>                         Encoding: base64
>                  Download Status: Not downloaded with message

-- 
Jared Hodge
Institute for Advanced Technology
The University of Texas at Austin
3925 W. Braker Lane, Suite 400
Austin, Texas 78759

Phone: 512-232-4460
FAX: 512-471-9096
Email: Jared_Hodge at iat.utexas.edu