Re: [cobalt-developers] [ISP Related] RadiusX for Cobalt RaQ2/3 Testing

[Greg Boehnlein <damin@xxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 18 Feb 2000, Jeff Lasman wrote:

> >  And hey, the Raq is a GREAT
> >product!
> 
> I really like the RaQ hardware; I may end up with more RaQs in the future 
> strictly for the hardware.  I'm not too sure about the gui interface, yet; 
> it really doesn't fit our business model in many ways.  (My main reason for 
> being on this list is to consider RaQ3 hardware with generic Red Hat 6.1, 
> so that's what I'm keeping my eyes open for.)

Ahh.. now there we go. The short answer to your question is. YES! The Raq3
is capable of running stock RedHat Linux 6.1. I just tested this by
swapping out a 6.1 drive with the Stock Raq3 drive that came with one of
our RMA units. (Due to the Ethernet Light problem...). The only thing I
needed to do was create a bootable kernel (ala the other discussions on
this list) from the RedHat one and make sure that the Raq3 firmware loaded
the appropriate image. I was not able to see the boot up messages after
the kernel was loaded, but I did get a login console on the Serial port.

Voila.. RedHat 6.1 on the Raq3 unit. Minus the user interface, w/ none of
the hardware intergration (I.E. UPS, LCD panel, Buttons etc...)

WARNING: This probably violates all kinds of warranty information and most
likely will cause Cobalt to categorically deny you any sort of support,
but se la vie! ;)

Your best bet is to probably wait until Cobalt updates their OS to base on
RedHat 6.1 or the 6.2beta that is out! ;)

Now.. going the other way, it is possible to run the Raq3 software on your
x86 Linux box. Remember, it is RedHat 6.0 w/ some modifications and
additional packages to accomodate the user interface. I'm about 90%
finished with a modified RedHat install that will allow you to install the
Raq3 software using a floppy. I'm doing FTP installs, but it most likely
will work over everything else. It is a matter of slotting the RAQ3 RPMS
into a RedHat 6.1 "comps" file, rebuilding the "hdlist" file and jamming.
The real bitch of the problem is that the Raq3 software really likes and
expects you to have that freaking LCD plugged into one of your serial
ports. As such, it will hang when booting. I've gotten around that by
commeting out the LCD code in some of the startup scripts, but it's not an
elegant solution.

I'm doing this just because "I can" however, not because I intend on
running Raq3 software on other hardware in a production environment. My
sole purpose is to get a Raq3 running in a Vmware session so I can do
development at home. I've got a working "Virtual Raq" on a partition that
is bootable, but I haven't done anything about making it work in Vmware,
or finished the installer to a workable point where I can DO something
with it.

Ah.. the fun..

--
      President of New Age Consulting Service, Inc.  Cleveland Ohio
           http://www.nacs.net   info@xxxxxxxx   (216)-619-2000
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