How to install Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 on the SS4200

Ok, this is how I installed Ubuntu Server 9.10 (Karmic) amd64 on my SS4200E, hope it helps.

Prerequisites

Only differences between the standard SS4200 and mine are: 

• NEEDED Serial header, ordered online (I live in Korea so I guess it's pretty useless to tell where) and then desoldered/resoldered because it was of the straight type
• NEEDED A USB cd drive to perform the install (a USB pendrive with unetbootin or similar might work as well, havn't tried)  
• OPTIONAL Upgraded CPU to a Celeron E1500 (Conroe derivative, 2 cores, 2.2 GHz).
• OPTIONAL 2 GB RAM 
• OPTIONAL USB WiFi network interface

  (If you ever wonder why: let's say that the thing is quiet, but not so quiet as to be in the same room as the router, which happens to be my bedroom... and no, I can't move the router around. Long story.)  

The HDDs were configured in AHCI mode ("Enhanced" in the BIOS).

I will also assume that you have an internet connection available since I will be using the minimal install CD.

If not the only change you need to be careful about is that, in the full CD, the syslinux.cfg and the file containing the kernel parameters are placed somewhere else and named differently (at least the kernel selection file).

I first downloaded the Ubuntu mini ISO from here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD then modified it so that isolinux (boot loader) and the kernel would use the first serial port to spew out characters (and get input too). This can be done in the following steps (I am assuming you know how to use sudo and/or root privileges when necessary):

1. Download the image (e.g. filename mini.iso )
2. Create a directory in which to mount the image and  one in which to copy the image contents (e.g. mkdir ./mini ./mini_remaster )
3. Mount the image in one of the directories (e.g. mount -t iso9660 -o loop ./mini.iso ./mini )
4. Copy the image contents in the other directory (e.g. cp -R ./mini/* ./mini_remaster/ )
5. Unmount the iso (e.g. umount ./mini )
6. Just to be sure change the permissions on the directory contents (e.g. chmod -R ugo+rw ./mini_remaster )
7. Edit the contents of

        ./mini_remaster/syslinux.cfg 

   and add the following line 

        serial 0 155200

   The serial command must be on the first line!  

8. Edit  the file

        ./mini_remaster/text.cfg

   1. Change "default install" to "default cli" (quotes excluded).
   2. Remove the "label install" entry and all the following lines until "label cli" excluded. 
   3. Change the line "append tasks=standard  ..." to "append console=ttyS0,155200,8n1 tasks=standard  ..."
9. Create a new ISO by issuing the following command:

        mkisofs -o mini_remaster.iso -no-emul-boot -c boot.cat -J -r -pad -boot-info-table mini_remaster

10. Burn the ISO to a CD and put the CD in the USB drive.

Install

Now we are going to connect to the SS4200 via a serial null-modem cable. You can use putty under windows (I guess Hyperterm would work as well) or minicom under Linux/*ix.

Be sure to set the communication parameters to 115200 bps, 8 bit, no parity, 1 stop bit.

Launch the serial terminal program, hook the serial cable to your PC and the SS4200, the USB drive to your SS4200 and power on the beast.

You should see the POST screen on your PC, you want to press F3 to bring up the boot device selection menu, then select to boot from the USB device.

Then you just need to follow the standard installation process. Just for reference I'll report my partitioning scheme (I have 4x750GB drives):

• sda1 primary, 10GiB, mounted as /
• sda2 logical
• sda5 extended, remaining space, used in a 4-disk RAID5 software RAID device (/dev/md0) 

• sdb1 primary, 10GiB, swap 
• sdb2 logical
• sdb5 extended, remaining space, used in a 4-disk RAID5 software RAID device (/dev/md0)

• sdc1 primary, 10GiB, reserved for future use
• sdc2 logical
• sdc5 extended, remaining space, used in a 4-disk RAID5 software RAID device (/dev/md0)

• sdd1 primary, 10GiB, reserved for future use
• sdd2 logical
• sdd5 extended, remaining space, used in a 4-disk RAID5 software RAID device (/dev/md0)

I didn't use LVM, and instead relied on a few directories inside the RAID disk which I share via Samba. If and when I will need to change the disks, I will just dd the contents on a e-sata mounted drive and then create new partitions/RAID devices as needed (anyway I don't plan to shrink the partition on the RAID volume).

Once you are done with the install you might want to change the boot options in "/boot/grub/grub.cfg", since the default install will not output the boot process on the serial port (although it will listen on a serial console, so you get the login prompt after the boot is completed).

I use Webmin for administration/configuration purposes: it's a little bit awkward at first, but, after you get the hang of it, it really is a great tool. Otherwise SSH and some console work.

Known Issues

• First of all I have to report that, exactly as FreeBSD 7, the amd64 version of Ubuntu does not recognize the PATA port unless set in Compatibility mode in the BIOS, and "PATA before SATA". I have not tried boot hints or the i386 version.

  Given the difficulties I just decided to give up on the 2GB DOM I bought (which I will reuse for some other project) and install on one of the HDDs. 

• I don't know why but the CPU throttling, aka Enhanced SpeedStep (which the E1500 supports), is not listed as functional by the kernel. I tried compiling a custom kernel but it just does not work (maybe the BIOS is not supporting it... would need a BIOS hack).