[BlueOnyx:02569] Re: Cobalt RaQ 550 / BlueOnyx

[Michael Stauber]

Hi George,

> My plan is to remove as much as possible from strongbolt1 installation and
> then retry. 

Yeah, that would certainly be best.

> My other thought was to try upgrading to CentOS5 from a factory fresh
> install of the RaQ and then try to install from the tarball my only concern
> there is what effect the original cobalt rom will have on things  ? 

Lets put it this way: When you install StrongBolt, it'll upgrade your ROM 
(unless you already HAD Strongbolt installed before - in that case the ROM 
upgrade was already done). If your RaQ survived that once already, then you 
don't need to worry.

The ROM upgrade simply makes sure that the box boots and is able to use the 
custom Strongbolt kernel.

Now it's not really ideal to run a CentOS5 install with a Kernel that was 
compiled for a CentOS4. Then again: CentOS5 is more or less binary compatible 
to CentOS4, so it ought to work. The only real downside is the fact that the 
Strongbolt kernel is (or will be) an unmaintained custom kernel. Means: No 
security fixes and no updates. And it already has (locally exploitable) 
security holes that you can drive a truck through.

If you treat the RaQ-turned-Strongbolt-BlueOnyx hybrid just as a hobby project 
that runs no important stuff, or is only used internally by nobody else than 
yourself, then that all may be acceptable.

But personally I wouldn't undertake such a project for a couple of reasons:

If you ever have to restore the box from scratch, then you'll have to re-do 
all these intricate steps like reinstalling SB from the CD, removing all 
BlueQuartz RPMs, manually upgrade it to CentOS5 again and then have to install 
BlueOnyx from the Tarball. 

That may mean a whole day of downtime - typically on a day when you can afford 
it the least.

The next issue is that the hardware is really slow, but also very dated. It's 
bound to break sometime soon. Even if it's just a disk that goes bad (and you 
use RAID1), then you'll have troubles finding a replacement.

All things considered you'd be better off with a cheap modern server that 
allows you to install BlueOnyx out of the box without any of the hassles that 
it takes you to coax BlueOnyx onto a RaQ.

If you don't need a 1U unit with a 19" form factor, then you could even grab 
one of the cheap desktop boxes that your local food discounter offers every 
now and then. For 300 EUR or thereabouts more you can get a PC that leaves the 
RaQ's behind in every aspect except for cool looks.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber