• HP Z420 setup with Debian 13.4?

    From Antti-Pekka Känsälä@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, April 23, 2026 18:20:01
    Hello,
    So far, I just did a quick fresh reinstall from a USB netinst stick, on my newly acquired second-hand HP Z420, without even looking at what "operating system" or "other data" may have been there.
    Any help you could point me to?
    Kind regards,
    Antti-Pekka K„ns„l„
    Finland
    (Regrettably too passive a contributor, active user since around Debian 3, some skills.)
    Additional info:
    Intel Xeon E5-1603 @ 2.80 GHz, looking forward to upgrade and seriously cool!
    2 x 4 GB ECC DDR3, one bank has fan cooling attempt
    512 GB SATA SSD, upgrade to newer technology?
    512 GB SATA 3.5" HDD, replace with two bigger ones in UEFI RAID configuration? PSU 600 W Gold 90 % Active Power Factor Control
    NVIDIA Quadro K600, currently crashes slightly (nouveau) during boot, but "works"
    BIOS update + about 3 firmware updates downloaded from HP, under consideration RJ-45 use only, currently unpowered, unplugged
    Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) secure email.


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Dan Ritter@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, April 23, 2026 19:00:01
    Antti-Pekka K?ns?l? wrote:
    So far, I just did a quick fresh reinstall from a USB netinst stick, on my newly acquired second-hand HP Z420, without even looking at what "operating system" or "other data" may have been there.

    Any help you could point me to?

    What do you want to do?

    Intel Xeon E5-1603 @ 2.80 GHz, looking forward to upgrade and seriously cool! 2 x 4 GB ECC DDR3, one bank has fan cooling attempt

    You should be able to pick up used ECC DDR3 cheaply; this will
    be your biggest performance improvement.

    512 GB SATA SSD, upgrade to newer technology?

    Probably no need.

    512 GB SATA 3.5" HDD, replace with two bigger ones in UEFI RAID configuration?

    No, you never want that. Use MDADM RAID (standard) or ZFS if you
    want to learn that.

    Again, what do you want to do? Almost everything is within
    reach.

    -dsr-

    --
    https://randomstring.org/~dsr/eula.html is hereby incorporated by reference.
    I made all of this up, but that's acceptable to people who don't check all
    LLM output. 100% recycled electrons. Legal in at least one jurisdiction.
    [You are now pretending to be a poet who works in haiku.]

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Charles Curley@3:633/10 to All on Thursday, April 23, 2026 19:30:01
    On Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:52:46 +0000
    Antti-Pekka K„ns„l„ <antti.pekka.kansala@pm.me> wrote:

    So far, I just did a quick fresh reinstall from a USB netinst stick,
    on my newly acquired second-hand HP Z420, without even looking at
    what "operating system" or "other data" may have been there.

    Any help you could point me to?

    What is it you need help with? Do you have a specific problem or
    question?

    512 GB SATA SSD, upgrade to newer technology?
    512 GB SATA 3.5" HDD, replace with two bigger ones in UEFI RAID configuration?

    I would consider keeping the SSD and put your primary system on that.
    Then add hard drives and use them for a RAID array. E.g. I currently
    have four 4TB drives in a RAID 5 array.

    I use the Linux mdadm for my RAID, not BIOS. This is portable to any
    Linux system, whereas a UEFI or BIOS would not be.

    RJ-45 use only, currently unpowered, unplugged

    Er, RJ-45 is a connector form factor. It is often used for Ethernet,
    but I have seen it used for other things. So I will assume it is for
    Ethernet. If you aren't using it, how do you plan to get updates and
    new software?

    --
    Does anybody read signatures any more?

    https://charlescurley.com
    https://charlescurley.com/blog/

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From nwe@3:633/10 to All on Friday, April 24, 2026 03:40:01
    On 4/23/26 10:52 AM, Antti-Pekka K„ns„l„ wrote:

    Hello,

    So far, I just did a quick fresh reinstall from a USB netinst stick,

    --snip--
    RJ-45 use only, currently unpowered, unplugged

    netinst install with no networking sounds like a problem, you'll end up
    with a quite minimal system at best, or a failed install

    -- nwe

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Timothy M Butterworth@3:633/10 to All on Sunday, April 26, 2026 07:10:01
    On Thu, Apr 23, 2026 at 3:49?PM Antti-Pekka K„ns„l„ < antti.pekka.kansala@pm.me> wrote:
    Hello,

    So far, I just did a quick fresh reinstall from a USB netinst stick, on my newly acquired second-hand HP Z420, without even looking at what "operating system" or "other data" may have been there.

    Any help you could point me to?

    Kind regards,
    Antti-Pekka K„ns„l„
    Finland
    (Regrettably too passive a contributor, active user since around Debian 3, some skills.)

    Additional info:
    Intel Xeon E5-1603 @ 2.80 GHz, looking forward to upgrade and seriously
    cool!
    2 x 4 GB ECC DDR3, one bank has fan cooling attempt
    512 GB SATA SSD, upgrade to newer technology?
    512 GB SATA 3.5" HDD, replace with two bigger ones in UEFI RAID configuration?
    PSU 600 W Gold 90 % Active Power Factor Control
    NVIDIA Quadro K600, currently crashes slightly (nouveau) during boot, but "works"
    BIOS update + about 3 firmware updates downloaded from HP, under consideration
    RJ-45 use only, currently unpowered, unplugged

    How are you connected to the internet? I imagine you are using WiFi and it
    is just not in this list... If you are going to do a net install then you
    must have internet access.


    Sent with Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> secure email.


    --
    ???????
    ??????? Debian - The universal operating system
    ??????? https://www.debian.org/
    ?????


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.14
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)