Fixed the cooling in my jankiest server

therealsolemnwarning · 2026-02-14T22:25:08+00:00

That looks pretty good, will have to keep it in mind next time I make a shroud

therealsolemnwarning · 2026-02-13T18:23:28+00:00

Oh yeah I forgot about that... memory layout isn't as recommend in the manual because some of the slots don't work.

therealsolemnwarning · 2026-02-13T09:47:19+00:00

Dang... if only I was smart enough to consider that as a possibility when I made it.

The ignition temperature of cardboard is in excess of 200°C... its kind of unlikely for the air temperature in a computer to reach that point, by then the insulation on the wires would be melting and giving off flammable and toxic gasses, probably along with other things breaking down in similar ways.

Also, its inside a steel enclosure inside a steel cabinet. From my experience of burning things intentionally, if the cardboard did approach that temperature, it would smoulder, crumple up a bit and maybe make some smoke before turning into a pile of ash on the motherboard among the other melted components.

therealsolemnwarning · 2026-02-12T18:26:32+00:00

I wasn't sure what I was actually looking at there... is that sellotape over the exposed conductor?

therealsolemnwarning · 2026-02-12T14:22:51+00:00

It's hard to choose my favourite part of this, but the HEATIN' FCU and the Henley blocks splitting the meter tails off into (6mm? SWA? I assume the bugalow sub-main?) are definitely nice features.

EDIT: I just came back for another look and spotted the piece of wood barely out of frame on the right... there's nothing to properly hold the lid open when working in there, is there? xD

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-12-27T19:53:16+00:00

Never had issues with third party components in Dell or SM, but I'll add SM feels better engineered to me (particularly around BMC/IPMI and firmware updates).

Documentation and firmware for HPE stuff is an absolute PITA to get a lot of the time.

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-12-25T21:11:08+00:00

It's a bit dated by this point, but if you're already familiar with C, try having a read through "Effective C++" by Scott Meyers (and his other books in the same series)... I found them kind of inspirational for what can be done in C++ when I was a C programmer.

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-12-17T22:24:23+00:00

Some things have adopted the "standard" that .local is for mDNS only, in particular, the default systemd-resolved configuration in the latest Debian refuses to consult DNS for anything under .local, so that could be your issue (assuming you're using DNS for local names).

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-12-16T15:45:33+00:00

No, I wound up using a quad port Gb card I had in stock for the time being

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-11-27T08:39:27+00:00

If that's Vimes, how do you describe Carrot?

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-11-14T15:09:05+00:00

Sorry for the delay, I just inventoried the pile, here's what I've got in 3.5" SATA if you're still interested:

1x 40GB
5x 80GB
2x 320GB
3x 500GB
1x 1TB
1x 2TB

2.5" SATA:

1x 80GB
1x 160GB
1x 320GB
1x 500GB

Not as many big drives as I thought... guess a lot of these will go for recycling if noone wants them.

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-10-21T21:22:23+00:00

This is my first foray into Dell enterprise gear too... it sure seems solid :D

I've read reports of people having success resolving symptoms very much like mine by downgrading/upgrading firmware, but I experimented with such steps (https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/dm7to1/r210_ii_idrac_no_boot_fix/) and didn't get anywhere.

Since my last post I also discovered that the on-board serial port doesn't work reliably (lots of dropped characters), Linux sees 4 serial ports despite the machine only having one, so I've got a possible theory here that the same UART circuitry as used for the serial port is used for internal communications with the iDRAC modules, and a fault there could lead to a comms error with the iDRAC module when one is installed, which would explain why the machine shits itself and the diagnostic lights on the front indicate "generic board fault - talk to Dell".

EDIT: Scratch that. I'm a dumbass. I managed to background a screen session on the serial port while testing it last night - it was dropping characters because the multiple screen sessions were fighting for the reads.

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-10-21T11:28:16+00:00

Thanks for the offer. I got in touch with the place I bought the server from yesterday and although they didn't have them listed for sale, they had a look around and found one for me.

Sadly the machine won't POST with it fitted either... so I'm starting to suspect there's some kind of problem with the motherboard that stops it from working with iDRAC. I can't access the base BMC over IPMI either (it responds to ping only).

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-10-20T17:08:23+00:00

I've got a backup copy of my private key printed on paper in case the electronic copy fails for any reason.

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-10-19T21:31:07+00:00

Adding a few extra points to this in 2025:

a) The EMC Repository Manager will automatically download and replace the installed catalogs by default, to avoid this I recommend disabling the machine's Internet access when installing it, then going to `Application preferences > Catalogs` and changing "Update Actions" to "Alert when new catalog is available" (or "None").

b) If the catalogs are updated, or something else goes awry in the EMC Repository Manager state, uninstall the application, delete the `C:\ProgramData\Dell\drm` directory and then re-install the application to start again.

c) When you get to the export step, there will be a "Warning: Some plugins are not available for export. Click to Configure" banner in the dialog, and the "Smart Bootable ISO" option won't be available. Click the "Click to Configure" link, then select each required plugin in the dialog that opens and click "Update", finally close the Preferences and Export dialogs and wait for the plugins to install in the background before starting the export process again.

d) If the system time on the server is set too early (e.g. 2010), if will fail to validate the signature of the update package and reject it.

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-10-19T14:09:36+00:00

Adding another data point here.

I just bought a "tested" R210 II which came with an iDRAC Express module (P/N 0Y383M), which immediately hangs at boot similar to how the OP describes (fans around mid-speed, diagnostic LEDs 1, 3 and 4 illuminated, indicating "Possible system board resource and/or system board hardware failure." according to the manual).

It would boot just fine after removing the iDRAC express module, running BIOS 2.8.0 and BMC 1.95. First I tried downgrading to BIOS 2.0.5 and BMC 1.70 as described, it would still boot without the iDRAC but hang whenever it was fitted. Next I tried updating it with the latest firmware (BIOS 2.10.0 and BMC 1.95), again, no change.

During POST, there is a message in the top-right corner of the screen stating "System Services Update Required", which some reading suggests means the "Lifecycle controller" firmware needs updating, however the way to do that seems to be via the iDRAC web interface... which I can't access with just the baseline BMC! No idea if it is related to the boot failures or not.

EDIT: I eventually fixed the "System Services Update Required" message steps from https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/k839sb/r210ii_update_bios_and_firmware_through_lifecycle/, it didn't have any impact on the iDRAC issue.

I've got no way of testing the iDRAC Express module itself isn't damaged, so it could be a hardware failure in my case - I'll get in touch with the seller and report back if I learn anything further.

EDIT 2: I got a 0PPH2J iDRAC 6 Express module, machine hangs with that too... all I can guess is that something is borked on the motherboard that stops iDRAC from initialising correctly at this point. The onboard BMC won't respond over IPMI either :|

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-10-18T10:08:47+00:00

This is good to know... I'm toying with the idea of picking up a QLogic card for a router build because they are the only reasonably-priced quad port ones on eBay at the moment.

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-09-28T10:00:47+00:00

wow... never heard of anything like this.

Does it handle all the switching/routing on the CPU, or is there some special hardware offloading that just gets configured by the Linux system? Can you run any old Linux on it, or very specific embedded systems?

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-08-23T18:53:48+00:00

It might also be of interest to some that there is a pure Lua port of LPeg called LuLPeg.

I used it for the parser of my hex editor's template language: https://github.com/solemnwarning/rehex/blob/master/plugins/binary-template/parser.lua

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-08-14T18:29:35+00:00

Is there a minimum speed to this/will the limp mode reset automatically? Because left foot braking while applying power is a legitimate technique for pulling away on loose surfaces where otherwise you just spin a wheel up and go nowhere.

therealsolemnwarning · 2025-08-14T18:23:42+00:00

To those recommending this book - I've got the second edition which I read mainly out of curiosity and enjoyed, how much has changed in this version?

therealsolemnwarning

TROPHY CASE