Ubuntu – Proliant Support Pack and Ubuntu on older HP Proliants

The System Management Controller driver for one generation of controller is not compatible with other generations (the hardware changes quite a bit every generation). You will need a G2 driver, and unfortunately there's not one available that supports server 2k8. You can always try calling HP support and asking nicely, there may be a download available in a non-obvious place (works for me sometimes).

You're fine using the default selection.

The current ProLiant Support Pack for your operating system is version 9.00. As for the multiple boot entries in your grub, it's a function of what you choose to install from the support pack. By default, the PSP will install EVERYTHING. hpahcisr and mptlinux are device drivers for hardware that doesn't even exist in your G7 blade server (hpahcisr is for the low-end B110i SATA RAID controller. mptlinux is for LSI HBA's). When those are selected, the HP installer creates an initial ramdisk and a corresponding kernel entry for each of those because they could potentially be boot controllers/devices for some systems.

I trim down the items that get installed by the ProLiant Support Pack. A good guide to follow is the HPSUM guide here.

In short, I edit the bundle description file from the psp tarball. In version 9.00 of the PSP, the file is named bp000977.xml

Near the bottom of the XML file, I choose which items I want to install from the support pack. For most G6/G7 blades and standalone servers, the following works well. I remove the HP-provided CCISS and HPSA packages since they create unwanted ramdisks and conflict with the kernels I need to use, the HBA's, NIC drivers and fibre-channel utilities. I leave the core health and system management packages in the install manifest.

  <contents>
    <package install="no">kmod-cciss-4.6.28-17.rhel6u2.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">kmod-cciss-4.6.28-17.rhel6u1.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">kmod-cciss-4.6.28-17.rhel6u0.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">kmod-hpahcisr-1.2.6-12.rhel6u1.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">kmod-hpahcisr-1.2.6-12.rhel6u2.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">kmod-hpahcisr-1.2.6-12.rhel6u0.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">kmod-mpt2sas-10.10.17.00-1.rhel6u1.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">kmod-hpsa-3.0.0-4.rhel6u0.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">kmod-hpsa-3.0.0-4.rhel6u1.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">kmod-hpsa-3.0.0-4.rhel6u2.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-e1000-8.0.25-1.src.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-e1000e-1.6.2-1.src.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-tg3-3.122g-2.src.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-netxtreme2-7.0.36-2.src.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-netxtreme2-iscsi-7.0.36-2.src.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-nx_nic-4.0.579-2.src.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-igb-3.2.10-3.src.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-be2net-4.0.479.0-2.src.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-be2iscsi-4.0.480.0-2.src.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-mlnx-en-1.5.5.7-14.src.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-qlcnic-5.0.17.4-3.src.rpm</package>
    <package install="yes">hp-health-9.0.0.48-44.rhel6.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="yes">hp-snmp-agents-9.0.0.48-49.rhel6.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="yes">hpsmh-7.0.0-24.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="yes">hp-smh-templates-9.0.0.36-35.all.noarch.rpm</package>
    <package install="yes">hp-ams-1.0.0-570.rhel6.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="yes">hpvca-7.0.0-12.linux.rpm</package>
    <package install="yes">cpqacuxe-9.0-24.0.noarch.rpm</package>
    <package install="yes">hpacucli-9.0-24.0.noarch.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">hp-fc-enablement-1.2-7.noarch.rpm</package>
    <package install="no">fibreutils-3.2-4.x86_64.rpm</package>
    <package install="yes">hpdiags-9.0.0-36.linux.x86_64.rpm</package>
  </contents>

I save the bundle file and proceed with a silent installation (./hpsum /s), but you should be able to run the graphical installation with this reduced package set as well.