Hi Martin, I am using an Iwill KA266-R motherboard. It has the AMI IDE Raid controller on the motherboard. As a test I was able to load and configure the RAID with win2k (for now) and it works great (the RAID stuff). This is an AMD Athlon board with DDR memory. The beta drivers are precompiled and distributed as two images: boot.img and post.img files. The docs with the drivers say to start Redhad install with the boot.img in the floppy drive and Linux on the CD-rom drive. Once one hits the select language dialog, one is to hit some combination of CNTL and Fx keys to get to a dialog where one specifies the RAID disk which appears as a SCSI device. After going through the rest of the install, the post.img in loaded/executed to complete the setup. I can find and post the entire instructions if it makes sense to do so. They are not too long. Well, I do want to get the RAID up and running if at all possible. Right now, I have not installed Suse Linux on my PC yet. Thanks again! Babu --- Martin Webster wrote:

...

I just finshed putting together a new PC with an on board IDE Raid controller by AMI (American Megatrends Inc.).

After much searching I found a set of beta drivers for RedHat Linux 7.0 with instruction for installing.

My questions are:

1. Will the Redhat instruction apply to Suse installation? 2. Since I have Suse 7.1 is this going to be a problem? 3. Should I succeed in installing the drivers, once the released version of the drivers is out, can I install them without loosing the data on my HD drives? 4. Does anyone have an alternative or better solution for this? Or any experience with the same

On Friday 24 August 2001 6:22 pm, babu walad wrote: problem?

1. Don't know; a little more information about your hardware (i.e. mainboard and AMI (CMD?) RAID chip would be useful. Are the beta drivers already compiled or are sources available?

2. You may want to upgrade to kernel 2.4 since this has support for IDE RAID.

3. Always backup your data; don't take risks (been there done that).

4. Do you really need RAID?

Have a look at recent posts on Highpoint RAID controllers

(http//:www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/Suse-Linux/292/0/)

to see what's involved!

M

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Hi Martin, I pretty much agree with your recommendations. I did some further snooping on the AMI web pages and found they have a similar driver and patch for Redhat 7.0 and I also found a driver patch and instructions (I am inserting them below) to patch Linux. Is there any way to tell if this will work with Suse Linux 7.0 or 7.1 short of just trying it? Any feedback is appreciated. Babu =========================================== 4 Installing MegaRAID IDE on an Existing Installation Installing MegaRAID IDE on an Existing Installation If you have RedHat installed on your system and want to add additional storage, these are the steps that you should follow. � Upgrade the Linux Kernel to provide support for MegaRAID IDE � Install MegaRAID IDE drive(s) � Install the monitoring software How to Upgrade the Kernel The standard RedHat 7.0 installation installs kernel 2.2.16-22. RedHat kernel 2.2.16-22 does not come with support for the CMD chip on the MegaRAID IDE Card. The kernel must be updated.. You can obtain the update kernel from one of the following website: ftp://www.ami.com/ide-raid/RedHat7.0/Release/Kernel/ The name of the file to download is linux-2.2.16-22-MegaIDEtgz. To upgrade the kernel, follow the steps below: Step 1 Log on to your system as a super user and go to the /usr/src directory. Find a soft link called "Linux" and remove it by using "rm Linux". Once the soft link is removed, copy the new kernel to this directory. Extract the file using "tar -zxvf linux-2.2.16-22MegaIDE.tgz". The file should be extracted under a directory called Linux. Rename this directory to linux-2.2.16-22-MegaIDE with the command "mv linux 2.2.16-22-MegaIDE.tgz". Create a softlink call linux to this directory. "ln -s linux-2.2.16-22MegaIDE linux" Cont'd How to Upgrade the Kernel, Continued Step 2 In the directory /usr/src/linux run the command "make menuconfig". Under block devices make sure the following options are selected: <*>CMD640 chipset bugfix/support <*>CMD640 enhanced support <*>Generic PCI bus-master DMA support <*>CMD64X chipset support Exit menuconfig saving the configuration. Run the following commands: "make clean" "make depend" "make bzImage" "make modules" "make modules_install" "cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/2.2.16" Step 3 The final steps involves editing the file lilo.conf. This file can be found in the directory /etc. Open the file using the vi editor with the following command "vi /etc/lilo.conf" and add the following lines to the file: image =/boot/2.2.16 label =2.2.16 read-only root=/dev/hda5 The line root=/dev/hda5 will not be correct if you are booting from a different partition. Look for a previous entry in the file for the correct partition. root=/dev/hda? Exit and save lilo.conf. Run the command "lilo -v" Reboot. At the boot prompt hit the tab key. This should give you the option to boot to the new kernel. Installing MegaRAID IDE Driver Download the zipped driver file for RedHat 7.0 from the American Megatrends' ftp site (ftp://ftp.megatrends.com/ide-raid/ ). It contains the following files: � MegaIDE.o � MAKEDEV Create a directory called /usr/src/linux/drivers/block/MegaIDE and copy the above files to it. Run the following command: "./MAKEDEV" To load Ideraidconf driver run the command: "insmod MegaIDE.o" To unload the driver run the command: "rmmod MegaIDE" Note: The driver will not load unless you have created a RAID. ========================================= --- Martin Webster wrote:

...

Hi Martin,

I am using an Iwill KA266-R motherboard. It has

...

AMI IDE Raid controller on the motherboard. As a test I was able to load and configure the RAID with win2k (for now) and it works great (the RAID stuff). This is an AMD Athlon board with DDR memory.

The beta drivers are precompiled and distributed as two images: boot.img and post.img files. The docs with the drivers say to start Redhad install with

On Friday 24 August 2001 9:18 pm, babu walad wrote: the the

...

boot.img in the floppy drive and Linux on the CD-rom drive. Once one hits the select language dialog, one is to hit some combination of CNTL and Fx keys to get to a dialog where one specifies the RAID disk which appears as a SCSI device. After going through the rest of the install, the post.img in loaded/executed to complete the setup.

I can find and post the entire instructions if it makes sense to do so. They are not too long.

Well, I do want to get the RAID up and running if at all possible.

Right now, I have not installed Suse Linux on my PC yet.

It seems that the only kernel patches for your board (particularly the AMI 80649 chipset) are available pre-compiled from Iwill. As you have already stated, these support RedHat 6.1/6.2 and kernel 2.2.16.

If you want RAID and Linux you will have to opt for RedHat. Alternatively, install SuSE without using the onboard RAID controller and wait and see if the hardware is eventually supported. You could also e-mail Iwill and tell them what you think about closed source patches!

M

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On Wednesday 29 August 2001 7:52 pm, Martin Webster wrote:

On Wednesday 29 August 2001 4:32 am, babu walad wrote:

...

I pretty much agree with your recommendations. I did some further snooping on the AMI web pages and found they have a similar driver and patch for Redhat 7.0 and I also found a driver patch and instructions (I am inserting them below) to patch Linux. Is there any way to tell if this will work with Suse Linux 7.0 or 7.1 short of just trying it?

You mentioned the AMI MegaRAID (a PCI card). If your mainboard uses the same chipset then I do see why you can't use the AMI MegaRAID driver which is part of the stock 2.2.x and 2.4.x kernels.

Have a look here:

http://domsch.com/linux/ (near bottom of page) http://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-megaraid-devel (Yes Dell use this chipset) http://lists.us.dell.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-megaraid-announce

M

Sorry, a typo that changed emphasis: "then I do see why" should read "then I don't see why". M

On Friday 31 August 2001 7:05 pm, babu walad wrote:

Martin,

Actually, my IDE MEgaRAID is not a separate PCI card but actually build into the mobo. However, I think it is the same chipset and the same drivers from AMI should work in either case.

I have seen instructions on installing these with RH Linux, but I am still unclear on the correct sequence of operations to configure the built in MegaRAID drivers in the Suse 2.2.x and 2.4.x kernel releases. I already have the mobo BIOS configured for the RAID drive, I just need to have this relayed to Linux so I can install. Any ideas there? I've checked the links you sent below and they are great, but I could not find the installation instructions I was hoping for.

I am making the assumption that there is no difference if the controller is on the mainboard or a separate PCI card; Linux will find the device. The device *is* supported in kernel 2.4 (possibly later 2.2.x) so SuSE should identify it and load the appropriate module when you install. I don't believe that you have to recompile the kernel to get RAID support. It's possible that you will have to specify the kernel module (hardware driver) when you start the install (linuxrc). M

babu walad wrote:

Martin,

With a machine with only a RAID configured array, if I am running Yast2, how do I get the installer to ask me to provide the AMI raid drivers? I think I can get the compiled drivers, but what is the method to load them with no linux currently running?

Babu

--- Martin Webster wrote:

...

<snip>

This should be automatic and be treated like any other SCSI card during the install. How Linux will see it depends upon the array, for example Raid 1 you will see only 1 drive. Have you tried the installer? You can go through this and see if it even sees the drives. You should not need to do anything more, unless you have an old BIOS revision and newer device drivers. Matt

Hello, When I run Yast2 I think I see a message saying it finds a RAID controller on my system but it lists the RAID drives as individual drives and not as a single RAID logical device. Also, I have another problem in that since Win200 is installed on the RAID drives, when I run the Yast2 installer it tells me there are NO other Os's on my machine and I cannot seem to get to multiple boot mode. What is the best way to fix this? Thanks, Babu --- Martin Webster wrote:

...

babu walad wrote:

...

With a machine with only a RAID configured array, if I am running Yast2, how do I get the installer to ask me to provide the AMI raid drivers? I think I can get the compiled drivers, but what is the method to load them with no linux currently running?

This should be automatic and be treated like any other SCSI card during the install. How Linux will see it depends upon

...

Raid 1 you will see only 1 drive.

Have you tried the installer? You can go through

On Tuesday 04 September 2001 7:07 pm, StarTux wrote: the array, for example this and see if it even

...

sees the drives. You should not need to do anything more, unless you have an old BIOS revision and newer device drivers.

That's right, you should be able to boot from the first CD-ROM. YaST2 should detect the RAID controller and tell you what drive(s) are available.

M

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