Topic: hpt370A 5.6 question!

[dlex]

ok, this topic isn't really 'new' but...
I just put an HPT 370A controller into my 5.6 box. this box already runs with 4 HD's and e-smith software-raid connected to the onboard IDE controller. the highpoint controller should only work with ONE(!) additional harddisk for rsync-backups.
I read in some postings before that 5.6 version supports the 370A in non-raid mode only, which is absolutely ok, with me. I could'nt find any hpt37x.o module on my machine. only a module called hptraid.o which gives me 'unresolved symbols' when I try load it.

do I have to reinstall 5.6 (or 6b) to get the driver loaded from the beginning?
I repeat, I need this drive only for backups to raid-function needed!

thanx in advance!

[Charlie Brady]

dlex wrote:

> I could'nt find any hpt37x.o module on my machine. only a
> module called hptraid.o which gives me 'unresolved symbols'
> when I try load it.

Most likely you tried to use insmod to load the module. Try "modprobe htpraid" instead. modprobe knows about module dependencies, and preloads any other modules which are required to satisfy them.

Charlie

[Brad]

Dlex,

I too have the HPT372A (same) chipset on my RAID card.  A few days ago, I downloaded the Linux drivers from Highpoint.  In their manuals, they state I would have to recompile the kernel to remove the built-in support for the chipset, then load the new driver at boot time.

That is far as I have gotten. I have the C++ source code for the driver, but I don't know how compile it.  I have also looked at http://contribs.org and download library files necessary to recompile.

The model of my PCI card is RocketRAID 133 (v2.31)

I would love to have this card working on a SME server. If you are interested, I could send you my files and driver source code, and PDF manuals.

--Brad.

[dlex]

thanx guys, I will try the 'modprobe' trick first

I know how to compile kernel and modules on my debian-box and I am very sure that this is at least 5 times easier than with RH.

do you think the module will work if I compile the driver on my debian-machine with similar hardware and the same kernel-version like the e-smith is running???

[dlex]

modprobe hptraid gives me the following:

[root@svr2 ide]# modprobe hptraid
/lib/modules/2.4.18-5/kernel/drivers/ide/hptraid.o: init_module: No such device
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters
/lib/modules/2.4.18-5/kernel/drivers/ide/hptraid.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.18-5/kernel/drivers/ide/hptraid.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.18-5/kernel/drivers/ide/hptraid.o: insmod hptraid failed

greetings from the windows-world? might this point me in the direction of an IRQ-conflict???

[dlex]

...and
insmod hptraid replies the following:

Using /lib/modules/2.4.18-5/kernel/drivers/ide/hptraid.o
/lib/modules/2.4.18-5/kernel/drivers/ide/hptraid.o: unresolved symbol ataraid_re
gister_disk_R2ee2c084
/lib/modules/2.4.18-5/kernel/drivers/ide/hptraid.o: unresolved symbol ataraid_ge
t_device_R90e433c3
/lib/modules/2.4.18-5/kernel/drivers/ide/hptraid.o: unresolved symbol ataraid_ge
ndisk_Ra4a9ffe1
/lib/modules/2.4.18-5/kernel/drivers/ide/hptraid.o: unresolved symbol ataraid_re
lease_device_R0976dcee

[Kelvin]

Hi dlex,

I don't think the hptraid.o module is the right one for the HPT370A. As I understand it, the kernel of SME 5.6 has support for the HPT370A compiled into it (in non-RAID mode). Installing SME 5.6 with the card already installed gives access to the card straight up. I have one system with the card in and lsmod does not show hptraid.o as loaded (which is why I think it is the wrong module). dmesg on this system shows the HPT370A detected early on during boot.

Have a look at your dmesg output to see if it is already detected. If so, you probably already have access to that hard disk connected to it (you just need to find out if it is hde, hdf ... and so on.

Let us know what you find out.

Kelvin

[dlex]

ok, there's nothing in /bin/dmesg that says something about hpt-driver
loaded, neither does lsmod.
I also checked for any hde-z devices, nothing!
when I say 'modprobe hptraid' I get a lot of unresolved symbols, etc.
and /bin/dmesg says:
Highpoint HPT370 Softwareraid driver for linux version 0.01
No raid array found
...which is actually true because there isn't any array, just one disk. as I
said before I don't want to reinstall the whole system, so I am considering
now, to go out and buy just any no-name ide-controller because for what I
need the controller for, any kind will do the job. using the HPT for just
connecting another drive is maybe 'throwing the pearls to the swine'. this device
might do a better job in some other machine...
But, I will try to put another disk, to the controller to see what happens
if there is an array of disks. I'll report!

cheers,
dlex

[Kelvin]

Hi again dlex,

Unfortunately I don't have a spare card to test on a preinstalled SME machine.

On the production system that's running that card, here is what is listed by dmesg, in case it helps :-

HPT370A: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev 58
PCI: Enabling device 00:0b.0 (0005 -> 0007)
HPT370A: chipset revision 4
HPT370A: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
HPT37X: using 33MHz PCI clock
    ide2: BM-DMA at 0xd400-0xd407, BIOS settings: hde:DMA, hdf:pio
    ide3: BM-DMA at 0xd408-0xd40f, BIOS settings: hdg:DMA, hdh:pio

Kelvin

[dlex]

hi guys,
paul van dun sent me some of his 'homegrown' drivers, which I will test as soon as the server in our department is online again. it's down for electricity maintainance work in the building.
I'll report!
cheers,
dlex

[Brad]

Kelvin,

Thanks for the info.  I didn't realize that I could reinstall the system from scratch and have it detect the raid card.  No recompiling necessary, as my user manual stated.

But now that I have two IDE drives in a JBOD (volume) array set in the controller bios, how do I configure the SME to recognize it?  After searching these forums and google, I think a need to create a /etc/raidtab file.

Can anyone let me know I need to explicitly create a raidtab/ file, or can the SME 6.0b3 server do it automatically?

Thank-you,
Brad


P.S. Here is the output for df and mount.  I have a 15gig on the primary and 4gig drive on the secondary raid channels, both are set to ‘master’. Raid bios detects both driver properly too.

---< Output: mount >-------
/dev/hde3        on   /        type ext3 (rw,usrquota,grpquota)
none               on   /proc type proc (rw)
usbdevfs         on   /proc/bus/usb type usbdevfs (rw)
/dev/hde1        on   /boot type ext3 (rw)
none               on   /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
none               on   /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)

---< Output: df –h >-------
Filesystem               Size  Used   Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hde3                14G  550M    12G   5%    /
/dev/hde1                97M   14M    78M  15%   /boot
none                     204M       0   203M   0%   /dev/shm

[Kelvin]

Hi Brad,

The built in driver in SME 5.6 (have not got a card to try with 6B3) does not support the HPT370A's RAID functions that are setup in the card BIOS. On the cards that I have tried, even if you setup a mirror set in the card's BIOS, SME will only see the hard disks as individual drives and not a single drive in a mirror set (when writing to the drives, only one drive lights up unless you specifically address the other drive -- ie. via hdb or hdf, whichever's assigned to the drive).

I have not heard of anyone on these forums who have managed to get the cards to work as a RAID card (not SME's s/w RAID). Attempts at compiling the drivers provided by Highpoint produces drivers that won't load on SME (gives lots of unresolved symbol errors). If anyone has a working driver I'd be most interested as well . I've also tried RAID cards manufactured by ACARD as well that does have a driver that is supposed to have been compiled for the correct kernel version but they also produce unresolved symbol errors when trying with load with SME. As is usually the case, loading up the cards (both the HPT and ACARD cards) on standard RH 7.3 and 8.0 distros always work.


Kelvin

[Charlie Brady]

Kelvin wrote:

> As is usually the case, loading up the
> cards (both the HPT and ACARD cards) on standard RH 7.3 and
> 8.0 distros always work.

Until RedHat puts out a new kernel that you want to upgrade to (for reliability or security reasons), when you're SOL even with RH 7.3 or 8.0.

I firmly believe that it's not worth the trouble to try to use those cards. You're entitled to believe otherwise, of course, but please don't ask me to help get them working.

Charlie

[Brad]

Charlie Brady wrote:
> Until RedHat puts out a new kernel that you want to upgrade to
> (for reliability or security reasons), when you're SOL even with
> RH 7.3 or 8.0.

I have used this card with RedHat 8 and RedHat 9 without any serious problems or glitches with the drivers provided by HighPoint.  

Highpoint has an excelent Linux driver database in their website at http://www.highpoint-tech.com/rr133drivers_down.htm. (This link is for the RocketRaid 133 PCI card open source drivers--  hpt370A to hpt372A)

I will not give up trying to get this card to work on the SME. All I need is a little motivation and someone to say "Yes! I got it to work and so can you...".

[dlex]

hi,
I installed the drivers Paul sent me and they work fine so far. when I mount the drive manually after the machine is up and running there are no problem. the drives shows up as /dev/sdb and I created an ext3 partition and an ibay called 'backup'

but when I try to automount it at boot time using this line in fstab:

/dev/sdb1    /home/e-smith/files/ibays/backup/files  ext3 1 2

the boot stops saying:
fsck.ext3: no such device or adress when trying to open /dev/sdb1

I have to comment out the line in fstab and it reboots fine, again.
could it be that the driver loads 'to late' so that the system can't mount the drive???
thanx,
dlex