Topic: Promise Ultra66 IDE controller

[David Phillips]

Has anyone else tried installing e-smith 4.0 on a machine using a Promise Ultra66 IDE controller?  I had previously tried with e-smith 3.1 and failed, I was hoping that the new kernel in 4.0 would work.

The installation fails at the Automatic Partition screen with the "No Drives Found" error message.

and cat of /proc/pci show the controller as "Unknown mass storage controller: Promise Technology unknown device."  

Is it possible to add the I/O port info the kernel needs to the boot disk?

I need this controller because my production server, a PPro 200/512, will only recognize the drive when it is jumpered down to 33GB.

That brings up another question, has anyone used 4.0 on an IDE drive >33GB?

Thanks,
David

[Orville Carter]

David,

Please do not mis-understand my comment.
I dont know any IS specialist, CNE, MCSE (or Grandmother) who would trust an IDE drive of that size on a server.
Many of us have seen too many IDE drive failures to go that way.
SCSI failures have been very few.
For most of us its SCSI all the way. My three servers each carry 10.1 gig SCSI drives.

[David Phillips]

I agree- at work I have 12 servers from Compaq and Dell spinning lots of SCSI drives- but this is my home server.  It is on 24 hours a day in the room adjacent to the living room in our small apartment.  It sits on a shelf in a corner, which helps to amplify the noise.  SCSI drives are now at a minimum 7200RPM, which makes them loud and hot.  Heat means you have to have fans, and fans are loud.  I went to great lengths to make a quiet server (I replaced a Cobalt Qube).  I ordered a 28dB power supply, 30dB fan for the CPU, and picked the Maxtor Diamond Max 45GB 5400RPM IDE drive because of it's quiet and cool operation.

I think the reliabilty of IDE drives has increased considerably recently, my two Cobalt RAQ 3i servers at work have IDE drives, and a lot of ISPs depend on RAQs.

[Orville Carter]

YIKES! I hear you loud and clear, David.
You are also right on the SCSI noise. Man, those drives will drive you up the wall.........especially at 2am. My home/office internet servers are in my basement
lan room next to my office. Right now I have four systems are operational - three with
10gig 7200 rpm drives. Yeah! they are loud. My servers are on the internet 24/7 also.

I know IDE drives have come a long way. However, I hate to see my clients crying after the drive goes down - no backup done since last week - if you know what I mean. Now, they are asking me to do magic tricks. The same can happen with SCSI drives - not as often.

[Bob Cole]

Linux Online has a HOWTO on getting the newer Promise controllers to work. Check the links for the U66 patches.  You're correct, you can feed the io ports to the kernel as a command line parameter

http://www.linux.org/help/ldp/howto/mini/Ultra-DMA-5.html

Promise also has some beta drivers for the Ultra66

http://www.promise.com/latest/latedrivers.htm

Good luck!