Koozali.org: home of the SME Server
Legacy Forums => General Discussion (Legacy) => Topic started by: nemtex on January 22, 2005, 04:58:38 PM
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First of all, congrats on the new release, I just wish I could be there to see it. :-(
I have a Promise Fastrak sx4000 IDE RAID controller which I thought was going to solve all of my storage problems, well it did in a way (as I can’t install SME I have loads of space).
Having tried to get this card to work with v6 and given up, I was slightly surprised to find that v6.5 (and yes I know its only a beta), was still way behind in the hardware support stakes.
SUSE and REDHat have drivers for the cards and I actually have one for SME but as the ALT+F2 function has been disabled or broken (cant decide which), its about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
I have used SME on old hand-me-down workstations since v4 and have therefore never really pushed the ‘SME hardware boundaries’ before. But since my 2 x 120gb IDE hdd’s (RAID 1) were starting to buckle under the strain of being so full, I decided to get 2 more and a hardware RAID 5 card. This would give me another 230GB + to play with and offered me some ‘future proofing’. It said on the box support for Redhat and SUSE so naturally I assumed SME would be ok. I of course now realise that you should never assume anything with Linux, especially SME.
I realise that Promise isn’t as supported as the likes of Adaptec but these cards have been around for 3 – 4 years now and they are still not supported, that’s bad even for Linux. A lot of people will be grinding teeth and cursing me now no doubt, telling me to write/compile the driver myself (would if I knew how). I also think I have suffered enough for my insults as I have been torturing myself for about a month now with the Microsoft’s bloatware version of SME, Windows 2000 server. It’s quite sad to see, what was once a proud and capable SME server buckle under the strain of carrying MS’s equivalent.
Anyway for those of you that haven’t stopped reading due to me boring you to death or to grab a nearby pitchfork to impale me on, I ask you, please please please could we have a driver sorted for Promise RAID controllers, or could someone tell me how I can enable to boot sequence to register I have a driver disk….. something, anything, I really don’t want to continue using Win2000 any longer than I have to.
James
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Do you have the 2.00.0.24 bios?
http://www.promise.com/support/download/download2_eng.asp?productId=94&category=All&os=100
There is also a Redhat 7.3 driver there that should work (make disk with the same utility as below), although with the newer kernel in SME, maybe if that doesn't work thy the redhat 9 driver disk. And I think I remember you have to boot from a SME boot floppy to add a supplemental driver - http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/releases/6.5beta1/os/images/boot.img - made in windows with: http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/releases/6.5beta1/os/dosutils/rawritewin/rawwritewin.exe
Search the forums here too, even look way back, the procedure is similar for other scsi cards, etc. But maybe it was the bios problem that was screwing you up...
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insert sme install cd into your computer and boot as normal. As soon as it starts booting from the cd press and hold the left shift button
when the boot: prompt appears, type: accept dd
the installer will ask you to insert driver disks
put your new image disk in and it will install the drivers
Robert is your mothers brother.
Hope that helps.
Patrick
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Thanks for the ideas. I'll be honest I haven't tried flashing the BIOS on the card.
Redhat works fine in fact its installing as I type. IDKEEN made a driver disk that was 'compiled'/created to work with the Kernel used in SME 6.0/01 but it will not work at install, but it is installable post install.
The most success I have had is with the redhat 9 driver disk but it complains about needing a supplemental disk after it has read the promise driver disk. I'm guessing its after the redhat version of 'drvblock.img'. I have tried copying this to a disk but SME refuses to do anything with it, in fact as soon as the RH9 driver is loaded (checked this by using ALT+F3 and F4) the floppy seems to be locked in limbo. Wondered if 2 floppy drives was the answer or if I could unmount the disk and mount the new one using the console in ALT+F5 I think it was.
I have read lots of posts about creating drivers img files but when I tried to download the tools at http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/saco/contrib/devtools_SME6.0/ they aren’t there any more (ref http://www.comnetel.com/bootdisk.htm).
Is there any way I can install sme on a single drive and then ‘ghost’ it onto the array and make it bootable? I assume lilo will be looking for things in the wrong place but if I can sort this out before dumping the image across. It would be great.
Another option I wondered about was to create a small RH install on a memory stick just enough to load the array drivers and then run the CD install. Don’t know if this is possible or not?
I hope when the Lycoris version comes out it will have a wider hardware support. I will quite happily pay for SME now I am in a better situation to do so. Especially after using win2000.
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I realise that Promise isn’t as supported as the likes of Adaptec ...
You can blame Promise for that.
There is no such thing as hardware RAID, BTW. All RAID is in software, and it's just a question of where the software runs. In most respects, the linux software RAID is the equal or better of RAID implemented in firmware by hardware manufacturers.
Did you consider using just a plain ATA-100/ATA-133 add-in card to give you some extra ATA ports? Works fine for me.
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You can blame Promise for that.
From my regular usage of Windows systems I would disagree. Linux seems to have a totally inflexible driver system. At least with windows a Win2000 driver works with WinXP etc. In windows terms, this situation would be like running a minor WinXP update (one of there 50k security updates for example) and none of the drivers would work any more.
I'm sure this is why Linux is as stable as it is but I cannot understand why life has to be made so complicated. Surely some flexibility is possible.
The other thing I dont understand is why other Redhat based installs now have embeded support the card. An example of this would be cent OS.
I know that there is an SME / Cent OS project running at the moment but it is really the realm of regular linux users that have a lot more experiance than I do, if you haven't already gathered my linux knowledge could be written on the back of a Postage stamp. :oops:
I suppose my point is that a new version has been released, would this not have been a good time to update the driver database? - I realise this is a very one sided and selfish opinion as the guys at SME may have updated the drivers, just not the one's I needed. I know there are several other Promise users out there that have had to reluctantly dump SME in favour of a Windows system (I say 'favour' when in fact it's more through lack of choice).
If I chose to dump the sx4000, how can I set up SME to use a software RAID 5 system that is bootable? I would have been happier not spending money on a RAID card if I didn't need to. The last version I saw only gave me the option of RAID 1.
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If I chose to dump the sx4000, how can I set up SME to use a software RAID 5 system that is bootable?
There is no support in SME server for RAID 5. Why not use RAID 1?
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I have 4 120GB's so raid 5 or 10 / 0 + 1 are really my only options as I dont have a budget for any more drives.
I am going to try to 'build' a driver using the comnetel helpsheet (see post above).
Does anyone know where I could find the dev tools mentioned as the link is not working, or even better a link to tools for v6.5beta?
Also some help or guidance would be very welcome. I cannot get my head around linux, which is made ever more frustating as I loved MSDOS and dispise windows.
Could someone suggest a book to buy that would help me to learn linux, preferably a redhat install so I can use the knowledge for SME.
In the meantime I have managed a rather 'bastardised' soluton. I have installed WinXP pro, then Virtual PC, and then SME. No problems here apart from speed and a real lack of security. :lol:
Rather silly but it gives me some time.... until the Virtual PC demo runs out anyway.....
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(for 6.0.1)
http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/hpe/devtools-6.01/dev-rpms/
(for 6.5b1)
Some are here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/releases/6.5beta1/os/e-smith/RPMS/
Any ones that are missing can probably be found here:
http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/7.3/
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(for 6.5b1)
Some are here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/smeserver/releases/6.5beta1/os/e-smith/RPMS/
In case you haven't figured it out yet, the os directory is just a copy of what is on the CD's. So anything you find there is on the CD and can be installed from there.
-Shad
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If the files are already on the CD. Does this mean if I already have a 6.5 SME running I can use it to make the drivers without installing anything extra?
Please forgive my total ignorance.
also could you please give me a quick run down on RPMS's how to install, or again suggest a link or book that may enlighten me (probably need a miracle).
Also does anyone think this proceedure will work or am I flogging a dead horse?
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For 6.5b1, some are on the cd, but they don't get installed. Just as easy to download and install them (edit - if you have a fast internet connection ;-).
If you have 6.5b1, just find the new versions of all the same ones from 6.01 directory.
Google is better than any book - just search for "installing rpms", I'm sure there are literally a million pages about that :-P
Basically just download them all into a folder and install with 'rpm -Uvh --nodeps *.rpm' The nodeps option usually isn't necessary, but for some of them you don't need/want all the dependant rpms.
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Thanks for all your help everybody. I am hoping to try and make the driver disk tonight. Wish me luck :hammer: .
Once again thank you! :-)
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OK it didn't work. while making the disk I was keeping an eye on things in MC in another console and I noticed that the frasttrak.o file was about 300k bigger than the other '.o' files in the initrd.img file. I also noticed that, unlike the other files, it was coloured bright green and had a '*' next to it. Is this a problem?
I think the driver files was probably too big and that's why the disk failed but as I blindly followed the instructions, I can't be sure. :cry:
Words of encouragement welcome.....
I am going to have another go tonight, using v6 as this is what the instructions are based on. if this works, I'll then have another stab at v6.5.
On this note, if I get 6 to work, can I upgrade to 6.5 without the use of the CD? Is this what the SRPMS are for in the 'update' folder? Probably is but I just want to confirm. :oops:
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get ride of the promise card, they suck anyway windows or linux, by a real raid card like the 3ware, install SME out of the box on 3ware and life is good again
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Yes I realise that I should have bought a 3ware, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. In the meantime, how do I install the driver so when I recompile the kernel it is modified correctly. If this cant be done where should I put the fasttrak.o file so it is changed?
When I try to install the driver from any of the promise driver disks, it doesn't install because it says its the wrong version.
I hope this makes sense.
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Well I tried and failed.
When I run
'make dep modules modules_install'
It does not create a Fasttrak.o file in /lib/modules/2.4.20.........
How can I force this to be done? anyone?
I tried just copying the original file into the boot disk on the pathetically slim chance it would work.....
The disk boots but then returns an error saying
'isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=09:03, iso_blknum=16, block=32'
'Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 09:03'
Then the install halts (strangely enough).
How I see it, I have several options
1: flog the SX4000 or speak nicely to the supplier and see if they will swap it for a 3ware card. (incidentally will the 4 channel version definitely work out of the box??).
2: try running RH9 - which does see the card/drivers
3: jump under a bus.... as the thought of going back to win2000 fills me with dread. :-o
4: is there anyway to do a single disk install, install the drivers and then 'transplant' the install onto the RAID? I'm guessing a rework of things like the lilo config would need to be done but surely this isn't impossible?
In the meantime I'm off to drink large amounts of Alcohol. :pint:
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I didn't want you to jump under a bus so I looked a little more for you... ;-) I didn't realize the drivers on promise's website were for such specific kernels. I found a site below that has the source code...not sure how legally it was obtained, but I'm guessing you don't care.
http://majestic.lugh.de/~fs/promise/
If it works you can buy me a :pint:
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Thanks ur a star. Instructions as well - even better!
I hope this works but being a newbie to this side of linux I am a bit nervous, but hey, it can't get any worse. As for the drink, its a deal! If your ever in Guildford, UK drop me a message and I will buy you that :pint: .
The post couldn't have come at a better time actually. I was just about to give my supplier a ring and see if I could beg them to swap it for a 3ware card....
Thanks again
James
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gregswallow,
You don't work for promise do you???
I got an e-mail with exactly the same link from them about 2hrs ago..... spooky :roll:
James
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insert sme install cd into your computer and boot as normal. As soon as it starts booting from the cd press and hold the left shift button
when the boot: prompt appears, type: accept dd
the installer will ask you to insert driver disks
put your new image disk in and it will install the drivers
Robert is your mothers brother.
Hope that helps.
Patrick
Hi Guys, I am also having problems with the installation using additional drivers. I tried holding down the "left shift key" and many other alternate key option and nothing happens, the boot disc just continues on its merry way.
I am installing the system for a friend, the mother board is an Intel Server Board (SE7501BR2) with an integrated Adaptec UItra320 RAID controller. I installed Red Hat 9 on the system with no difficulties (once driver disks were loaded), but I just cant interrupt the boot process and specify the "accept dd" boot bommand.
Is there some other way of making this work, I really cant replace the motherboard or the
hardware being used.
Sorry I forgot to mention, the biit disc is built from the smeserver-6.5beta image file.
Thank in advance
Rick
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That is weird. Admittedly I havent tried with 6.5beta but on 6.0.1 left shift as the cd starts beign read works every time on various machines from HP, Dell, NEC and in VMWare.
Will try 6.5beta tomorrow (have to d/l it over night).
patrick.
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ruggiero,
Try ALT + F2, this works for me, but so does left shift.
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Update
Hi all,
I have successfully managed to compile a 2.4.20-37.7.legacyBOOT compatible driver. I have then followed the Boot disk tutorial but this time the system hangs with no errors.
After reading some more info about the subject, I had come to the conclusion that the drivers are being loaded and are actually stopping the CD-ROM IDE drivers from loading. Apparently a bug with IDE RAID.
With this in mind I decided to try and make a driver disk. So far failing miserably.
I did discover however, when I tried to open/unpack initrd.img from the boot disk I made, gunzip says unexpected end of Achive, meaning I my eyes that all is not well with the process I have used.
Does anyone out there have any ideas what I can do? Has anyone actually got this controller to work with SME?
It's quite weird but I have actually enjoyed going through this extremely annoying process. I really don't want to give up but I don't have the linux knowledge to work this one out without help. From what I read this is something that is hardly ever done by end users anymore.
It looks like the 3ware card may win afterall, so I ask again, has anyone actually got a 4pot IDE RAID 3ware card to run with SME? please could you also confirm the model number. I really don't want to fork out £200 + for something that may not work either.
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I have successfully managed to compile a 2.4.20-37.7.legacyBOOT compatible driver. I have then followed the Boot disk tutorial but this time the system hangs with no errors.
Did you ever try that bios update?
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Yeah I did. I believe there may have been errors when I compiled the drivers.
I have managed to create a linux-2.4.20-37.7.legacy driver and install it on a system booting from a standard IDE disk. I have managed to mount the drive and partition it as well. The driver throws up an error about not being validated or something but it does work.
This was using the source that is marked with a warning on the website you gave me though. The other one just throw up errors when I try to compile it.
Somewhere along the lines, when I make a boot disk something is messing up. the initrd.img file is not unpackable, I get an unexpected end of achive error, this is probably why the system hangs on install.
As much as I have hated :evil: and enjoyed :-) this proceedure, I have now decided to call it a day. The supplier of the card has agreed to let me swap it out for a 3ware card. Unfortunately I have found a US supplier on ebay who is selling the 4, 8 and 12 port versions for $220, $320 and $420 respectively. If I could get a refund instead of a swap, I could probably buy a 12 port version of the card for the same price the supplier is selling the 4 port version. The only difference is the ebay version is Bulk and therefore has no drivers, manual or cables but for a £300 - £400 saving I think I can live with that. Not sure what to do..... more issues! The supplier has been very good and I would feel a bit cruel to stab them in the back like this.... and there is the obvious problems/worries with buying on ebay....
Arghhhhhh! Why is life never simple!!!
Thanks for everyones help with this especially greg. ;-)
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Just got a 3ware 7506 -4lp.
Had to swap the mobo in the Server to get it working but I am now a happy and content SME user again Hurray.
For anyone interested I will upload all the information that I have gathered during the last few weeks. I did finally manage to compile drivers for v6.5b1 for both .legacy and .legacyBOOT. Turns out the info given with the source files was missing one tiny line which made all the difference.
anyone wanting info please mail me.
Thanks again to everyone for help, guildance, advice etc.
James