Drivers and Kernel Versions

[erl]

I have a driver for a Promise RAID card (ft3xx.o). In the readme file it says it is compatible with "SuSE linux 9.0 (kernel 2.4.21-99)". Would this driver also be compatible with all subsquent kernel versions?

Thanks,

Erlend

[mdwatts]

Which Promise Raid Controller?

I have the Promise FastTrack TX2 IDE Raid Controller with SuSE 9.0 and it uses the

pdcraid
ataraid

modules.

If Promise supplied the ft3xx module on diskette/cd and it's supposed to work with SuSE 9.0, then copy the module to ?? /lib/modules/<kernel version>/kernel/drivers/ide/raid/ and then run

depmod -ae

and the try to load with

modprobe ft3xx

All as root.

<edit>

Just remembered I have

http://www.murty.net/ataraid/

which might help.

[erl]

Thanks for your reply.

The card I'm using is the Promise FastTrak TX2Plus S150 SATA Raid Controller. Also with SuSE 9. And I am using the modules:

ft3xx
pdcraid
ataraid

For my card (can't understand why so many - suse did that for me).

I downloaded the file found on this page (http://www.promise.com/support/download/download2_eng.asp?productId=107&category=driver&os=1) (top link), and used that driver. It says in the included readme file "Compatibility: SuSE Linux 9.0 (kernel 2.4.21-99)"; just wondered if that meant I couldn't use it with any subsequent version of the kernel?

Also, if I use it as a module (which I am now), how does linux load the driver from the disk, when it can't access the disk? Is that what the ramdisk does?

Thanks for the link. I noticed they said: "You must not access the disks directly", i.e. by sda2 etc. Does this still apply to suse?

Sorry about all the questions!

Cheers,

Erlend

[mdwatts]

SuSE 9.0 already included (and loaded) the fl3xx driver or did you need to copy it from the Promise media to your HD?

If all three of those modules are automatically loading, then I guess you don't need to do anything else and it works with whatever kernel version you have.

uname -r (to check the kernel version)

Do as the link suggests as I have hde and hdg for my IDE raid HD's, BUT I access them with /dev/ataraid/d0 and then d0p# for the partitions.

# fdisk -l /dev/ataraid/d0

Disk /dev/ataraid/d0: 40.0 GB, 40000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4863 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/ataraid/d0p1 1 4863 39062016 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/ataraid/d0p5 1 523 4200934+ 83 Linux
/dev/ataraid/d0p6 524 1307 6297448+ 83 Linux
/dev/ataraid/d0p7 1308 2352 8393931 83 Linux
/dev/ataraid/d0p8 2353 2614 2104483+ 83 Linux
/dev/ataraid/d0p9 2615 4863 18065061 83 Linux

If you need to access those HD's at boot, then you need to have all three of those modules in your initrd.

[erl]

When i installed linux i used a "driver update disk" so that yast could see my disk.

I want to update the kernel to a newer version. Just wondering if the driver would work with the new kernel (given that it says "compatible with SuSE 9.0 (2.4.21-99)" in the readme)

How do I set up the /dev/sataraid/d0x idea?

Also I'm guessing since I only have raid disk(s) in my computer that i need the drivers loaded in initrd. Will updating the kernel change any part of initrd?

Thanks for your help,

Erlend

[mdwatts]

I have no idea if that module with work with other kernel versions. You can always try, but make sure you can still boot the old kernel.

Have a look in /etc/fstab to see what the device is for the sata drives.

cat /etc/fstab (part of mine)

/dev/ataraid/d0p5 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/ataraid/d0p9 /d0p9_shared ext3 auto,user,exec,rw 1 2

You cannot just go and create devices in /dev unless you know what you are doing. Have a read of /usr/src/linux/Documentation/devices.txt

After compiling a kernel, you will need to create a new initrd using /sbin/mkinitrd.

[mdwatts]

Some SuSE links for you.

http://lists.suse.com/archive/

http://packman.links2linux.de/

http://www.suse.com/us/private/products/suse_linux/i386/packages_professional/index_all.html

http://portal.suse.com/PM/page/search.pm

< searching keywords >

suse 9.0 links urls support

[Minime80]

Hey mdwatts.

Is that /dev/ataraid/d0 a raid array?

If so, what raid level?

What kernel are you running?

Are you dual booting?

Would your setup work with XP?

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Minime80

Is that /dev/ataraid/d0 a raid array?

If so, what raid level?

What kernel are you running?

Are you dual booting?

Would your setup work with XP?

Yes it is and Raid1.

2.4.21-166-smp4G

I do have XP Pro installed though I rarely boot to it and the times I did, I cannot remember if I checked to see if the raid devices were working. All the partitions on 'd0' are ext3 anyways as XP is installed on the HD connected to the motherboard controller.

fdisk -l


Disk /dev/hdg: 40.0 GB, 40027029504 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4866 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdg1 1 4863 39062016 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdg5 1 523 4200934+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdg6 524 1307 6297448+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdg7 1308 2352 8393931 83 Linux
/dev/hdg8 2353 2614 2104483+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdg9 2615 4863 18065061 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hde: 40.0 GB, 40027029504 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4866 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hde1 1 4863 39062016 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hde5 1 523 4200934+ 83 Linux
/dev/hde6 524 1307 6297448+ 83 Linux
/dev/hde7 1308 2352 8393931 83 Linux
/dev/hde8 2353 2614 2104483+ 83 Linux
/dev/hde9 2615 4863 18065061 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 4 32098+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 5 642 5124735 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 643 1152 4096575 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 1153 9729 68894752+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 * 1153 1790 5124703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 1791 2428 5124703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 2429 3066 5124703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 3067 4341 10241406 83 Linux
/dev/hda9 4342 4979 5124703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda10 4980 5617 5124703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda11 5618 6892 10241406 83 Linux
/dev/hda12 6893 9598 21735913+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda13 9599 9729 1052226 82 Linux swap


hde and hdg are the raid HD's though they are accessed through /dev/ataraid/d0.