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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« on: August 05, 2004, 10:55:15 PM »
We're trying to install SME 6.0.1 on an SATA RAID.  (We do want to boot SME from the RAID.) The board is an Abit KV8-Max3.

Motherboard Link:  http://www.Abit-USA.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=150

There are three SATA drives in the system.  Two are on SATA-1 and SATA-2, which are controlled by VIA's "on chip" RAID BIOS, and set to operate in RAID-1.  The third drive is on SATA-4, SATA-3 to -6 are controlled by the "on board" Silicon Image RAID BIOS.

The board has two RAID BIOS:  An "on chip" one which controls two SATA slots, and an "on board" one which controls four other SATA slots.  We're not yet sure why the board has two RAID BIOS.

The third drive is a spare that we plan to use as a hot swap backup of the RAID.

The SME 6.0.1 installation CD boots and does not find any of the hard drives. (However, we do notice some lines that read "Autodetecting RAID" as the CD boots.)  The respective RAID BIOS do each see the drives connected to them.

So, the SME install suggests "you probably want to manually select drivers."  We choose "Yes", but it just starts running Anaconda and goes to the screens that ask to select a language, keyboard type, and agree to the license.  After agreeing to the license, a message then comes up that complains that it could not find any "valid devices to install a file system".

The VIA RAID chipset is VT8237.  VIA provides RAID drivers for various versions of Linux here:

http://www.ViaArena.com/?PageID=297#raid

The Silicon Image chipset is Sil 3114:

http://www.SiImage.com/products/sii3114.asp

We think everything we need to get this working is available.  However, it appears that a bug is preventing SME from acting properly after it suggests manually selecting drivers.

We also suspect that we will likely need to somehow create a custom install CD with the appropriate drivers on it.

If anyone has any ideas, we would appreciate them.  If you know of related links, please post them here.  We searched the forum and found some discussions that were close, but found nothing complete.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2004, 02:15:31 AM »
We just booted the Fedora Core 1 Installation CD.  It showed the same message, "You probably want to manually select a driver."

Unlike SME, when we selected "Yes" it did show a menu where we could add additional drivers.

This indicates a very strong likelihood that the SME 6.0.1 Installer does in fact contain a bug in this part of the install process.

Any ideas on how to work-around or perhaps fix this bug?

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2004, 04:40:28 AM »
We have submitted a bug report regard this:

http://no.longer.valid/mantis/bug_view_page.php?bug_id=0000102

Any ideas from the forum community are still welcome.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #3 on: August 06, 2004, 05:03:07 AM »
If anyone wants to try to reproduce this bug, a possible way to test for it is to disconnect all hard drives from a system before booting the SME Installation CD.

Offline frederikbay

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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #4 on: August 06, 2004, 10:16:53 AM »
just a thought

have you tried to hold leftshift key down as you sme cd starts booting or control-c out if the initial install.

this will give you a promt where you type:

accept dd

and the installation will ask you for a driver disk later on.

Frederik

Offline satovey

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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #5 on: August 06, 2004, 08:28:23 PM »
It's amazing what you find when your
not looking for it. I was on the
PcChips website looking for a bios
upgrade and this is what I found:)

I tried it and the sucker booted from
the cd. You might what to try it and
see if this is the same issue with
your system.

44. Why does it crash when I try to install Red Hat Linux?
Many people have tried to install Red Hat Linux 7.2 and found that the installer crashes with a kernel panic. This can be resolved by disabling ACPI/APM in the BIOS prior to installing Red Hat. This can be re-enabled after installation if required. Also, ensure that the CD drive that you are installing from is jumpered to either "master" or "slave", and not "cable select".

Some people who find that Red Hat gets confused when using the onboard VGA (shared memory). The fix is to use the following command "boot: linux mem=64m" when booting from the first CD.

When installing XFree86, it may pay for you to use the command "Xconfigurator --noddcprobe" to prevent crashing. Some people find the alternative VGA driver from http://www.webit.at/~twinny/linuxsis630.shtml better than the default.

I personally have had no such problems with crashes or with X when installing Linux on my machine. This is probably due to the fact that I use Debian GNU/Linux!


Have a good day:)

Scott
Scott A Tovey

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #6 on: August 06, 2004, 10:25:32 PM »
Frederik,

We have created a linux driver disk using the following driver:

ftp://downloads.viaarena.com/drivers/Linux/VIA_RAID_Linux_V03K7.zip
http://downloads.viaarena.com/LinuxApplicationNotes/Aug03/VIA%20RH7.2%20SATA%20Device%20ver0.8.gz

Holding down "left shift" during boot causes the "boot:" prompt to appear.  We type "accept dd" and hit [enter].  The next screen that comes up is a new driver disk screen.  We follow the prompts to read the driver off the floppy disk.

Unfortunately, after that the sequence is exactly the same as before.  It doesn't seem to use the driver, and does not bring up a window that will actually allow the manual selectino of the driver.

satovey,

We're not seeing any crashing or kernel panic.  The installer is just not showing a dialog that it should be -- just an annoying bug.

Offline satovey

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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2004, 03:23:14 AM »
Hi Jeremy,

After rereading the post, I think I can
lead you in the right direction. First,
you need to reread the instructions on
the io board. Years ago when I installed
a eide board on an older system so that
it could handle the 10 gig drive I peruchased,
I was instructed to set the ide settings in
the bios to I think it was 45 or 47. This may
not be the same with what you have, but it
may be something like that. For instance, you
may need to disable the onboard ide in order
for the sata card to take over. I am assuming
sata is scsi ata right? I don't keep up on
drive technology to much.

I suggest you look for something like that, since
the issue is that the system does not detect
the drives. There must be a setting within the
bios  whether it be the board or the card
that is interfering with this.

It could also be a resource conflict. An irq
that needs to be changed. Look at the irq as
well as the (int15) I tink that's what it is.
See if their are any jumpers on the board or
if there is anything in the board bios that
may be causing this.

Check the hardware support for redhat linux.
to Be srue that the board is supported. Have
you tried the 6.0 release to see if this is
an issue with it? Try the 5.6 version as well.

That's all the idea's I have. Sorry if they
don't help:

Scott
Scott A Tovey

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #8 on: August 09, 2004, 05:19:03 AM »
satovey,

This is not a BIOS issue.  Windows XP installs just fine, with the Xp SATA RAID drivers provided on diskette.

cublink

Problems with SATA Raid and SME
« Reply #9 on: August 09, 2004, 11:13:45 AM »
I have similar problem with an ASUS m/b and promis controller. What I found was that the driver for my controller is compiled against RH9.0 and even though booting with accept dd the driver is not installed, it is neccecary to compile the driver against the sme kernel and then either make a floppy driver of it or modify the boot iso to include the driver. I searched the forum for RAID and found an article on how to recompile the boot iso and installing (albeit a scsi raid) into the kernel drivers, should be the same for your setup.

Hope this helps

Andy

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2004, 04:19:55 PM »
cublink,

Could you post the link to that article you found?  Thank you.

anyone,

Our understanding is that SME 6.0.1 is based on Redhat 7.2, for which we have a Linux RAID Driver.  Can anyone confirm or refute the version of linux that SME 6.0.1 is based upon?

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #11 on: August 09, 2004, 05:33:31 PM »
We ran through the "left shift at boot" routine with the driver disk again.  We failed to mention before that after being prompted for the driver disk, it does say "Loading viasraid driver ..."

It actually does that twice before going to the "You probably want to manually select a driver" screen.

Also, we noticed during boot-up that the SME install says, "Unknown VIA Southbridge ... disabling DMA ..."

On a related note, we read somewhere that the version of linux kernel used for installation may (or may not) be the same version that exists on the drive after installation.  Therefore, a two kernel versions of the same RAID driver are needed:  One during install, and another for after.

Does anyone know what kernel version is used during SME install, and also what kernel version exists after?

cublink

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2004, 06:58:59 PM »
Howto add a scsi raid controller driver (note 4.x sme but priciple the same)
http://www.e-smith.org/docs/howto/contrib/e-smith_adaptec_raid.htm
Creating driver boot disk for 6.0
http://www.comnetel.com/bootdisk.htm
Changing and making a boot iso to keep the new drivers
http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/dmay/smeserver/howto/smeserver-iso-howto.html

cublink

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #13 on: August 09, 2004, 07:05:39 PM »
Also see
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=23433.0
Note comment from Rheingold about staying away from SATA and subsequent comments about DMA problems

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #14 on: August 11, 2004, 03:37:29 AM »
The link two posts up about "Howto add a scsi raid controller driver" says to download the "devtools" from http://www.Contribs.org/contribs/saco/contrib/devtools_SME6.0/

However, when following that link one finds that 9 of the 24 files have "devel" in their name.

Any idea which  file they are referring to specifically?  None seems to stand out, while some (like the apache devel file) don't seem appopriate for this task.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #15 on: August 17, 2004, 11:09:37 PM »
I downloaded all of the "Dev Tools" RPMs from:

http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/saco/contrib/devtools_SME6.0/

I just installed all of them that I could.  All but two (only openssl-devel-0.9.6b-32.7.i386.rpm and anaconda-7.3-7.i386.rpm were missing dependencies) were successfully installed on a no-frills machine running a basic install of SME 6.0.1.

One of those RPMs (I don't know which) eventually installed "cc" which one needs to use the "gcc" compiler.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #16 on: August 17, 2004, 11:42:39 PM »
I downloaded the following zip file from VIA, which includes driver source code for the VT8237 SATA chipset.

http://downloads.viaarena.com/LinuxApplicationNotes/Apr04/via_raid_linux_v100_20040412.zip

It also includes a script dd.sh which compiles the driver for your kernel version of linux and generates a viamraid.img file which is a driver disk image.

I used this image to create a driver disk:

> dd if=./viamraid.img of=/dev/fd0

With the driver disk ready, I booted the SME installation CD on the target machine -- while holding down the left [SHIFT] key, so that the boot menu would appear.

At the boot: prompt, I typed "accept dd" so that the installer would prompt for the driver disk prior to installation.

The installer prompts for the disk, which was then inserted.  The installer then loaded the driver from the driver disk.

Installation then continued as normally, and -- for the first time ever -- the installer was able to see the two SATA drives connected and provided the usual options for a single disk install or a two disk install using software RAID-1.

I selected the RAID-1 option, and the installation started by formatting the drives, and then went through the install.  Finally, a dialog asked about creating a recovery disk, which I skipped.

The CD then ejected and the machine rebooted, as it should.

Upon rebooting, the machine booted from the software RAID-1 array and the SME splash screen was displayed giving the option of normal SME or using SMP.

I selected the normal SME mode and then, after a few text messages, a kernel panic occured.  One of the messages complained that the viamraid.o file was compiled for kernel 2.4.20-18.7BOOT, but that kernel 2.4.20-18.7 was currently in use.

I checked the driver disk image compile script, and it definitely compiles two drivers ( viamraid.o-2.4.20-18.7BOOT and viamraid.o-2.4.20-18.7 ).

It is clear that kernel 2.4.20-18.7BOOT loads its driver properly, otherwise SME would never have installed and the reboot (from the raid array) would never have brought up the splash screen.

So why isn't kernel 2.4.20-18.7 loading its own driver properly?

cublink

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #17 on: August 18, 2004, 05:33:25 AM »
Jeremy on my last post I suggested looking at a couple of howtos, which obviously sparked you of on the current post.

In the "how to modify an E-smith 6.0 boot disk to add support for use with Adapetec Ultra 320 SCSI controllers" on bottom of first page it mentions changing the line in the file from -18.7 to -18.7BOOT,
I wondered wether this is relevant?

I had same problem installing the rpms and anaconda and openssl still have missing dependencies. I installed in the following order:
cpp-2.96
glibc-kernel header
glibc-devel
gcc-2.96
zlib-devel
rpm-python
readline
pam-devel
automake
m4
autoconf
apache-devel
libtool
mkisofs
neurses
libstdet
libattr
libacl
libacl-devel
anaconda runtime
gcc-c++
kernel-source

I have to tell you that it didnt work for my controller Promise 20378, but that appears to be because Promise only supply a partial source for the driver and its compiles with gcc v3.0 which I think is in a later kernel.

On that note have you looked at the biggest thread on the forum "How to kernel upgrade" Mister Sleepy seems to have compiled a 2.4.27 kernel with hardware support for Raid controllers inbuilt.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #18 on: August 18, 2004, 08:06:47 PM »
cublink,

With regard to installing the "Dev Tools" RPMs, I got what I needed (the cc and gcc compilers).

The boot disk modification page is somewhat stale.  It says to change the EXTRAVERSION variable in the Makefile from "-18.7" to "-18.7BOOT".  However, in the latest version of SME 6.0.1-1, the Makefile has "-18.7custom".

I did change it to "-18.7BOOT" before compiling the driver disk.  I also tried the install, after compiling a new driver disk after changing EXTRAVERSION to just "-18.7".  In both cases, the result was exactly the same:  Installation and reboot, but then kernel panic.

Booting is not really the problem.  We can boot on install and boot after install.  Its getting the post-boot kernel to use the correct driver that is at issue.

From reading the kernel update thread, it looks like some programs will not operate correctly with the updated kernel.

The simplest path is to just add a driver for SATA, by compiling a version of the SATA driver for the appropriate kernel version, from the source.  We have the source.

Someone out there must have some experience with this driver module kernel version issue.  So, I'll ask the question again:

Why isn't kernel 2.4.20-18.7 loading its own SATA driver properly?

cublink

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #19 on: August 18, 2004, 09:09:36 PM »
Ok understood, the other thread claims to have a kernel with support albeit bracketed (experimental) for via sata raid

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=20988.0
 Will this work for you?

cublink

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #20 on: August 18, 2004, 09:19:09 PM »
Also I ask the question has anyone got SATA drives plus or minus raid working with the vanilla distro. I dont think SATA works full stop on the current distro, because I have now tried the SATA´s i bought for my origanal RAID on a promise 20378 chip ASUS mb, on four different mbs, 2 with RAID (different to promise, HPT) and just plain SATA in an attempt to use software raid.
In every case either the controller was´nt found in the standard kernel or in the case of vanilla SATA drives detected but the install hangs mid setup, before it starts to copy files.

And if you read the docs on the thread above, he says somewhere (I cant find it at the moment), something about "Fixed SATA to work in this kernel" !!!!

Friday when I have some time I going to install on IDE disk on RAID m/b then use Mister Sleepy new kernel and se if it sees the SATA RAID.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #21 on: August 18, 2004, 09:55:50 PM »
cublink,

I read that other thread, and saw the "experimental" tag for the VIA SATA support.  If you read back through that thread, you will see the problems that an updated kernel causes with existing software.  It looks like new versions of packages need to be used, and it hasn't all been ironed out yet.

I'd be happy to use the existing SME packages, but with SATA support.  Not really asking for much.

Another issue with that thread is that there is no description of which VIA SATA chipsets are supported, even "experimentally".

According to VIA, the driver that I downloaded and have compiled supports the following VIA SATA chipsets:  VT6410, VT6420, VT6421 and VT8237

Also, VIA has drivers which are supposed to resolve the DMA / SATA issue which has been discussed in other threads.  Once this driver works for SME, I'd like to get that working as well, not to mention the Silicon Image SiI 3114 SATA driver, since the board we're using has that as well.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #22 on: August 18, 2004, 11:17:00 PM »
I found this in a file called "driverdisk.txt" which came with the SATA driver source code and compile script, and item "c" suddenly jumped out at me.

Quote
This is the document describes how I install linux onto our RAID controller.  If you have any suggestion/questions, contact me with dolpherdu@viatech.com.cn

Here is what you should know before we can begin.

a). Kernel for installation(boot from CDROM) is not the same as the normal kernel, so we need to compile drivers for both kernel version. For example, for redhat9.0, the kernel from CDROM boot is 2.4.20-8BOOT, but after installation, boot from hard disk, the kernel version is 2.4.20-8. We will use XXXX to refer to the kernel version number.

b). Before installation, we must load the driver for BOOT kernel, to recognize our hard disk. The method is not standard for different linux vendors.

c). After installation, we need to boot from hard disk. Because kernel is installed on our RAID hard disk, we must load driver module before kernel init. This is done by a image file "initrd", the initrd is a filesystem image which should contain the driver information.

   We can see this initrd file under /boot/ directory, and boot loader(both grub and lilo) have an option "initrd = ourinitrdfile".

   After installation, we should add our driver module to this initrd file, unfortunately, the method is not standard too.
 
That's all. We'll discuss the details for each specific linux.

...


The kernel panic observed mentions using "INIT."

So, how can we access the boot loader during SME startup to give this instruction?  (Holding Left [SHIFT] did not work.)

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #23 on: August 19, 2004, 05:52:08 PM »
Discovered (in another thread) that pressing [CTRL] + [X] when the SME splash screen comes up takes you to the boot prompt.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find an "init=" or "initrd=" parameter that it will accept.  I have tried variations of "init=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-18.7" but nothing seems to work.

Its not really clear how this file would (or should) have been created during the install process.  Its not of the driver disk.

The prompt suggests "Press [TAB] for options."  Doing so, shows "SMEServer_up" and "SMEServer_smp".  Typing either causes the boot process to continue, as if you had selected them at the splash screen.

Any ideas?

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #24 on: August 19, 2004, 09:28:28 PM »
I noticed a "make install" option in the documents that came with the driver source.  It looks like this is to update the installation of linux from the command prompt.

I see the same result from running "make install" as when the machine reboots from the array post install:

Quote
# make install
find /lib/modules/uname -r -name viamraid.o -exec rm '{}' ';'
install -m 555 -D viamraid.o /lib/modules/uname -r/misc/viamraid.o
depmod -a
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7/misc/viamraid.o
modprobe viamraid
/lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7/misc/viamraid.o: kernel-module version mismatch
        /lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7/misc/viamraid.o was compiled for kernel version 2.4.20-18.7BOOT
        while this kernel is version 2.4.20-18.7.
/lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7/misc/viamraid.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7/misc/viamraid.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7/misc/viamraid.o: insmod viamraid failed
make: *** [install] Error 255

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #25 on: August 20, 2004, 11:58:07 PM »
I'm replacing this thread with a new thread containing a HowTo that details the entire procedure that I have discovered as a result of the conversations in this thread.

The HowTo is available at:

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=23758.0

Offline ldkeen

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Installing SME onto raid
« Reply #26 on: August 21, 2004, 08:28:02 AM »
Jeremy,
I'm by no means an expert in this field, but I did spend three weeks sorting out the same problem as you're having now with my unsupported scsi controller. Here is my understanding of the boot process (correct me if I'm wrong):
From http://www.cpqlinux.com/sysinit.html

1) the boot loader loads the kernel and the initial RAM disk
2) the kernel converts initrd into a "normal" RAM disk and
frees the memory used by initrd
3) initrd is mounted read-write as root
4) /linuxrc is executed (this can be any valid executable, including
shell scripts; it is run with uid 0 and can do basically everything
init can do)
5) linuxrc mounts the "real" root file system
6) linuxrc places the root file system at the root directory using the
pivot_root system call
7) the usual boot sequence (e.g. invocation of /sbin/init) is performed
on the root file system
8) the initrd file system is removed

So In our case the kernel loaded by the inital ram disk (or initrd) is 2.4.20-18.7BOOT. Once we build the driver for this kernel and place it in the initrd.img file we dont need to do anything else or build any other modules for any kernel versions. In other words the driver is loaded as part of the initrd process. If you do it properly and insert the pcitable and modinfo stuff as well then you simply boot off the floppy with the cd-rom in the tray and the boot disk auto detects the controller and continues with the installation as if you were installing on an ide controller. Even when booting from the hard disk it still uses initrd (which contains the driver). If you send me the driver disk that you built I'll have a go at modifying the boot.img for you to test. Once you have created the boot disk containing support for the controller you can then use that disk on any system with that particular controller regardless of what kernel is installed or whether it uses an smp or up kernel.

Offline ldkeen

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Installing SME onto raid
« Reply #27 on: August 21, 2004, 10:47:26 AM »
Jeremy,
In case the above was a bit confusing the basic procedure that you should be following is as follows:

Build the driver object file against 2.4.20-18.7BOOT kernel
Grab hold of the boot.img file from the images directory of the SME6.0.1-01 cdrom
Unpack it (it contains the initrd.img)
Unpack the initrd.img
Copy the above driver object file into the initrd.img
Add the pcitable and modinfo entries if possible (to allow autodetect)
Repack initrd.img
Repack boot.img
copy modded boot.img to floppy (dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0)
Boot of THIS floppy and thats it.

Nothing else needs to be done. During the installation the initrd.img from the floppy is copied to the hard drive so upon reboot the driver is now loaded through the initrd from the hard drive. If you followed my procedure closely here http://comnetel.com/bootdisk.htm you would probably have it going now. I'd be happy to help if you need a hand.
Regards Lloyd

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #28 on: August 21, 2004, 05:21:49 PM »
Lloyd,

     Thank you for taking an interest in this.
I used your SCSI How-To as a basis for my procedure, but ran into the symbol and the kernel mismatch issue discussed above.

      Since this forum won't allow me to PM you, here is a link to the driver source that I've been using:

http://downloads.viaarena.com/LinuxApplicationNotes/Apr04/via_raid_linux_v100_20040412.zip

If you are able to create a proper floppy for the driver, I would really appreciate it.

Question:  Its not clear to me from your post whether we will be using the floppy to boot from, or if the floppy will be used as a driver disk during the install process.  

Obviously, I would prefer to load the driver once at install time, rather than having to boot from a floppy each time the machien start.

Also, have you had a chance to read through my How-To (linked a few posts above)?

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Offline ldkeen

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Installing SME onto raid
« Reply #29 on: August 22, 2004, 12:13:58 AM »
Quote
Question: Its not clear to me from your post whether we will be using the floppy to boot from, or if the floppy will be used as a driver disk during the install process


Jeremy
Once we modify the boot.img from the SME6.0.1-01 cdrom we then use THAT modified boot.img file to boot from. That boot.img file can reside on a floppy or you can replace the boot.img from the cd with your modded one and boot straight from the cdrom. There is no requirement for a driver disk once we modify the boot.img file. The boot.img file includes a very tiny kernel (2.4.20-18.7BOOT) and filesystem containing our drivers.
Regards Lloyd

Unfortunately I dont have access to a build machine at the moment. Are you able to send me the driver object file that you compiled against 2.4.20-18.7BOOT?? I'll have a look through the above link to see if I can find the pcitable and modinfo stuff and we might be able to test it today.

Offline ldkeen

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Installing SME onto raid
« Reply #30 on: August 22, 2004, 03:24:22 AM »
Jeremy,
I now have 95% of the boot.img file done (including the pcitable entries and modinfo stuff). I'm just waiting on viamraid.o compiled against 2.4.20-18.7BOOT. When you send me that I will recompile the boot.img file and we should be right to test. I've also updated the howto specific to the VIA Raid Controller here http://comnetel.com/viamraid.htm
Lloyd

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #31 on: August 22, 2004, 07:06:58 AM »
Just emailed the viamraid.img driver disk image file to you at Comnetel.

As an aside, I would love to simply get the install to boot on its own.  However, it would be really great if we could get a viable driver disk for this.

A viable driver disk that works for BOOT and Post-BOOT would mean being able to add additional drivers at install time, without having to customize the SME install CD to add drivers.  I think you can see the value in striving for this.

I want to at least get things working, perhaps then you and I can work toward putting together a standard mechanism for creating viable SME driver disks for adding additional drivers.

As a first step, you could do a grab of all the linux commands you executed from the shell to put together the floppy from start to finish.  There is a unix command for starting and stopping a capture session, but I can't think of it right now.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #32 on: August 22, 2004, 07:18:40 AM »
I just caught your link to the new howto for via raid. (I must be tired.)  Thank you for putting that together.  Note:  That driver also supports the VIA VT8237 controller, which is based on the VIA VT6420 controller.

I have a problem understanding the following line that appears in the via raid howto, as well as in the scsi howto:

Quote
You should now have your driver object file in /lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7BOOT/misc/viamraid.o.


Do you mean that the "dot o" (object) file should be placed there?  That implies that one needs to compile that file, but neither howto ever mentions compiling any drivers.

The "make install" command that comes with the VIA Driver Source places a copy of the compiled object file into that directory.

Also, in both howtos, this line:

Quote
#cp configs/kernel-source-2.4.20-i386-BOOT.config .config


should be changed to:

Quote
#cp configs/kernel-2.4.20-i386-BOOT.config .config


Maybe we can do a merge of my howto which covers the initial steps in detail with your howto which creates a working boot image.

http://Contribs.org/viewtopic.php?t=23760

Offline ldkeen

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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #33 on: August 22, 2004, 07:58:34 AM »
Jeremy,
Can you meet me in the chat?

Offline ldkeen

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Installing SME onto raid
« Reply #34 on: August 24, 2004, 02:50:35 PM »
Jeremy,
I've put an image on my server for you and I've fixed the ks.cfg problem.

All my e-mails to you seem to be failing with the following:

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at comnetel.com.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<Jeremy.Jedynak@NetCentricInc.com>:
Sorry, I couldn't find a mail exchanger or IP address. (#5.4.4)

Here is the file http://www.comnetel.com/boot1.img
Regards Lloyd

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #35 on: August 24, 2004, 04:22:59 PM »
I'm not sure what would cause that email problem.  You received my emails right?  I'm getting email from other people just fine.

What did you need to do to correct the ks.cfg issue?  Also, I noticed that in your boot image viamraid.o is set yo ugo+rx, while all the other .o files in modules are set to ugo+rw.

I made a boot disk from the boot image you posted.  I am also burning a new SME install CD with the boot image.

Lets see if it works.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #36 on: August 24, 2004, 04:37:17 PM »
Well, the SME install CD still doesn't load the viamraid driver, and cannot see any drives without the use of a driver disk.

I updated the SME install CD's boot image by copying the  boot image from Lloyd over images/boot.img  I used that same boot image to create a boot floppy.  

What is very odd is that the first thing that the boot floppy does is load the viamraid driver, and then it goes to SME install and asks for the SME install CD to be inserted.

I just inserted my (boot.img) modified SME install CD and selected "more options", "install".  Lets see if somewhere the driver gets copied from either the boot floppy or the modified CD so that the machine can simply boot from the hard drive(s) and work as expected after the install.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #37 on: August 24, 2004, 06:05:38 PM »
lloyd,

Install done.  Rebooting after install (with no floppy or cdrom inserted), it looks like it now fails sooner than it did before.

There is also a different (new) error message in place of the old one.  Here it is, word for word:

Quote
EXT2_fs: unable to read superblock
isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=09:01, iso_blknum=16, block=32
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 09:01

Offline ldkeen

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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #38 on: August 24, 2004, 10:44:17 PM »
Jeremy,
When re-mastering the SME CD with a new boot.img - it's not just a matter of copying the boot.img file back into the images directory. You have to use mkisofs something like #mkisofs -b myboot.img -c boot.catalogue mynewiso.iso. I havent tried it yet but if you do a man mkisofs or google it you'll get the correct syntax. You HAVE to boot from the modified boot.img for it to work (whether that is dd'd to floppy or mkisofs'd to the CD doesn't matter)

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #39 on: August 24, 2004, 10:49:40 PM »
I used the "buildiso" script which is described in another thread:

http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/dmay/mitel/howto/sme-iso-howto.html

buildiso:
Code: [Select]
#!/bin/sh
# useage = ./buildiso BASENAME-VERSION-RELEASE
# Example: ./buildiso smeserver-6.0.1-01

# set location variables
DESTINATION=/root/smeserver
BUILDROOT=/root/smeserver/cdrom

# remove any previous TRANS.TBL files
/usr/bin/find $BUILDROOT -name TRANS.TBL -exec /bin/rm -f {} \;

# create a rpm list for this build and save to destination
/bin/ls -1 $BUILDROOT/e-smith/RPMS > $DESTINATION/$1.list

# generate the hdlist file
/usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/genhdlist $BUILDROOT

# build the iso, save to destination
/usr/bin/mkisofs -V '$1' \
-b dosutils/autoboot/cdboot.img \
-c e-smith/base/boot.cat \
-J -r -T -pad -o $DESTINATION/$1.iso $BUILDROOT


So, should we be modifying "cdboot.img" instead?

Also, as stated in a previous post, I did boot from the boot floppy, which then asked for the CD-ROM to be  inserted, which then performed an install.  The reboot after that install is when the new error message occured.

So, it is not clear how changing the "cdboot.img" in a similar way will fix anything.

Offline ldkeen

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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #40 on: August 24, 2004, 11:11:48 PM »
Quote
I used the "buildiso" script which is described in another thread


Well that should have done it. When you boot if the install autodetects the controller and loads viamraid the you are defintately booting from the modified image.

Quote

Also, I noticed that in your boot image viamraid.o is set yo ugo+rx


Maybe that could be our problem?? Try changing the permissions on that file to be same as the others and see what happens. I somehow dont think thats going to do it. Maybe in my adaptec case the driver for 2.4.20-18.7 was already included in the kernel, just wasn't supported at boot time. I'm off all day today and I think I have a box with that controller on it and a spare drive so I'll have a bit of a play and see how we go.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #41 on: August 25, 2004, 02:49:26 AM »
When booting from the modified CD, the controller is not detected and no drivers are loaded.  When booting from the floppy, the controller IS detected and the driver IS loaded, BUT then the installer kicks in -- so this is useless for booting post install.

The viamraid.o file is ugo+r in both cases, which should be good enough for what its being used for.  I doubt a permissions check is being done.

Based on your comments above ( regarding using the -b myboot.img switch when creating the install iso ) and the lack of driver loading at install (boot from install cd), I believe that we need to be modifying the cdboot.img file.

In any case, we seem to have 2 ways, maybe 3 ways, to get the installer to see the drives, and then install onto them, but we have yet to come up with a single way to get the machine to successfully boot post-install.

This is feeling more an more like a hopeless cause.  SME 6.0.1-1 is a complete failure on modern hardware. We are starting to pray for the kernel update guys to release an install ISO with an updated kernel.

If anyone has any ideas, or leads, or has tried something based on this thread, post it.

Offline ldkeen

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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #42 on: August 25, 2004, 03:11:33 AM »
I know it's a bit of a pain but I think the only way we are going to get that system up and going is to boot from an ide drive in the system load the viamraid module which will give us access to the sata drive, mount the drive and then copy /lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7/misc/viamraid.o across to the sata drive. I checked my system and it already had the adaptec drivers there just wasnt detected during install. Yours is different in that the drivers aren't on the system at all. I remember reading a thread somewhere that some guy had to disable his onboard ide and do an ftp install. It's possible also that you could boot of a Knoppix CD which may load the driver giving you access to the drive and you could copy viamraid across to the sata drive then.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #43 on: August 25, 2004, 03:39:50 AM »
That would be an act of complete attrition.  It would be far less demoralizing to simply abandon SME for a Microsoft-based solution.

These drivers work with other versions of linux.  Hell, they even work with SME at install time!  Other versions of linux can use these drivers both install to and post install, and some versions use kernels that are older than the one used by SME.

One has to ask what is so special about SME's kernel which each of use can compile, that it refuses to use a driver compiled for it -- even from source.

There is big hole in the collective understanding within this SME community of how drivers are and should be incorporated into linux, and therefore into SME.

The kernel update guys have drivers for SATA RAID for their updated kernels.  It is likely that they too had  to compile (at least some of) them from source.  Maybe someone can grab some their attention and focus it here as well.

The likelihood is high that at some point their new kernels will become obsolete, and that someone will want to use then-modern hardware with SME, and run into the same situation as well.

Solving this issue would move the SME community ahead considerably.

jeremy

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #44 on: September 04, 2004, 04:16:41 AM »
It looks like this thread has died a slow death.

Its too bad there is no active progress on using SME with modern hardware.

gatox

Same feeling here
« Reply #45 on: September 09, 2004, 10:35:32 PM »
Got a Promise SX4000Lite IDE Raid card and SME won't allow me to load the drivers at any given point.

Nor by pressing "Shift" or "Ctrl-X" or answering the questions to Yes to load device drivers.

Somebody should really fix this since personnally I do not have time to fiddle with the Kernel.

I need something that works first time.  How can we promote such a wonderful distro if we can't load new drivers for NEWER technology.

Just my 2 cents.

nemtex

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #46 on: December 15, 2004, 12:20:20 PM »
idkeen,

First of all I would like to point out my Linux skills, apart from being able to pronounce it properly, are pretty much non existent. Well I can just about operate ‘MC’ as ‘VI’ just confuses the hell out of me.

I have a Promise sx4000 and I have been having the same problems as Gatox.

I have tried to install the driver prepared by idkeen but they do not load. I have installed SME on a standard IDE drive and installed the drivers, worked fine this way.

I then tried something that I used to do with windows systems, Ghost the partitions onto the RAID. I was pretty hopeful because of successes before.

Copied across fine, although it did take much longer than I had expected, still copied across no probs.

When it came to booting up, I got the SME/LILO splash screen. and it started to boot..... for a second or two.

From reading other posts on Contribs, I believe this to be a problem with the boot order. How can I change this on the standard drive so that the order is correct when transferred onto the RAID….. or am I wasting my time because ghosting drives in this situation just will not work with SME?

I have read posts about putting the fasttrak drivers into the initrd, whatever that is and something about PCITABLE and MODINFO?????

The reason I ask is Gatox seems to be having the same problem as me, I seem to have tried something no one else in this situation has (using Ghost) and idkeen has created a driver disk that actually works making you (idkeen) the most logical choice to ask for help.

If you could point me in the right direction or give me a rough idea what to do, I can give it a go (books, websites etc). Unfortunately at this point it looks like I may have to turn to Windows, a shame really because I’ve been using SME since v4 and never had a problem with it before.

Thanks for any help available


James

Offline Franco

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Intel S875WP1-E
« Reply #47 on: January 30, 2005, 02:47:04 PM »
And here I'm with the same problem: Invested on this new hardware to find I couldn't load SME, not even 6.5a finds my Adaptec SATA.
Jeremy, what have you done after all?

Offline CharlieBrady

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Re: Intel S875WP1-E
« Reply #48 on: January 30, 2005, 04:25:25 PM »
Quote from: "stuntshell"
And here I'm with the same problem: Invested on this new hardware to find I couldn't load SME, not even 6.5a finds my Adaptec SATA.


Use your new hardware for a workstation, and some older hardware for the server.

unit10help

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #49 on: May 30, 2007, 10:41:43 PM »
Has there been anyone that has figured this out.. We just got in a new dell with sata SAs, and are having the same problem..  please help

Offline CharlieBrady

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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #50 on: May 30, 2007, 11:47:57 PM »
Quote from: "unit10help"
Has there been anyone that has figured this out.. We just got in a new dell with sata SAs, and are having the same problem..  please help


SME 6.0.1 is obsolete. Nobody should be trying to use it.

unit10help

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #51 on: May 31, 2007, 04:42:22 PM »
6.0.1 maybe obsolete as far as an old release, but it does the job that is needed.  with that said, I would happly use 7 but the user authentication program that we use doesn't work with 7.

Offline Franco

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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #52 on: June 01, 2007, 03:26:06 AM »
Quote from: "unit10help"
6.0.1 maybe obsolete as far as an old release, but it does the job that is needed.  with that said, I would happly use 7 but the user authentication program that we use doesn't work with 7.

What user authentication?

unit10help

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #53 on: June 01, 2007, 05:36:33 PM »
the rpms used to install aresme-upgppp-1.0-1.noarch.rpm and sme-squid-1.0-2.i386.rpm

Offline Franco

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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #54 on: June 01, 2007, 05:57:00 PM »
You have both available for 7!

unit10help

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #55 on: June 01, 2007, 06:05:19 PM »
no they work on 6.01, but our new server is running SAS and 6.01 doesn't support SAS.  SME 7 will install but those RPms will not install correctly.  I have been looking to find an updated version to those rpms but cannot find any.

Offline Franco

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Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #56 on: June 01, 2007, 06:31:28 PM »
OK, I wasn't clear.
You ain't gonna install RPMs made for SME6, look in the contribs section

unit10help

Trying to install SME 6.0.1 on SATA RAID ... BUG in SME ...
« Reply #57 on: June 01, 2007, 07:01:48 PM »
I have looked and not found anything.  seems like most are going to dansguardian.  I would prefer to stick with what i know.