Re: My kernel can't access my hdd, but the LiveCD can.

From: David B. Ferguson (david.mcs_at_ns.sympatico.ca)
Date: 07/28/05 

Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 16:26:22 GMT

Sebastian,

PATA = Parallel ATA
SATA = Serial ATA

Your FastTrak TX-2000 is a PATA RAID controller.
I'm quite confident you don't have the proper support built into
your kernel for said controller.

Code maturity level options --->
    [*] Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers

Device Drivers --->
    ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support --->
        <*> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support
            <*> PROMISE PDC202{68|69|70|71|75|76|77} support
                [*] Enable controller even if disabled by BIOS

With the proper support in the kernel you will see the applicable details
in dmesg if it's working correctly. Something very similar to following....

ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
PDC20271: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:0b.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 10
PCI: setting IRQ 10 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0b.0[A] -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IR$
PDC20271: chipset revision 2
PDC20271: ROM enabled at 0xe7000000
PDC20271: 100% native mode on irq 10
    ide2: BM-DMA at 0x8c00-0x8c07, BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio
    ide3: BM-DMA at 0x8c08-0x8c0f, BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
Probing IDE interface ide2...
hde: FUJITSU MPG3204AT E, ATA DISK drive
ide2 at 0x7c00-0x7c07,0x8002 on irq 10
Probing IDE interface ide3...
Probing IDE interface ide3...
Probing IDE interface ide4...
Probing IDE interface ide5...

At this point you will be able to use the RAID controller as you would any
regular PATA controller albeit as ide2, ide3...
  /dev/hde
  /dev/hdf
  /dev/hdg
  /dev/hdh

As for the next phase, setting up dmraid for RAID1, well good luck with that. :) 

-- 
David-
"Sebastian Noack" <sebastian@der-noack.de> wrote in message
news:pan.2005.07.28.12.39.03.812372@der-noack.de...
> > What RAID controller are you using?  Promise, HighPoint, VIA, LSI, Intel?
>
> Promise FastTrack TX-2000.
>
> > You have to add support for your PATA RAID controller in the kernel under
> >     ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support
>
> I can't find "PATA". Do you mean poss. "SATA"? If yes: It is an
> IDE/ATA-RAID-Controller.
>
> > Try booting the system as you described with the hard drive as /dev/hdc, with some other disk
> > on the raid controller. Check dmesg to see if your controller is being utilized. If it is can
you
> > see
>
> dmesg don't show the RAID-Controller, but lspci do.
> 0000:00:0d.0 RAID bus i: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20271
> (FastTrak TX2000) (rev 02)
>
> > the disk using fdisk -l
>
> fdisk -l returns:
>
> Disk /dev/hdc: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>
>    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
> /dev/hdc1               1        5714    45897673+   5  Extended
> /dev/hdc5   *           1         608     4883697   83  Linux
> /dev/hdc6             609        1216     4883728+  83  Linux
> /dev/hdc7            1217        1824     4883728+  83  Linux
> /dev/hdc8            1825        2067     1951866   82  Linux swap / Solaris
> /dev/hdc9            2068        5714    29294496   83  Linux
>
> > Are you using 2.4 or 2.6 kernel?
>
> I use a 2.6.12.2 kernel. For the 2.4 kernel there is a driver from the
> manufacturer. But I don't indent to use an obsolete kernel. Also the
> Gentoo-LiveCD is able to mount the hdd on the RAID-Controller.
>
> > Looking at your kernel config I take it you're looking at doing RAID1 disk mirroring?
>
> Yes, but apriori I would be lucky if I can mount a single hdd on the
> RAID-Controller without RAID-functionality.
>
> > Reason I'm asking is I'm pretty sure ATARAID support has been dropped
> > from the 2.6 kernel in lieu of DMRAID. I'm not a 100% on that but I'm
> > almost positive that's what I've read, and apparently it's a PITA to get
> > working....you have to create an initrd image to have the kernel booting
> > from the RAID array itself.
>
> I think my current problem is an other one. Because grub can load the
> kernel from the hdd but the kernel can't mount the hdd. When I have
> plugged my hdd on the on-board IDE-Controller to boot it, I have plugged
> an other hdd on the RAID-Controller to try to mount it, but I can't see
> the devicefiles of this hdd and its partitions.
>
> > Gerte Hoogewerf has created a Gentoo LiveCD with DMRAID support and a
> > howto with scripts. Have a look here....
> > http://tienstra4.flatnet.tudelft.nl/~gerte/gen2dmraid/
>
> I will try dmraid, but don't I need first the possibility to access the
> hdds on my RAID-Controller?
>
> Best regards
> Sebastian Noack
>

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