RH73 Promise ATA/133 Install Problems

RH73 Promise ATA/133 Install Problems

[Randy Broman]

I have a  Gigabyte GA-7VRXP motherboard which has an on-board Promise 20276
ATA133/RAID controller. I want to install RH73, on the two ATA133 drives 
connected
to the Promise controller. I've set up the motherboard BIOS with the 
Promise 20276
interfaces as ATA (not RAID), and I want to install on the two drives in 
a software
 RAID configuration.

If I start the standard RH73 install it does not identify the two drives 
connected
to the Promise interfaces. I tried installing with the RedHat "Supplemental
Drivers" disk/floppy, but it doesn't seem to have a driver for the 
Promise. I
tried installing with the Promise ATA/RAID drivers downloaded from their
site, but their drivers seem to support only the "hardware" RAID 
configuration,
not plain drives on which I would set up software RAID.

Anyone know of a solution? In general I believe there are Promise and/or
ATA133 drivers included in the kernel, and I could set up a custom drivers
disk with those to use in the install, but I don't know how to do that (if
that's the solution, instructions or pointers to a howto would be 
appreciated).
Or, there may be an easier way. Advice appreciated.

(BTW I've had enough problems with Promise "hardware" RAID in the past
that I prefer to avoid this. Subsequent to the initial install I will do 
a custom
kernel to support some other PCI hardware I want to use in the box, and I've
found that upgrading after installing on Promise hardware RAID can be
problematical. Given use of software RAID, I am interested in knowing
what's the best kernel version or patch to use for stability and 
performance).

Pls cc me direct as I'm not a list subscriber - Thanx, Randy

Re: RH73 Promise ATA/133 Install Problems

[John Bradford]

> I have a  Gigabyte GA-7VRXP motherboard which has an on-board
> Promise 20276 ATA133/RAID controller. I want to install RH73, on the
> two ATA133 drives connected to the Promise controller. I've set up
> the motherboard BIOS with the Promise 20276 interfaces as ATA (not
> RAID), and I want to install on the two drives in a software RAID
> configuration.
> 
> If I start the standard RH73 install it does not identify the two drives 
> connected to the Promise interfaces.

Support for the Promise 20276 went in to the kernel at 2.4.19-pre6.

Can you get to a command prompt and post the output of lspci -v -v?
Maybe it has a non standard PCI id and is not being recognised.

John.

Re: RH73 Promise ATA/133 Install Problems

[Randy Broman]

# lspci -v -v

00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20276 IDE (rev 
01) (prog-if 85)
Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology: Unknown device b001
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- 
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- 
<MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-

Latency: 32 (1000ns min, 4500ns max), cache line size 08
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
Region 0: I/O ports at e800 [size=8]
Region 1: I/O ports at e400 [size=4]
Region 2: I/O ports at e000 [size=8]
Region 3: I/O ports at dc00 [size=4]
Region 4: I/O ports at d800 [size=16]
Region 5: Memory at dffc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 1
              Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1+ D2- AuxCurrent=0mA 
PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
              Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-


John Bradford wrote:

>>I have a  Gigabyte GA-7VRXP motherboard which has an on-board
>>Promise 20276 ATA133/RAID controller. I want to install RH73, on the
>>two ATA133 drives connected to the Promise controller. I've set up
>>the motherboard BIOS with the Promise 20276 interfaces as ATA (not
>>RAID), and I want to install on the two drives in a software RAID
>>configuration.
>>
>>If I start the standard RH73 install it does not identify the two drives 
>>connected to the Promise interfaces.
>>
>
>Support for the Promise 20276 went in to the kernel at 2.4.19-pre6.
>
>Can you get to a command prompt and post the output of lspci -v -v?
>Maybe it has a non standard PCI id and is not being recognised.
>
>John.
>

Re: RH73 Promise ATA/133 Install Problems

[John Bradford]

> >>I have a  Gigabyte GA-7VRXP motherboard which has an on-board
> >>Promise 20276 ATA133/RAID controller. I want to install RH73, on the
> >>two ATA133 drives connected to the Promise controller. I've set up
> >>the motherboard BIOS with the Promise 20276 interfaces as ATA (not
> >>RAID), and I want to install on the two drives in a software RAID
> >>configuration.
> >>
> >>If I start the standard RH73 install it does not identify the two drives 
> >>connected to the Promise interfaces.
> >>
> >
> >Support for the Promise 20276 went in to the kernel at 2.4.19-pre6.
> >
> >Can you get to a command prompt and post the output of lspci -v -v?
> >Maybe it has a non standard PCI id and is not being recognised.

> # lspci -v -v
> 
> 00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20276 IDE (rev 
> 01) (prog-if 85)
> Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology: Unknown device b001

That might be the problem.  If that ID is added to the correct list it
may well work.

John.