Promise controllers - installation/modules

djmayo · n00b Joined: 05 Aug 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Bath, UK

Hi guys,

I have recently purchased a Promise Ultra133 TX2 PCI IDE controller with the eventual aim of having four disks split across four IDE channels so I can turn them into a RAID array.

I am running Linux kernel v2.6.5-gentoo-r1. Using 'make menuconfig' I added the 'Promise PDC202{68,69,70,71,75,76,77} support' as a module then ran 'make', 'make modules_install' and 'modules-update'. I fitted the controller and added one disk to the first controller on the PCI card. The BIOS reports that there is an 'IDE Controller' using IRQs 14 and 15 and the Promise discovery screen (version 2.20.0.15) appears shortly after the BIOS screen and successfully detects the one hard disk I have connected.

All going to plan you may think, however I can't find any evidence that the kernel has detected it at all. There was initially nothing in /dev/hd* apart from /dev/hda until I ran /usr/src/linux/scripts/MAKEDEV.ide and now I have 340 entries!! However I guess this only sets up the friendly interfaces and nothing else because there's nothing under /dev/hde. When I look under /dev/ide [1] there is only two directories 'hd' and 'host0' [2] which is only the primary hard disk.

I connected a CD-ROM to my machine and booted from a Gentoo Universal Live CD which picked up the drive perfectly first time! This leads me to conclude that the modules simply aren't loaded onto my system.

I have been searching for the answer to this riddle for a couple of nights now and so hopefully I haven't missed anything too obvious. I read a lot of articles that said you had to compile the Promise support into the kernel as opposed to adding in the modules afterwards but I presume this only applies to situations where I want to boot from drives attached to my PCI IDE card, however this doesn't apply to me - I'm booting off ide0 into Linux *then* looking for the drive after the Promise module has been loaded (or has it?!). All of the installation guides say that as soon as your BIOS recognises it then the kernel will pick it straight up too, however this doesn't appear to be the case for me.

How do I know which modules have loaded? How do I know if one has failed to load? There's nothing obvious in /var/log/messages to this effect. Where else could I look?

I am quite new at this Linux lark so apologies if I've missed off any obvious debug clues (or if I'm explaining everything toooooo sslllooooowwwwlllly!) - I do feel very much like I'm fumbling around in the dark. Any help greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

David
Bath, UK

[1] Screen dump
lex dev # ls -la /dev/ide/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Jan 1 1970 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Jan 1 1970 ..
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Aug 6 00:08 hd
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Jan 1 1970 host0

[2] Screen dump
lex dev # ls /dev/ide/hd/ -la
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Aug 6 00:08 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 Jan 1 1970 ..
lr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 31 Aug 6 00:08 c0b0t0u0 -> ../host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc
lr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 32 Aug 6 00:08 c0b0t0u0p1 -> ../host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part1
lr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 32 Aug 6 00:08 c0b0t0u0p2 -> ../host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part2
lr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 32 Aug 6 00:08 c0b0t0u0p3 -> ../host0/bus0/target0/lun0/part3

pmjdebruijn · Posted: Fri Aug 06, 2004 8:42 am Post subject:

'dmesg', will allow you to check your boot messages...

'lsmod', allows you to see which modules are (succesfully) loaded...

Note that the 2.6.x kernel does not yet support Promise cheapo RAID... At least not really...

There are project going on... Which needs you to patch your kernel...
http://people.redhat.com/~heinzm/sw/dmraid/

Regards,
Pascal de Bruijn

djmayo · n00b Joined: 05 Aug 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Bath, UK

Thanks for your reply,

I've checked what modules were successfully loaded and there's nothing there refering to my Promise controller.

I checked the link you pointed me to and as I suspected the software is in a very early state and as such can't be relied on to hold vital data. Very annoying as this is the eventual aim of the RAID project.

Why is there the option to add modules for the Promise controllers under 'make menuconfig' when actually this doesn't? If I downgrade my kernel (to v2.4?) will this allow me to use the Promise controlers? (I'm sure I read somewhere they do work under v2.4). How long might it be before v2.6 was updated to cater for these controllers?

Thanks for your help,

David
Bath, UK

pmjdebruijn · Posted: Sun Aug 08, 2004 5:49 pm Post subject:

Well the controller works, at least the controller's IDE channels work, so you can simple put HDDs on them, but without RAID capability.

linux-2.4 has Promise FasTrack RAID support... It's under the IDE section, at the bottom... Note, don't forget to enable Promise IDE chipset support, because the Pormise FasTrack RAID driver, only does the RAID part...

Regards,
Pascal de Bruijn

djmayo · n00b Joined: 05 Aug 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Bath, UK

OK I've got this working now

I'll just feed back what I was doing because I haven't found a link to this *anywhere* in any of the documentation I've read...

For a start, and at the risk of appearing very daft in my first ever post to this forum, I think we're talking about different products... I'm using the Promise Ultra133 TX2 PCI IDE controller, *not* the FastTrack product with additional hardware RAID functionality.

The reason I couldn't see the hard disk is because the module wasn't loaded. I had to manually load the module by running 'modprobe pdc202xx_new' (easy when you know how, hey?!). Now all I need to do is find a way of getting the module loaded automatically and I'm laughing.

Thanks for the feedback, it did help with the hunt for answers!

Regards,

David
Bath, UK

pmjdebruijn · Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2004 12:14 am Post subject:

Right...

I do need to correct you on one issue...

Promise has no hardware RAID controllers...

Promise 'hardware' RAID is just BIOS/driver emulated software RAID, and will munch away at your CPU resources.

(Highpoint, Silicon Image products are the same in this matter)...

Regards,
Pascal de Bruijn

jeanraymond · n00b Joined: 18 Sep 2004 Posts: 2 Location: norway

Hm, what are you talking about?
Ever checked out the SuperTrak series?
I'm using a SuperTrak SX6000, with 128 mb ram and a intel risc cpu.
Software raid? Don't think so!

I've also got a ultra 133 tx-2 controller (which does'nt have raid support by the way), with one disc connected at the moment.
I'm able to modprobe the module and everything, but I don't get a new disc under /dev. Can't really see why, syslog tells me the card is installed, but there is no new host under /dev/ide.
Anybody have experience with this card, and ran into trouble that sounds like mine? The drive is displayed in the cards bios when I boot the machine.

pmjdebruijn · Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 7:14 pm Post subject:

Right... The SuperTrak SX series are the exception... They are really hardware RAID...

But those are quite expensive... (but maybe not as expensive as 3Ware or the likes).

Regards,
Pascal de Bruijn

Evil Monkey · n00b Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 4

I have a Promise FastTrak S150 Tx2plus hardware raid controller that I am trying to use to install gentoo. When I boot up with the kernel options;

gentoo doataraid

iI cannot find where my raid array is mounted so that I can fdisk it and the like, does anyone know how to set this card up or what modules I need. I have tried to modprobe ide-disk, but that module will not load. Thanks in advance for the help

pmjdebruijn · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 8:59 am Post subject:

Hi,

If you're using a 2.4 kernel, you can try this...

the IDE chipset support module is called pdc207xx, xx depends on which chip you have, look in /lib/modules for more info...

the RAID part is called pdcraid, but this is only available in more recent 2.4 kernels.

Regards,
Pascal de Bruijn

Evil Monkey · n00b Joined: 24 May 2004 Posts: 4

Ok, thanks, I see that I have the pdcraid module, but I cannot find the pdc207xx module anywhere, I tried modprobe -l for a list and did not see it. I also looked in /lib/modules aswell. Maybe I overlooked something, but do you know the absolute path or a way I can find it. Thanks for your help

pmjdebruijn · Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2004 6:35 pm Post subject:

Well, try this:

# updatedb
# locate pdc | grep modules

it's probably something like (not entirely sure though):
/lib/modules/2.6.8/drivers/ide/pdc207xx.o

Note that the IDE module isn't actually called pdc207xx, the xx represent other numbers...

Please check the IDE section of the kernel configuration if you have enabled the modules...

Good luck,
Pascal de Bruijn