Hey guys,

I want to add a couple SATA ports to my system but I notice that all the cheap cards on newegg don't support linux... Does this mean they can't do RAID functions, or that they won't mount?

I had a MB with 4 SATA ports but it crapped out so now I have to add some to an older card. All it was was a big file server with an mdadm raid 5. So I figure as long as the card can make the drives show up as JBOD I can rebuild my raid 5. I'd really rather not have to put too much money into this though.

Thanks!
-Teh Hipster

It is still a gamble if you get one that supports linux. Both the motherboard and bios and the card work together in this dance.

Is there any way to check if it's going to work before purchasing it? wiki info or something?

It's a A8V Deluxe motherboard that I can't easily update the bios. (old enough that it requires a floppy to update... Have 1 drive, no disks and that MB is the only one I have with the connection for a floppy)

Still not a way even if you have some web page or some documented how to. It could still fail.

My guess is that if you select one that has linux support it may work. However, I'd hate to say it will work.


Raid and a software raid are not the same deal. Are you trying to fix some software raid or a real raid image or what?

I dont know how you dicided that the cheap cards on newegg dont support linux.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816124028

Dont trust the newegg search funcion. Lots of manufacturers dont even list linux support, lots of reasons.

If you can find the chipset being used (SIL3124 in the SYBA SY-PCI40010 PCI SATA II card linked above) you can check for compatibility more easily than with just a model number.

That motherboard can be updated from a USB flash drive.

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD...luxe/#overview

Its very hard to know 100% for sure if a card adn motherboard will work together. In most cases its not a problem, but rarely there will be major or impossible issues.

While it is true that the MB can be updated with a USB stick, I am unable to do so. This requires the MB disk (which I've misplaced). The quote you got just says that you can do it from a diskette through the bios menu rather than booting with the diskette.

If anyone has this MB and the disk, I could really use an image of it.

Thanks

Hi,

have you maybe searched for a Hardware card supported by almost all linux kernels - 3ware , model with 4-ports
I think that this price is quite affordable if you don't need any much speed (about 70MB/sec)

I have found that, in building a dozen or so machines in the last year or two mainly from cheap MBs, the statement "doesn't support Linux" refers to the manufacturer's willingness to help Linux users (horrors!) rather than the fundamental compatibility of the board and a particular operating system.

Are you using Intel or AMD? I surmise but am not sure that AMD might be generally friendlier to Linux than Intel due to the latter's historically incestuous relationship with Microsoft. But having not used an Intel-based board since the late 90s, I have no data.