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Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?

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Old 07-30-2003, 06:53 AM   #16
elronxenu
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Highpoint sent me the driver! I have placed it online now:

http://www.nick-andrew.net/hpt374-op...v2.01-0718.tgz

Nick.
 
Old 07-30-2003, 10:24 AM   #17
mdmbkr
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Excellent! I'm looking forward to trying this out. Thanks very much.
 
Old 07-30-2003, 11:13 AM   #18
mdmbkr
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The link you gave 403's (forbidden)!
 
Old 07-30-2003, 03:11 PM   #19
ph0x
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Hi all! I'm sorry about my late reply (and link to the driver!), my primare drive didn't feel good operating with my IBM-drive, and it took a while for me to figure out the problem. Because of this, I couldn't put up the driver on the web (My computer actually locked up while writing my last reply).

I've put up the drivers on a temp slow site, while waiting for my webhosting to get back up. Enjoy the drivers, they will be availible from today until friday at:

http://preox.mine.nu/~ph0x/hpt374-op...v2.01-0718.tgz

If you have any questions, contact HighPoint Support!

/Andreas
 
Old 07-30-2003, 05:38 PM   #20
mdmbkr
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Thanks for making the driver available here.

I've already got it compiled and running.

I found that I had to edit the Makefile to point to /lib/modules/$(uname -a) instead of /usr/src/linux for the various includes.

Also the default behavior of the module no longer gives verbose information about the array configuration as the v1.x driver did. Still looking into changing this.

Finally, what BIOS versions are we using for the HPT374 chip here? Mine is still a 1.x BIOS. Are people using more recent BIOS revisions with this driver?
 
Old 09-15-2003, 11:48 PM   #21
mdmbkr
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After testing out lots of different configurations, I found that I get the best results (tested with bonnie++) but bypassing the hpt374's raid function and using linux's software raid instead.

Maybe it's just poor drivers?

When using only the hpt374 to create a raid 0/1 array, bonnie reported around 15mb/sec writes and 25mb/sec reads.

By going to software only raid0 on raid1, I get around 93mb/sec reads and 45mb/sec writes. Obviously a LOT faster and also more in-line with performance expectations. CPU utilization ratios are similar.
 
Old 09-16-2003, 08:48 PM   #22
cyberskye
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Those cards build sw RAIDs anyway - no onboard processor, nor ram, right? They have their own BIOS, but can't do their own math

Makes sense that the native sw RAID would be better - you cut out the middleman
 
Old 09-16-2003, 08:54 PM   #23
mdmbkr
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Hi,

You're right about that. The only function the controller really provides is the ability to have the array as the root device. I think there are ways to make an md device the root filesystem anyways.

It's just a pretty massive difference in performance!
 
Old 09-16-2003, 09:36 PM   #24
cyberskye
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An order of magnitude~

I have a RH9 beater box that boots an md - created in disk druid - all the filesystems are on md, actually. Even /tmp. No more beer while installing

Seriously, I wanted the disks to be true mirrors. Two 80G WD 8M cache. Had it running on 8 as well.

Last edited by cyberskye; 09-16-2003 at 09:38 PM.
 
Old 09-16-2003, 09:45 PM   #25
mdmbkr
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I've heard there are potential problems with swapping on an md device. You may want to look into that.

FWIW if you have a scsi controller you can get a 10k rpm u2w seagate disk for about $10... with a 5.7ms seek that will make a good swap drive.
 
Old 09-16-2003, 09:49 PM   #26
cyberskye
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swap is the exception - i created two identical partitions, but no md device from them

This box has no scsi - doubt I'd shell out for this one. That might work out for one of my rigs tho - thanks.

Cheers,

Skye
 
Old 09-17-2003, 12:05 AM   #27
elronxenu
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My box swaps within an LVM logical volume inside a RAID 1 array :-)
 
Old 09-19-2003, 11:13 AM   #28
mr_smidge
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Quote:
Originally posted by mdmbkr
Finally, what BIOS versions are we using for the HPT374 chip here? Mine is still a 1.x BIOS. Are people using more recent BIOS revisions with this driver?
I created a RAID-0 array on my AT7-MAX using the original highpoint BIOS (1.x or whatever it was), and had no problems installing Gentoo Linux 1.4. I upgraded the BIOS to the latest version (V3.02) and there were no problems. However, I recently needed to destroy the array and make a new one. So I did, under the new BIOS (using the setting utility by pressing Ctrl+H on bootup).

To install, I booted off the Gentoo cd (it uses a 2.4.21 kernel, it says), however, this time it couldn't recognise the array. The ataraid module loaded fine, but hptraid doesn't load. I can post more info if anybody wants.

So I don't think that the drivers work on the new BIOS. Grrr.. damn.

I wanted to quickly ask: I've just read that by using native software RAID, you can get better performance than by using the onboard controller. So what would it be best for me to do? My system has 2x 40GB Maxtor D740X drives in the system, so I need to boot from the array (if I end up having one). Should I downgrade my HPT BIOS, or try the native software route?.. speaking of which, could somebody explain what you mean by 'md' and how I'd go about setting it up, and what it's useful for?

Many thanks.
 
Old 09-19-2003, 11:54 AM   #29
mr_smidge
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I just did a little bit of reading on LVM, but I'm a little worried by the warnings of putting a swap partition and others on LVM.

Is it safe (and/or possible) to put every partition on LVM? Would I want to? Any complications involved? I'm basically interested in getting good performance that I would have been able to get on the previous RAID-0 array that I had.

Cheers.
 
Old 09-19-2003, 03:04 PM   #30
mdmbkr
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md is the name of Linux's software RAID. One way you could use it is by partitioning your two disks in identical ways. Each disk would have a fairly small partition, and a large partition. On the first disk's small partition, put your kernel and other boot stuff so you don't need to boot from the array. Also put a swap file there. On the second drive's small partition put another swap file, and set them to equal priority, so you'll effectively get raid0 striping on your swap.

Then use md (needs to be compiled as a module or in kernel) to combine the two large partitions into a mirrored or striped volume as you want it.

No hpt needed . you can just connect one drive to each of the standard ide controllers on your mobo.
 
  


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