Promise 376 (Asus A7V8X) and RedHat 9.0
 

Hopefully someone out there will be able to help me...

I have a Promise 376 controller to which 2 x 30GB drives are striped in RAID 0. (Motherboard = Asus A7V8X)

I can get everything to work under RedHat 8.0 as I use the appropriate driver (1.00.0.14 available on the Promise site) however I cannot get the driver to load under RedHat 9.0.

Any one else able to get this combination working?

Thanks in advance!

The driver is built for the 2.4.18 kernel and RH 9.0 released on 2.4.20, got a link to the promise site? Maybe they have the driver source and something can get hatcheted out.

Cheers,

Finegan

Unfortunately Promise don't realease source code... :(

I have sent several e-mails, most came back with a polite but curt no. One support person however supplied me with a beta driver, however it was for the wrong chip. Close but no cigar!

If somebody is able to get hold of the driver, even if it is only beta, please let me know and post a link up on this site. :rolleyes:

Cheers.

:)

source code is ready for download :)))

page:
http://www.promise.com/support/downl...=driver&os=100
DL:
http://www.promise.com/support/file/..._ftsrc-b25.tgz
Description:
This Linux source code should only be used by experienced Linux users. It can be recompiled to use with any Linux OS version. This code is provided as-is and Promise Technology does not provide technical support for the code.

can some one compile the driver for redhat 9 with promise 376
(Asus A7V8X) and mail it ???

ThX,
The.Forsaken

Thanks for the link. If someone out there could compile that under RH 9.0 and then post a link to the compiled driver or e-mail it would be great.

I had a further look at the link The.Forsaken posted. Unfortunately that is the wrong driver! The TX100 is a different chip so unfortunately we are back at square 1! :(

Back on the hunt again!:rolleyes:

The 2.4.21 kernel added a lot of support for the pdc series as ATA cards, I don't know how well they handle the RAID aspect though, or even at all for that matter... Linux Software raid is nearly as good though.

Anyway, there have been recent improvements to the tx100 support in the kernel, I can't remember if its in 22-pre1 or 21 stock or an -ac patch, but its just a grep through the changelogs...

Cheers,

Finegan

Check the following post. This should fix all your problems.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...5&pagenumber=2

Unfortunately that still means I need someone to compile it for me under RH9.

Heard rumours from promise that a driver is out in August, however most communication with Promise tells me to contact Asus for a driver, and then Asus tell me to contact RedHat!

Last time I checked, hardware vendors provided drivers and not OS vendors! Hopefully Asus and Promise will get cracking with a driver shortly and release it. Linux is slowly taking marketshare and will continue to do so.

Anyone out there with the same situation should contact both Asus and Promise and also request the said driver in the hope that they provide it soon. Hopefully more requests will spur them to action.

I also need the driver for the RH9.0 installation routine and for the Fasttrak376. Could someone compile this driver for us?

The installation of RH9.0 doesn't find my harddisk, because there is no driver for this controller. :(

I suggest that you e-mail (like I did) both Asus and Promise and request the driver. Even though they will both give you the run-around, hopefully they will deliver it soon.

Promise's support e-mail address is: support@promise.com

Asus's technical support e-mail is: tsd@asus.com

Good luck! Hopefully if we all e-mail the support desk, we may in fact get a driver.

Driver
 

Hello,

I mailed the support@promise.nl and the mailed me the opensource driver for the 378 controller. This is not the raid driver thought so I can only use it with the SATA drives in nonraid mode. But at least it is an other driver and if someone needs it, let me know.

Jan Hugo

I need that Fast Track 376 Driver
 

I've been to this page the last couple of days, finally someone has success. I need that driver, could you please email it to me? richdog77@netzero.net

Thanks,
Rich

Unfortunately I require a driver that does support RAID. :(

When I find a driver, I will post details.

Driver for PROMISE FastTrak TX4000/376/378/S150 TX Series
 

For what adapter do you need the driver because there is a driver for the FastTrak Series Raid Adapters. I have it and it is loading when I set my controller to RAID so I think it should function.

Look here:
http://www.antgel.co.uk/compsci/linu...ise_raid.shtml

Jan Hugo

I require a driver for RH 9.0 that can load when installing RH 9.0 from scratch.

Driver for PROMISE FastTrak TX4000/376/378/S150 TX Series
 

Then we have to give you some precompiled drivers I think.
Can you give me the specs of your machine and what kernel you are using then I might be able to deliver you a precompiled kernel driver for redhat 9.

JH

The drivers that I have from promise.
 

RAID Driver for a lot of Fasttrak adapters:
/*********************************************************************
* PROMISE FastTrak TX4000/376/378/S150 TX Series Linux Driver README
*
* PROMISE Linux support team <support@promise.com.tw> 2003/02/20
*********************************************************************/

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jhp/Fasttrack_..._1.00.0.15.zip


The driver for a set of SATA chips that have a non-RAID function so you can connect one SATA disc and use it like a regular harddisc:
Support List
============

The following Promise SATA150 series adapters and Linux operating systems are
compatible with the drivers in this release:

Chipset Adapter Name
-------- ------------
PDC20318 Promise SATA150 TX4
PDC20375 Promise SATA150 TX2plus
PDC20378 Promise SATA 378
PDC20618 Promise Ultra 618

http://www.xs4all.nl/~jhp/SATA150_ver_1.0.8.zip

Fast Trak 376 REd Hat 9.0 Compiled Driver
 

I've just compiled the Red Hat 9.0 Promise Fast Trak 376 driver, though I still can't get it to work. Here are my system specs:

AthlonXP
512 ddr 3200
Asus A7V8X
Red Hat 9.0

If you get this driver working, let me know, and send me instructions. I tried uploading the compiled driver on my comcast webpage, but its down for some reason. When I finally get it up, it will be at:

http://mywpages.comcast.net/richcm/ft376rh9.zip

but for now, you can email me for the driver
richdog77@netzero.net

Any errors?
 

You tell me that you could compile the driver but that you can't load it. Could you tell me what kind of errors you get?

JH

Errors
 

Actually, I'm still new to programming, still a student and all. Anyway, I just realized that it just produced the .o files and I'm sure you can't do anything with those. I don't know how to get to the next step after producing the .o files. I believe I need to get the a .ini file or something like that. Take a look at the file I uploaded.

I forgot to mention the processor speed in the previous reply:

Athlon XP 2600

So when I tried to load the device drivers, I get an error message telling me to load a driver disk. Let me know if you can think of anything.

Rich

driverfloppy
 

Check out the following link:
http://www.antgel.co.uk/compsci/linu...ise_raid.shtml

As far as I know you have to put the ft3xx.o and the scsi_mod.o on a floppy disc and load that one the moment the redhat install asks you for a driverdisc. Never tried it though.

JH

scsi mod.o
 

Looking at the zip file, it doesn't include the scsi mod.o file you're talking about, so I don't know if we need to compile it seperately. I'm going to go ahead and load that on a disc to run. I'm also confused about which distribution to compile for. I tried both the suse and the indep and I got no where, but i'm going to try using the scsi mod.o file supplied on the web site. Of course this is a mission for me, because I have 2 hard drives and am using the scsi which has windows loaded on, and the ide for the temporary linux drive to compile the drivers on. So here I go.

Rich

No luck.
 

Can someone give me clear cut step by step instructions on how to make a driver diskette to load onto linux? I cannot get my files recognized when I just write them to a diskette alone. I'm still a linux newbie here.

Thanks,
Rich

you will want to read here. they are instrucions for the HPT 370 but the steps should be the same for you.

jharpins:

I have the following spec'ed machine:

AMD Athlon XP 1800
512 MB
Asus A7V8X Motherboard

Currently only have WinXP loaded using 2 x 30 GB drives in RAID 0 config.

Require a precompiled driver that will recognise existing RAID array under RedHat 9.0. The driver needs to be able to load when required upon installation of RH 9.0.

If you can help me out, would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

I got RedHat running, but I used RedHat 8.0 with the drivers from the Promise website.
I've found no way to install RedHat 9.0 with the FastTrak 376 controller.

I will be testing if the RedHat 9.0 installation eats the .o-files. I don't think so, but it's a chance. :)

Still no luck. If anyone has any success with compiling a driver or somehow getting promise to mail one, please let me know.

I've managed to get it working under debian linux, kernels 2.4.20, 2.4.21.
It's quite easy if you know how to compile your own kernel. Just compile in:
SCSI Support
SCSI disk support
SCSI generic support
(You can have it as modules as well).

Get source driver from:
http://www.antgel.co.uk/compsci/linu...ise_raid.shtml

Unzip and type make to compile.
With linux sources in /usr/src/linux there should be no problem.
Now you can copy fresh ft3xx.o module somewhere in /lib/modules/2.4.x/kernel/drivers/scsi
type depmod -a
And you are done .. now you can insert driver by
modprobe ft3xx

It should find arrays and assign them as scsi disks (starting with /dev/sda ...)
If you want to boot from it you have to make initrd for your system and load driver there (It works for me as well).

It works for me good:
shake:~# hdparm -t /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.33 seconds = 48.12 MB/sec

But i got another problem. It keeps freezing my system (every freeze is like 1-2 seconds) and I get loads of messages:
camTimer(54,e0862f30) Error
FastTrak: CheckDriveStatusTimer Error
camTimer(54,e0862f30) Error
FastTrak: CheckDriveStatusTimer Error
FastTrak: CheckDriveStatusTimer Error
FastTrak: CheckDriveStatusTimer Error

I haven't manage to resolve this one yet .. If you try this driver please let me know if it works for you ok..

Solution
 

I've made a driver for RH9 for the promise 376 raid controller.

Here is a littele howto that explains how I installed RH9 on the
raid controller:
http://www.fys.ku.dk/~esban/promise376.html

/Anders

Re: Solution
 

It looks quite good! I'm going to see if it works for me. Thank you for the precompiled ft3xx.o ;)

Hello everyone!

Promise just provided me with both the 'open source' as well as the RedHat 8.0/9.0 driver. I unfortunately do not have a website up, so if there is anyone out there that wants me to e-mail or upload it to a site, please let me know and make sure that you post the link so others can get hold of the driver.

I have personally tested the driver and everything seems to be working perfectly.

Thanks for everyones help.

please send them to me: godai@mangaitalia.it

i'll upload them on my server

@ademalet: Can I include the drivers in the installation routine? [EDIT:]If it cause no trouble: Could you also send me the drivers? I could provide a mirror for the drivers if they are the right drivers (I should have a chance to easily insert the driver disk on installation startup and everything is done :)). email: rene.landgrebe@gmx.de [/EDIT]

@Yusaku: Thank you for providing webspace. I hope you can give us the link as soon as possible.

@all: I'm still testing esban's method. It's a little bit more difficult than I think, but I was successful in install RedHat 9.0 - not in running it.

Links will be here as soon i'll receive the files :)

Anyway i have the PDC20376 (Asus P4PE Mobo) running on my distro at the moment, as i wrote in another thread i succeded in this way:

- compile the module whit these sources: http://www.antgel.co.uk/compsci/linu...ise_raid.shtml

- copy ft3xx.o in /lib/modules/your_version_here/kernel/drivers/scsi

- add these lines in /etc/modules:

scsi_mod
sd_mod
ft3xx

- reboot the system

At boot you will receive an 'unresolved symbols' when finding modules dependencies but the process will anyway give you an OK because you loaded the necessary modules in /etc/modules

Now that the system booted:

- open a shell as root and do: makedev sd\*

Now you have your sda devices in /dev, just add the necessary entries in /etc/fstab to mount partitions at boot.


Tested on Red Hat 9 and Mandrake 9.1

Good news! ;)

I tested esban's howto and it works for me very well! I'm now running RedHat 9.0 with a FastTrak376 S-ATA controller onboard and a nForce2 chipset with an integrated graphics device.

Mainboard: MSI K7N2G-ILSR


Thank you esban!

Yes, the drivers that promise provided work during the install routine so they are a snap to use.

Will e-mail out to everyone tonight (Australian time).

Please, mail it to me (shake@volny.cz) as well. Especially that source driver. thnx

First mirror (only 128KBit line):
(sourcecode + installation disk)

Source: http://europe.homeip.net/~bond006/OpenSourceSATAb15.zip
Binary Installation Disk: http://europe.homeip.net/~bond006/RedHat-ft3xx.zip

Driver installs with no hassels, BUT......
 

The driver is great and installs with no hassels, however, after installation, I reboot my system, and GRUB hangs. All I see at the bottom of the screen after reboot are the letters "GRUB". I followed the instructions on the readme file included with the driver archive. I know I'm really really close. How can I boot from the raid interface now?

Thanks everyone,
Rich

Re: Driver installs with no hassels, BUT......
 

Do you created a boot disk at the end of the installation? This disk can save hours of work - I know it! ;)

Yes, I made a boot disk.
 

Yes, I made a boot disk, I'm actually able to boot into linux only by way of the old installation on the ide channel. I wanted to no longer use that old hard drive and remove it from this machine. This is why I need to configure grub to boot up from the raid interface. If anyone has any suggestions for me, please let me know. (Thanks bond006)

Rich

1st sorry because my poor english...
im a newbei im linux and i want to now step by step how i install my fasttrak 376 my mobo is asus p4pe, how can i recompile kernnel if i don't have success to install it???

hi,
test A7V8x new install RedHat 9:
(Binary Installation Disk: http://europe.homeip.net/~bond006/RedHat-ft3xx.zip)
- Install RedHat 9 with diverdisk .....
- Install.. OK
- System first start OK.....
- System update ...(internet)... OK
- System runs fine.....
- Powerdown... System crashed....
- Reboot ... Kernal panic... error....

hast someone the same problrms ???

cu,
The.Forsaken

ok...i download it and the driver now how i use this???
sorry im a newbie!!

extract the files to a disk...
boot from RedHat 9 cd 1.....
type: linux dd

booting from raid device
 

Thanks to this forum, I got the driver that I needed. Thanks all. However, after install, grub doesn't even appear. WindowsXP just automatically boots up. When I run linux rescue, I can see the RedHat installation, but it just doesn't boot from there. Can someone out there tell me how I can force the grub or lilo bootloader to appear when I bootup?

Thankyou,
Rich

Hi,
can somebody tell me how I have to that suse 8.2. To install from scratch and only the hd's connected to the ft 376 controller, no other hd's.
I allready compiled the mods(.o)(4 of them) on a similar machine.
put them on disk but then in the 'manual setup' he don't wanne load the .o's yeah he reads it.

pls some advice :newbie:

hi all,

I got Redhat working with Fasttrack 376.
And it goes a little something like this:

Download the file: http://europe.homeip.net/~bond006/RedHat-ft3xx.zip

unzip it to a formatted floppy.

Boot from CD (redhat 9) and type linux dd .
it will ask if you have a driver.
You have, let it search on fd0 (your floppy device).
It will find it and you can continue install!

Thanks bond006 for posting the link, my info came from :
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...003/08/4/60248

Thanks everybody for your help and this great community.
Let's keep up the good work.
Kind regards Vincent

this should help

http://www.avansys.co.uk/filez/drivers/SuSE-ft3xx1.zip

HTH

Daniel