Hi,

I'm an absolute beginner at Linux and I have a PC with the following configuration:

- Opteron 250 dual CPU's
- Tyan K8W 2885 MBD
- Two SCSI HDD put in RAID 0 on Adaptec 39320-A-R controller
- One SATA HDD intended to be used for files backup
- 2 GB memory

Realizing the potential for trouble in case the SATA drive is given priority by BIOS detection, I unplugged it then installed Windows 2000 on one partition of the RAID, then added WINXP on another partition and left some 30 GB unallocated space for RHEL3. Both OS's are booting like a dream even after adding the SATA drive.

Problems started when I wanted to install RHEL3 as a third OS in the multi-boot:

I started by installing RHEL3 AS but it couldn't find any SCSI RAID. After scurrying on the internet, I found some drivers intended for AMD64 systems and identified one a320 RAID host driver then continued with the installation without making sure the driver was taken in as RHEL3 installation showed me a certain aic7xx SCSI driver being taken in. By the time I reached Disk Druid, I saw the two SCSI HDD separated as sda and sdb (in a previous installation when I had the SATA disk hooked on, I could see that drive and only one of the two SCSI HDD) and from that point I would get a warning about data being destroyed if I proceeded further. At any rate, the installation completed but when rebooting I received a GRUB prompt with a blinking cursor. Nothing more.

I realized the Windows installations were totalled as I couldn't reach them so I wiped out the whole system clean and reinstalled the two Windows OS's and started reading some literature.

I read somewhere that GRUB can't work on SCSI RAID so the boot record has to be installed on the SATA drive then later I would make a rescue disk just in case and edit the grub.conf file to unite the MBR assuming Windows has to be installed first. I have no idea how to do that without harming my Windows installations and how to make sure anaconda takes in those drivers I picked from Adaptec.

Would a hardisk installation be viable under such circumstances? I'd appreciate an answer.

http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/sup....x86_64.tar.gz

You have to install this driver at install for RHEL. There is a floppy image and rpm. Have fun.

I have already done that: I downloaded the driver, rawritten it to a floppy under Windows, then used it in the installation of RHEL3 but all I could get was for Anaconda to detect the two SCSI hard disks separate with no RAID configuration. Any step further by Disk Druid meant destroying my Windows.

Someone suggested Linux doesn't work on hardware RAID, how true is that?

And suppose I use my other hard disk (SATA) for the RHEL installation, how can I manage the boot to include all three OS's (Windows 2000, XP, and RHEL3)?

If you had a 3ware or LSI card, it would work because the drviers are GPL'd and in the kernel itself. For your card, you will have to hit F6 I believe on install and add the floppy driver. You have to get an exact matched driver for your OS version.

According to the Adaptec Knowledgebase they say you must disable something in the BIOS of the U320 RAID card for Linux to install.

Do you mean disabling HostRAID? That is the base of building the hardware RAID.

The lin below is the official list of supported operating systems that Adaptec has for your controller and Linux:
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/sup...9320A-R#suppOS


I know HostRaid makes it a RAID controller and without that its just a SCSI controller. Its an option according to the document I was looking at. You can either install Linux with HR on or off. Here's a link for Linux drivers from Adaptec > http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/sup...System%2fLinux

There's two different drivers, one if HostRAID is enabled and one for when it's not.

As far as I know Adaptec SCSI host/RAID adapters come in 3 flavors: non-RAID, RAID0, and RAID1; there may be a RAID 0 and 1, but I'm not sure. These are value-oriented cards, i.e. RAID1 model does not include RAID0 functionality but both can be used as non-RAID controller if desired.

I believe these are not true hardware RAID but more of a hybrid, please correct me if I'm wrong. The stand-alone SCSI and RAID1 modes work with Linux, but in the case of host-based RAID0 the OS will see each member as a separate disk. This is what is happening in your case.

IMHO Adaptec make very reliable cards, they trend to be simple to use and don't have too many option in the adapter BIOS. Some people consider this as somewhat lack of functionality specially if something goes wrong (i.e. in the event of disk failure). Personally I like them, and you would have no problem if you master it by practice.

Maybe this links will help you. Had the same problem, But with these drivers I Mentioned to install it wright :-)
Make devicedriver disk,
start installation with: linux dd
and use is must work.

http://www.adaptec.com/ibm/downloads...eta_index.html
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...cid=MIGR-55041