I have been trying to set up a system with RAID-0 on this system:

Asus A8V Deluxe
AMD 64 3000+ (Socket 939)
1Gb PC3200 dual channel Corsair Value Select
BFG Nvidia 6600 GT OC
Planet WL-8310 Wireless b/g
Plextor 716A DVD Burner
2x Seagate 250Gb 7200.8 hard drives

First off I know the downsides to RAID0 on software and the dangers of it but I am looking for the performance boost at a reasonable cost.

I am a newbie to linux and decided to switch over from WinXP for DV editing because I have read several reviews that showed both the benchmarks and memory errors when editing in linux (especially SuSE 9.2) are significantly better, as well as the software is much more affordable.

Here is my problem I have tried several times to set up my hard drives as RAID-0, but I can't figure out why it won't work. I've read around on dozens of forums and sites, but nothing really explains what is going on or how to set this up correctly for someone who has little knowledge of linux.

This is how I've recently set it up on the Promise FastTrack 378 controller (the VT6420/VT8237 controller will not detect the drives in SuSE):

/dev/sda1 swap 1Gb
/dev/sda2 RAID1 39.2Mb /dev/md0
/dev/sda3 RAID0 2.5Gb /dev/md1
/dev/sda4 RAID0 228Gb /dev/md2
/dev/sdb1 swap 1Gb
/dev/sdb2 RAID1 39.2Mb /dev/md0
/dev/sdb3 RAID0 2.5Gb /dev/md1
/dev/sdb4 RAID0 228Gb /dev/md2

/dev/md0 mnt:/boot
/dev/md1 mnt:/
/dev/md2 mnt:/usr

So if you didn't read all of that I have my boot on RAID1 for LILO and both root and /usr are RAID0. Everything sets up alright as long as I don't have my drives in an array, but then FastTrack doesn't decect the hard drives while booting up unless I have an array. This is where my problem arises.

First senario is where after I set up the drives I array it as RAID0, but on bootup I get "No Operating System." Second senario is where I set it up as RAID1, and I get a load screen that has a constant "99 99 99..."

I can boot up with the SuSE 9.2 DVD by going into Installation and then choosing boot installation when the option comes up, but that is the only way. Did I set up the partitions wrong? Can someone give me an answer as to why its doing this or how I can get it to boot up correctly?

I would be really appreciative of any help anyone can give me because I am coming close to a mental breakdown trying to wrap my brain around this problem (I just started learning linux less than a week ago so my knowledge of it is very very slim). If I can't figure this out soon though I might have to travel back into the world of Windows, which I was hoping to get around.

Is that how you set up the drives during install with YAST or is that how it is set up in BIOS, or both? I have a different ASUS mobo (A8N-SLI) with different on board RAID, but it might be the same issue. To get a bootable RAID configuration, I have to leave the RAID controller disabled in BIOS, and configure the software RAID during install with YAST. When I try to set up the RAID in BIOS, I can only boot through the CDROM like you. If you do have a BIOS configurable RAID setup, try turning it off completely.

This sounds exactly like the same problem, except that my computer won't even see the hard drives on boot up if I don't configure an array in the BIOS. It will recognize them without an array on the VT6420/8237 controller, but then linux won't use it because SuSE 9.2 doesn't seem to have the drivers for the controller.

Am I just going to have to set up a separate hd with the boot record on it? I would rather not have to do that though.

The software RAID doesn't need any drivers for your hardware controller since it doesn't use it, it's just accessing the drives as individuals. Here's how I got my bootable RAID set up in SuSE 9.2.

-Disable RAID function in BIOS

-In YaST select custom partitioning.
- delete all existing partitions.

-creat your swap partition (formatted as linux swap, YaST will automagically select swap as the mount point).

-For each drive you intend to use in an array, set it up as a type "0x83" partition and select "do not format". Also leave the mount point blank (i.e. don't select / or /usr or anything).

-Once all your drives are unformatted 0x83 partitions, then select RAID. In RAID setup, you then build each of the arrays you want.

- Now that you have your arrays built, you should then be able to select each one of them as a unit (named something like md0, md1, md2). Now tell yast which one you want to be /, /usr, etc... and also select the format type (Reiser, Ext3, etc...)

Something else I just thought of: I would make sure the drive(s) you want to boot from is primary IDE (or #1 SATA, whatever you are using). I'm not sure if that matters, but it is worth checking on. First boot device should also be selectable in BIOS.

Hope that helps. I haven't set up multiple arrays, but the above is exactly what I did for a single array. Mine does boot without help from a CD.

I set mine up similar to how the above reply mentioned except instead of shutting raid off in bios I set each drive to "jbod'....worked fine.

Thanks for the info.

Although I have another problem with not setting anything up in the BIOS for the Promise FastTrack 378 controller, which is that my motherboard won't see my hard drives unless they are in an array of 2 or more hdd. It doesn't support JBOD either. I would use the Via VT6420 controller but when I connect my hdd to it they aren't detected by YaST because I don't believe SuSE 9.2 has the drivers for it.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can get around one of these problems? I saw there is a way to load updated drivers for YaST setup, but I can't figure out where to find any information on how to do that. Or is there a way where I can update the iso image with the proper drivers for the VT6420?

There is a 'sata_via' on the modules disk (I just checked). Is sata_via being loaded? It "should" work. Are you doing an automatic install or manual? During manual, you can select that one to load prior to continuing the install. You get to a screen that gives you the option to load kernel modules, then you load SCSI/RAID/IDE modules. Sometimes yast won't find it, but once you force it to load that module, the module will find your drives. After that, you select CD for your install source and it's the same as an auto.

You can make new modules disks. Go to ftp.suse.com or a mirror and get to the boot directory for your platform and version (pub/suse/x86_64/9.2/boot I think). Instructions and the images are there. I recommend trying the manual installation and loading the sata_via module yourself first.

ok, I am tryingAlright I am trying to load the sata_via drivers myself. I do not know what to put for the parameters though, I don't even know what this is asking. Could you please explain what it is, because I have tried googling what it means by 'parameters' and I've looked through my O'Reilly's Running Linux book, but so far I can't find anything.

To get to this point though I cheated by running auto-install noacpi and aborted the installation to get to the manual install menu with all the drivers loaded, but when I got there the sata_via drivers were loaded. I tried to see if it detected the hard drives and it was still a no go. So I unloaded and loaded the sata_via drivers manually, but that didn't work either.

Could this be related to another problem with my motherboard where sometimes my motherboard will freeze while trying to detect the drives, and other times it will jumble up the serial numbers and drive names while loading. If anyone has ever used the vt8237 I would appreciate any input you have about this problem.

Well, I'm about of tricks for making yast work. I think you're right, it might be a mobo problem. Have you updated the BIOS? If it really is a mobo problem ASUS might have fixed it. Here's the download page for your board (if you haven't checked here already):
http://usa.asus.com/support/download...e=A8V%20Deluxe

Version 1009 claims to have fixed a "boot sequence issue". Maybe that's it. I also found this in another forum:
http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/arc...hp/t-2921.html

They have a bunch of similar problems, some with a little different hardware. At least you're not alone. Some people had luck with different distros.

As far as parameters or options for modules/drivers, most of them don't require any. I think yast asks that for all of them, regardless if they are needed or not. The only time I have ever used them is for some ethernet card drivers, but so far never for a disk controller. I have looked too and never found any listed for the sata drivers on the internet. Just leaving them blank has always been ok for me.


That's about all I can think of. Maybe some via raid expert will chime in here.

Thanks for all the help xm9.

Although I'm starting to strongly believe that this is a hardware issue becaue I experimented with the controller by setting up an array and everytime I did it would restart the computer with a warning saying that the array was damaged and had to be destroyed. It did this several times no matter how I set it up, I doubt this happens to most people with A8V. I checked my bios and it is the newest version out right now. I guess I will just have to try again after Asus repairs my motherboard.

Again thanks for helping out, its good to know someone is listening when I am banging my head against the wall.