HighPoint 372 on AbitBD7RAID and RH7.2/7.3

Was trying to install 7.3/7.2 on BD7RAID with raid enabled. I was installing using guidance from HighPoint.
After installation and reboot I'm getting this one:

Booting 'Red Hat Linux(2.4.7-10)'
root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.7-10 ro root = /dev/sda8 hda=ide-scsi
Error 15: File not found
Press any key to continue...

The part "hda=ide-scsi" looks supicious... but what it should be?That was the option offered by RedHat.

In case anyone has an experience or desire to help then help please.
Thnx

Did you perform the last step where you replace the kernel?

I have ABIT KT7 RAID and installed RH7.2 with no problem at all following Highpoints instructions. But I just posted that I can't get it to work with 7.3. After running postinstall I get a message "unary operator expected". Then when I try to boot I get a similar message to yours.

Well.. I believe that we are in the same boat

Got a link to the Highpoint instruction page? I'm not running RH, but I've got this controller on a Slack 8.1 box so I might be able to fiddle with a workaround.

Cheers,

Finegan

The instructions are included in the driver download its a pdf file called Install_RedHat_HPT37x2.

I would put it on my server with a link to it, but I CAN"T GET MY SERVER BACK UP!!

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/370drivers_down.htm

Alright, I have to check which HPT BIOS I'm running when I get home. Its not available in "dmesg" or "lspci", so according to Highpoint, I've got to get it to at least v2.1, and since its a motherboard controller, that means snarfling the driver from Abit if I need it.

I downloaded and followed the readme in the source tarball, except that I didn't remove support for the hpt370 from the kernel as I don't have that as a module, its built into my slackware scsi.i kernel. I could recompile the kernel, re-run lilo, change the default, and reboot the machine from here at work... but I'de rather just try this later at home. Now according to my dmesg, the module I created from the source tarball, with nothing more than a simple "make", bound to the card. The readme.txt explains that this is probably no good as I already have the hpt366/370 registering the thing as an IDE device. So, from what I can tell... ditch the stinky RPMs, compile it from source, make sure you have scsi emulation already in your kernel (like mine), or insmod it, and follow the source tarball's readme.

For VotTak, you can just compile this from source without having to worry about a conflict with the kernel driver as there isn't a kernel driver for the 372 in 2.4.18 or 2.4.7 (depending on which RedHat you have on there.)

Cheers guys,

Finegan

I'm now booting from the harddisk after struggling with the file not found problem while booting with grub from the harddisk.
The problem is that in the /grub/grub.conf the vmlinuz was linked to /boot/vmlinuz.2.4.18-3
and you must remember that during bootup /boot is an apart file system.

follow the sequence I've cut and pasted from the terminal

[root@localhost boot]# pwd
/boot
[root@localhost boot]# cat grub/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-3)
root (hd0,0)
# changed this entry to a file instead of a link
# because during booting /boot is /
kernel /vmlinuz.hpt37x2 ro root=/dev/sda2
#kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 ro root=/dev/sda2
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-3.img
[root@localhost boot]# ls -l
total 5966
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5824 Jun 25 2001 boot.b
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 203 Aug 7 23:47 boot.msg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 612 Jun 25 2001 chain.b
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39809 Apr 18 13:53 config-2.4.18-3
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Aug 8 22:24 grub
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 224850 Aug 7 22:14 initrd-2.4.18-3.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 239077 Aug 7 23:47 initrd.img
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 479 Aug 7 21:15 kernel.h
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 6192 Aug 7 23:48 ldlinux.sys
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 Aug 7 22:03 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 23108 Jun 25 2001 message
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 Aug 7 22:07 module-info -> module-info-2.4.18-3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14431 Apr 18 13:53 module-info-2.4.18-3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 640 Jun 25 2001 os2_d.b
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Aug 7 22:07 System.map -> System.map-2.4.18-3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 478261 Apr 18 13:53 System.map-2.4.18-3
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2917643 Apr 18 13:53 vmlinux-2.4.18-3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Aug 7 22:07 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.4.18-3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 21 Aug 7 22:39 vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 -> /boot/vmlinuz.hpt37x2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1052336 Apr 18 13:53 vmlinuz-2.4.18-3.old
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1052188 Aug 7 22:37 vmlinuz.hpt37x2
[root@localhost boot]#

-----------------------
I hope that for you people out there that this can be an eyeopener

Regards Hans van Hal

Thank you j.hal for your post.

Could you perhaps explain in simpler terms your instructions a little for me?

I'm new to linux, and am encountering the same problem/error as VoTak. I'm trying to install RH7.3 on my Abit KR7A-133R motherboard with integrated HPT372 controller. Thank you.

Hello Mudd

Oke I will try to tell you what is happenning.

When you installed redhat according to the instructions found in the HPT installation notes you have to make some floppy's with drivers and kernels.
This kernel has disabled the normal access to the ide disk interface and we need that kernel to get to the raid interface.
The copy instuctions, the ones that do the mounting of the floppy,
are copying that kernel to the proper place, this is on the /boot partition.

Most likely there is also installed a boot manager (named grub).
This boot manager is able to give us a choice in what kind of kernel or operating system we boot. During installation you were offered a choice of either grub or lilo (another boot manager).

When the computer starts up it mount the boot partition and grub (or) lilo start working to load the kernel that we need to load
i.e. vmlinuz.hpt.37x2

Grub reads it instructions from a file called /boot/grub/grub.conf
if you look in this grub.conf you will see that it wants to load a file by the name of vmlinuz or something like vmlinuz.2.4.18-3.
Now we look in /boot with the command ls -l /boot and we see several entries of which the first letter is an l .

This l means that it is a link to another name and if you look closer
that linkname is pointing to another name and that one has a /boot to start with

Now we must remember that at the time of booting there is no such partition as boot because it is mounted as /

Therefore the system cannot find the kernel image it needs in order to boot from, hence you see the message that it cannot find the file.

Now I renamed the entry in /boot/grub/grub.conf to vmlinuz.hpt37x2 and the boot loader (grub) was able to find it
and did normally boot up

By the way, if you cannot come to your harddisk, you can boot from the floppy that was created,(in the normal redhat installation) but that must als contain the vmlinuz.hpt37x2 kernel
So copy that kernel over the kernel that is originally on the floppy

I hope that it is clear now and that over time you come to love linux

regards Hans van Hal

I got a follow-up question.
The board: Soyo SY-6BA+100 board with on-board HighPoint HPT 370 .

What I did:
1. Got a beta BIOS upgrade from Soyo tech support - version 1.2.0612.
2. Followed instructions from HighPoint site (referenced earlier in this thread) and installed RedHat 7.3 on RAID 0 with not a glitch.
3. Tweaked the grub (as suggested earlier in the thread) - replaced vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 with vmlinuz.hpt37x2 in /boot/grub/grub.conf.

Result:
Everything boots wonderfully.

What I did further:
Updated the kernel to 2.4.18-10 - using RedHat up2date utility to access their "RedHat Network".

Result:
New kernel does not want to boot (the old one still boots with no problemo).

Question: Que pasa?

I got a follow-up question.
The board: Soyo SY-6BA+100 board with on-board HighPoint HPT 370 .

What I did:
1. Got a beta BIOS from Soyo tech support - version 1.2.0612.
2. Followed instructions from HighPoint site (referenced earlier in this thread) and installed RedHat 7.3 on RAID 0 with not a glitch.
3. Tweaked the grub (as suggested earlier in the thread) - replaced vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 with vmlinuz.hpt37x2 in /boot/grub/grub.conf.

Result:
Everything boots wonderfully.

What I did further:
Updated the kernel to 2.4.18-10 - using RedHat up2date utility to access their "RedHat Network".

Result:
New kernel does not want to boot (the old one still boots with no problemo).

Question: Que pasa?

The kernel you installed, vmlinuz.hpt37x2 had support for your RAID card, the updated kernel from RedHat does not. Most likely there won't be support for the HPT372 in a default RedHat kernel until they release 8.0. RedHat, when releasing these updates, keeps sending out a new compile of the exact same kernel, so if there wasn't support in 2.4.18 stock, they're not going to add it with a new compile.

Cheers,

Finegan

And the solution to this problem is...??

Stick with the old kernel, or compile your own updated kernel, replacing the source for that little part of the kernel source with the one from Highpoint (there's instructions on the HPT page). Until the patched driver for the HPT372+4 makes it into the stock kernel, RedHat isn't going to produce an RPM for you that supports it.

The solution is that the problem is, "how do I upgrade my kernel through RPM and keep support for my board?" Simply, you can't.

Cheers,

Finegan

OK, I'm back to try installing this on my machine, now that I see Highpoint has put out a new driver version.

But I am still getting the boot problem

I get a Kernel panic.

I tried changing the kernel to vmlinuz.hpt37x2 on the grub loader, but it still won't boot.

Kernel panic, init not found - something to that effect.

The only thing I might be see as a problem is that I don't have the most up to date BIOS. I believe I have 2.31 and the HP zip has 2.32.

Is that the problem?