Old CCISS driver version in Slackware 14.1

TonyErwood · 08-11-2014, 02:31 PM

I am running Slackware64 14.1 (kernel 3.10.17) on a HP DL385 G2 with a P400 raid controller. The write performance to the sata disks in raid1 is poor.

The cciss driver version in 14.1 is 3.6.26 but on the cciss.sourceforge.net, the recommended driver for kernels 2.6.26 and later is driver version 4.6.28 . This driver was last updated in October 2011 well before Slackware 14.1 was released.

Is there some reason why the driver version 3.6.26 is still being used ? I don't know if the poor write performance on the P400 would be cured by updating the driver.

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Didier Spaier · 08-11-2014, 03:35 PM

Usually Slackware ships unmodified kernels. Maybe try the kernel now shipped in -current and/or the hpsa driver if it can handle your device. I noticed that in -current kernels cciss is configured as a module.

55020 · 08-11-2014, 04:01 PM

Please bear in mind that I know nothing whatsoever about this specific driver or device; this is what I can see just from reading the primary sources.

Slackware-14.1 shipped with cciss.ko version 3.6.26 because that is the version of the cciss driver that was in Linus' kernel version 3.10.17, and, looking at the newest kernel version 3.16 (released eight days ago), Linus *still* has cciss version 3.6.26 [see here, line 67]. It is HP's job to send updates to the Linux devs if they want a newer version of their cciss driver in the Linux kernel. They haven't done that in a very, very long time.

*However*, if you read cciss.sourceforge.net, a reason why they have not sent updates to the Linux devs is apparent - they say that "a new Smart Array driver called "hpsa" has been accepted into the main line linux kernel as of Dec 18, 2009, in linux-2.6.33-rc1. This new driver will support new Smart Array products going forward, and the cciss driver will eventually be deprecated."

If you want to see if you can get better performance, it will probably be easier to experiment with hpsa (see the information on the sourceforge page) than to compile the latest out-of-tree cciss module (again, see the information on the sourceforge page). hpsa is actively maintained and up-to-date in the mainstream kernel (and therefore in Slackware-14.1).

Edit: I see Didier said the same thing, but he was shorter, quicker and better!!

TonyErwood · 08-11-2014, 05:24 PM

Thank you both for your replies.

As far as I understand, the hpsa driver does not support the near legacy P400 controller, so it looks as though I am stuck with the cciss driver. The later P410 controller is supported so one option could be hpsa/P410.

However, I want to first try the later cciss driver, I can copy the relevant files to /usr/src/linux-3.10.17/drivers/block ..... but how do I then rebuild only that driver ?

Didier Spaier · 08-11-2014, 05:39 PM

See /usr/src/linux-<version>/Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt

55020 · 08-11-2014, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyErwood

As far as I understand, the hpsa driver does not support the near legacy P400 controller

Apologies, you are right, pci id 103C 3234 is not listed by the hpsa driver

Quote:

Originally Posted by TonyErwood

I can copy the relevant files to /usr/src/linux-3.10.17/drivers/block

No. Get the source tarball from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ccis...r.bz2/download but ignore what it says under "Source tarballs" (http://cciss.sourceforge.net/#tarballs) as apparently it's been changed since that page was written. Extract the tarball and read the README, you will see these instructions:

Code:

       cp include/cciss_ioctl.h /usr/src/linux-3.10.17/include/linux
       cp include/cciss_defs.h  /usr/src/linux-3.10.17/include/linux
       cd driver/block
       # Uncomment "#define" for the OS being built on in cciss_kernel_compat.h
       make

Note that cciss_kernel_compat.h says "/* Default is kernel.org */" so you don't actually have to "Uncomment "#define" for the OS being built".

Hopefully you won't need to make a new initrd or run lilo, unless you're booting from it.

Note also that you'll have to do this again every time you update your kernel.