Hello,

I have a very serious installation problem (actually, unability) to install Slackware 10.2.

It is on a rather old machine: Primergy 640 (Fujitsu-Siemens).

The machine has a PCI Mylex DAC960 SCSI adapter - thus, I can use the raid.s kernel to boot from the installation CD successfully. The Linux driver that is written for DAC960 controller supports only large block devices, so the SCSI CD-ROM attached to the controller I use only for booting but after that the CD-ROM is not seen anymore by Slackware - it is natural and it is written in the driver's documentation, so, I have to find another way to present to Slackware the installation source CDs somewhere. Here I write the ISO Slackware 10.2 images on IDE harddisk that is attached to the mainboard inbuilt controller. The IDE disk is recognised by BIOS, and by Slackware as well but Slackware cannot find its partitions (e.g. hda1, hda2, etc.).

Sorry, for the long introduction but here it is the problem in brief:

1. whenever I boot with raid.s Slackware finds the RAID storage massive and its partitions as well: /dev/rd/c0d0p1 ...p4). I can use cfdisk /dev/rd/c0d0 without problems. BUT Slackware does not find the IDE partitions - it finds the disk, "cfdisk /dev/hda" command can also see the partitions BUT in /dev/ there does NOT exist hda1,hda2. Thus, it is not possible to loopback mount the ISO installation images and point the Slackware installer to that source location??

2. whenever I boot with raid.s but I detach the SCSI devices from it, the IDE disk partitions ARE seen correctly in /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2, etc. But of course in this case the RAID is not mounted and I want to install exactly on it.

So, it seems to me like a problem with dead end to solve. On the other hand, when I boot Redhat 9 installation CDs the DAC960 RAID is seen together with the hda1 and hda2 partitions as it should be. So, the problem is not with hardware incompatibility but rather else in brief:
when Slackware mounts the SCSI RAID storage massive partitions it can not simultaneously see and mount any IDE partitions - at least the installation environment ?!?!??

Please, can someone understand and help with this unsolvable problem!

Thank you

1)What settings do you have in Bios for hard drives? An enhanced setting would allow ide and sata drives,then sata enabled pata(ide)disabled or pata(ide) enabled and sata off. Or an auto setting? Maybe a bios update will help. Manufacturer may have driver update too. Also usb drive may help if supported in bios.
That raid.s slackware choice includes ide support too,right? Could test26s(2.6.13) offer better support? You could always check 2.6.13 kernel config(SW10.2) at slackware site.
Does lsmod show the correct modules loaded for your mob?
That server is not too old and is certified for redhat and suse. Saw reference to ibm also able to use server with ?os. Could you try live-cd like knoppix or kanotix-2005-04 or mandriva or slax and compare their kernel configs too.
Saw reference to howto forge tutorial called 'perfect redhat or fedora setup on that server type' which article may help with slackware setup. Good luck.

Hello,

Thanks for the reply.

The BIOS mobo drivers are latest version - there does not exist newer ones.

I doubt that some BIOS settings for IDE would solve the problem since ide partitions are seen correct when boting with raid.s but with no devices attached to the SCSI controller.

I have also tried to boot with test26s kernel but with the same (un)success - Mylex DAC960 Linux driver is loaded OK, it recognises the RAID massive and /dev/rd/c0d0p1...p4, the ide disk /dev/hda is recognised also, but its partition /dev/hda1 is not mounted in /dev - that is the main problem

I start thinking that there is a problem with the Slackware boot kernel - whenever it recognises and loads the devices from the DAC960 driver after that moment it cannot mount any partition of the type /hda1, hdab1, hdb2, etc. Though cfdisk /dev/hda sees the partitions /dev/hda1, etc.! But they are not mounted automatically and thus not seen in /dev/. And I repeat - when I use for booting raid.s but without physical devices attached to it the /dev/hda1 partition IS mounted OK!

So, how is it posible to solve this - is it a major bug or what ??

Thanks
Evgeni

Hello,

I fear that I'm not clear enough...
Is there nobody with an idea how to solve that problem I have described?
Please, give a hand or idea!

Thanks a lot in advance