ok so i'm using slack 9.1 with 2.4.22 kernel (stock 9.1). i even tried recompiling the kernel but that didn't fix the problem which is a freeze of linux when the card is in the system connected to the hard drive.

it detects the onboard ide chip PIIX and shows the OS drive connected to it, but then after displaying the ide channels of the IDE card it hangs there w/o any fruther detections. resent is the only thing to reboot. when the drive is disconnected from the card it boots fine to OS (obviously this isn't what i want). i really don't know what to do to get this card to work. any comments'suggestions are appreciated. thanks agian

"the problem which is a freeze of linux when the card is in the system connected to the hard drive.

it detects the onboard ide chip PIIX and shows the OS drive connected to it, but then after displaying the ide channels of the IDE card it hangs there w/o any fruther detections."

From your description I would say that the freeze occurs during the time that the secondary BIOS on the IDE controller card is detecting what devices are attached. But you say that it is a Linux freeze which would mean that it gets through the secondary BIOS initialization OK and begins booting the kernel. Then the kernel hands while detecting the hard drive configuration. I have a probable explanation of what the problem is if your computer is hanging during secondary BIOS initialization. My explanation is a lot less likely to be true if you are hanging during Linux hardware initialization.

You didn't give the hard drive brand. People have reported problems with Seagate hard drives which will not work with a secondary controller BIOS. You could check to see if you have a BIOS/hard drive compatibility problem by swapping hard drives between your onboard IDE controller and your IDE card.

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Steve Stites

thanks for some good info jailbait. yes with the drive (western digital 160GB) connected to onaboard IDE channel the linux detects the drive just fine (although only 140gb), but in the future i want to be able to add more drive and not to be only limited to up to 2 drives, that's why i got this card which doesnt seem to work.

when the pc boots, there's screen from controller's bios (and it shows that the drive is attachedto the card), but then when it loads the kernel it freezes right after when it's about to detect the drives connected to the card. i can't paste dmesg but it looks something like that

PIIX IDE
ide0:
ide1:
hda:
370A controller
ide2:
ide3:
HANGS HERE where it's about to show the drive connected to the card.

i tried searching internet but couldn;t really find any solution. i found the problem described by someone and also seeking help bu there was no reply to the mailing list. i'm not sure if there's something with my card or hd (brand new), or just the combination of both.
i tried everything (changing cables/jumper settings/ide channels) and nothing worked.

"when the pc boots, there's screen from controller's bios (and it shows that the drive is attachedto the card), but then when it loads the kernel it freezes right after when it's about to detect the drives connected to the card. i can't paste dmesg but it looks something like that"

Ok, the problem is definitly in Linux, not the secondary BIOS.

"ok so i'm using slack 9.1 with 2.4.22 kernel (stock 9.1). i even tried recompiling the kernel "

Linux probably has a driver for the 370A. You should compile this driver as part of the bootable kernel (y). If you compiled the 370A driver as a module (m) then you need to include the 370A module in the initrd. Personally I would prefer to make it y and ignore initrd.

If kernel 2.4.22 does not have a driver for the 370A then you can probably download the driver source from HighPoint and compile it into your kernel.

"i tried everything (changing cables/jumper settings/ide channels) and nothing worked."
"yes with the drive (western digital 160GB) connected to onaboard IDE channel the linux detects the drive just fine "

If possible also try a different brand hard drive on the secondary controller.

With some CPU BIOS there is a switch setting that allows you to switch the primary and secondary controllers. If your CPU BIOS has such a switch then set the secondary controller to IDE 0 and 1 and set the primary controller to IDE 2 and 3. Then try both combinations of the 2 hard drives on the 2 controllers and see if any configuration works correctly.

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Steve Stites

yes the 370x support is compiled into the kernel. i dont have the option in cpu's bios to switch between the ide channels. there's only options for ide 2 & 3 in the boot sequence.

aqnyway i tried another HD (seagate this time) and t he same thing is happening - freeze when the kernel is about to aautodetect the drive/partitions. can i say that the card is bad? i really didn't think this card is going to be so much of a pain. should i just throw it away and looks for a new card? thanks

this is the reply from HighPoint support regarding this issue

Thanks for your contacting us!
We don't have slackware 9.1 driver for the Rocket 100. And you can't use
the native HPT370A driver for the Rocket 100. The native driver is for
RocketRAID 100, not Rocket 100. So the system will hang when you enable
the HPT370A.
You can use the OpenSource driver to build the driver for the Rocket 100
by yourself.


i guess im gonna have to recompile the kernel and disable the support for 370X and build the driver from source. will get back to you with the results. thanks

k i compiled the open driver from source (kernel 2.4.26) and everything works fine. hd gets recognized and i can mount it. thank for all help guys.