LinuxQuestions.org - HPT370 RAID and RHEL 3.0 AS

I have an Abit VP6 motherboard that includes a highpoint 370 RAID controller (HPT370 ). Connected to the controller are twin IBM 40GB IDE hard drives striped as RAID 0. My processors are 2X 1.0GHZ PIII with 2.0GB SDRAM. I was also able to use a Radeon VE video card with dual 21" monitors, extending my desktop like XP can!

I was able to download highpoint's opensource driver, Linux Source Code V2.0 and compile a driver, hpt37x2.o on another machine running Redhat Enterprise Linux 3 AS. I tried to use hpt37x2.o as an installation driver for RHEL 3 AS, but it would not work at all.

I emailed my RHEL 3 AS hpt37x2.o driver to Highpoint and after much pestering, they emailed me back an image file: rhdd-i686.img. I was able to use the image file to make a driver floppy and install RHEL 3 on my VP6 using RAID 0. This installation used the initial RHEL 3 AS release with kernel 2.4.21-4.EL. To make a driver floppy I typed: # dd if=rhdd-i686.img of=/dev/fd0

During the install I typed at the RHEL3 boot screen: linux text expert hde=noprobe hdf=noprobe hdg=noprobe hdh=noprobe

I was asked for the floppy and it installed the hpt37x2 driver. When asked during install for additional kernel boot parameters type: hde=noprobe hdf=noprobe hdg=noprobe hdh=noprobe vga=791

The system installed RHEL 3 on my two drives in RAID 0 mode.

I really would like to be able to make this image file myself from the hpt37x2.o kernel module and also make my own installation driver. I am finding no postings about running RHEL 3 on a Highpoint 370 RAID controller. How does one make a RHEL 3 AS HPT370 .img driver like Highpoint did?

I was able to upgrade the Linux kernel to 2.4.21-27.0.1.EL and compile a hpt37x2.o driver for that kernel version and it works very well. I am running Redhat Enterprise Linux 3.0 AS kernel 2.4.21-27.0.1.EL striped RAID 0 on two (2) 40GB IBM drives connected to the HPT370 controller. The system is fast and stable, probably the best computer I've ever had, with dual 20" monitors!

I was able to upgrade to 2.4.21-27.0.1.ELsmp and still use HPT370 RAID as follows:

1) Log in as root and edit with a # before the highpoint entry in /etc/modules.config and save the file.

2) download and install the kernel 2.4.21-27.0.1.EL SOURCE and the other RPMs i.e. also install kernel 2.4.21-27.0.1.ELsmp rpm. I got these from the TAO linux kernel ftp site and they worked great with RHEL 3 AS. These files were: kernel-source-2.4.21-27.0.1.EL.i386.rpm and kernel-smp-2.4.21-27.0.1.EL.i686.rpm

3) Now, remove the # before the highpoint entry in /etc/modules.config and save the file.

4) Download the highpoint 'opensource' hpt3xx-opensource-v2.o.tgz driver, extract in Roots home with a right mouse click and a left on extract here.

5) Then type # make KERNELDIR=/usr/src/linux-2.4.21-27.0.1.EL this makes the driver hpt37x2.o now you are ready to install the driver for RHEL 3 kernel 2.4.21-27.0.1.EL.

6) Still as Root, go to file:/lib/modules/2.4.21-27.0.1.ELsmp and make a new directory: Updates
copy the new hpt37x2.o driver to file:/lib/modules/2.4.21-27.0.1.ELsmp/Updates

7) Still as Root, open a terminal in file:/boot/
and type /sbin/mkinitrd /boot/initrd-2.4.21-27.0.1.ELsmp.img 2.4.21-27.0.1.ELsmp (this step could be optional, you have to reboot and see if 2.4.21-27.0.1.ELsmp works, if not, delete the old initrd-2.4.21-27.0.1.ELsmp and make a new one as above) Or use what ever kernel version your upgrading to.

8) All through this process from steps 1-7 you should have been in Root, with no reboots, now reboot and load kernel 2.4.21-27.0.1.ELsmp in the GRUB boot menu. If your not using smp (dual or more processors), you can ignore my smp references, but spm should work for you anyway. I have the highpoint 370 controller working quite nicely now for both the original and upgraded kernel!!

I am using an ATI Radeon VE dual head card and it works great in RHEL 3 ! I have my desktop spread out on two monitors, its the way to go.

It will also work for Radeon 7000 and the Appian Typhoon dual head clone of the Radeon VE. With more room to spread out, I'm using two (2) HP A4331D 20" monitors! The attached XFree86 file is all you need to get going. But please note the resolution, I'm using 1024x768, you may need to change only that.

# XFree86 4 configuration created by redhat-config-xfree86

Section "ServerLayout"

# For extended display uncomment the line below.
# If you prefer extended display to be enables at boot uncomment the Option below.
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Screen0" 0 0
Screen "Screen1" LeftOf "Screen0"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "DevInputMice" "AlwaysCore"
Option "Xinerama"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
Load "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
# Option "XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
#
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# If the normal CorePointer mouse is not a USB mouse then
# this input device can be used in AlwaysCore mode to let you
# also use USB mice at the same time.
Identifier "DevInputMice"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

# DisplaySize 330 240
# ModeLine "1400x1050" 129.0 1400 1464 1656 1960 1050 1051 1054 1100 +hsync +vsync
# ModeLine "1400x1050" 151.0 1400 1464 1656 1960 1050 1051 1054 1100 +hsync +vsync
# ModeLine "1400x1050" 162.0 1400 1464 1656 1960 1050 1051 1054 1100 +hsync +vsync
# ModeLine "1400x1050" 184.0 1400 1464 1656 1960 1050 1051 1054 1100 +hsync +vsync
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "MyMonitor"
HorizSync 31.0 - 54.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 120.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

# DisplaySize 330 240
# ModeLine "1400x1050" 129.0 1400 1464 1656 1960 1050 1051 1054 1100 +hsync +vsync
# ModeLine "1400x1050" 151.0 1400 1464 1656 1960 1050 1051 1054 1100 +hsync +vsync
# ModeLine "1400x1050" 162.0 1400 1464 1656 1960 1050 1051 1054 1100 +hsync +vsync
# ModeLine "1400x1050" 184.0 1400 1464 1656 1960 1050 1051 1054 1100 +hsync +vsync
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "My Monitor"
HorizSync 31.0 - 54.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 120.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "ATI Radeon VE"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard1"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "ATI Radeon VE"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Videocard1"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection