IDE-controller (PCI board) recommendations?
 

Anyone that has any recommendation on simple IDE controller cards for the PCI slots?

I'm fed up with my P4C800's promise controller not working under (my) Linux, and I fear tomorrows motherboards will have even less ATA controllers, so I was planning on buying a IDE controller card for the PCI bus.

But I can't find any cheap or useful ones that is natively supported by Linux.

The nice and cheap Highpoint Rocket133 series with the HPT302 chip all have Linux "open source" drivers, but Highpoints version of open source is a proprietary .o file with some source code glue so you can compile it for "any" (that is 2.4.x) kernel, and I just tried building it, and it doesn't event want to link in with my gcc-3.3 made kernel.

So, any recommendations on what I should look for? I just need the controller, no fancy/silly RAID stuff is necessary. Single is enough, dual is bonus.

I have a CMD 0649 Ultra ATA-100 PCI IDE Controller. It's one of the cheapest here in Australia (made in Taiwan) and is supported out of the box by Linux. When I re-compiled my kernel the other day, I saw specific mention of this controller in the IDE, ATA and ATAPI section - 'CMD64{3|6|8|9} chipset support'.

The box says:

Two independent bus master IDE channels
Add four ATA/100 ports to your PC
Coexist with onboard IDE ports
Data transfer rate 100MB/sec
Widest range of compatible IDE/ATAPI devices
Support drive types of Ultra ATA-100/66/33 and older hard disks
Support drive modes of Ultra DMA 5/4/3/2/1, PIO 4/3/2, DMA 2/1/0
CRC error-checking and correction
80-wire/40-pin cable included

Very nice, however I can't seem to find it at all in Sweden.
Have CMD become Silicon Image, by the way?

I think so. Some time ago when I went looking for Windows drivers (used to run this card on WinME as well), Google searches kept pointing me to Silicon Image. One of the Silicon Image documents has a logo which says 'Silicon Image - CMD Storage Systems'.

Hmm, I wonder if it's the same chip on this product, http://www.sunsway.com.hk/products/ata100-raid.html. I found the ata133 version in Sweden for a decent price, but I can't see what chip that is.

It looks just like the chip on my card. The CMD logo is definitely the same. In the Sunsway picture, you can just make out '649' under the logo. With '0649' in the name, I'd say it would be a safe bet to be the CMD 649 chip and thus supported in Linux. This card is a RAID implementation of the chip; although mine does not have RAID, I have seen mention on a website that a BIOS upgrade (IDE controller card BIOS, that is) could change mine to RAID.

After some googling, I now think the 133 version is 680... but it's supported anyway :)

CMD680 chips are supported, but problematic--for me. I have one sitting in my desk drawer right now. It worked just fine in windows but not in RH 9. It also could be the board manufacturer. I don't know. It is a "Belkin" brand. I had corruption of both files and partitions with it.

I must have lucked out on my promise card, because it has been flawless. Again, that might be the actual manufacturer of the board. It isn't a "cutting edge" card, it is one generation removed I think--Promise ultra ata 133 controller card. No raid. Cheap.

Yeah, the PDC202xx chips (current generation is PDC203xx) has always worked fine for me, and are supported natively in the kernel, so I kind of miss that. But appearantly they think keeping the specs to themselves is a good idea, and I can't find any old-generation Promise anywhere...

Too bad the 680 doesn't work well. Maybe I should aim for the ATA100 variant, I saw a few of those around with the Silicon Image chip.

Mirar, I think your Googling has led you astray, re the 680 chip. I think it is a CMD 649 chip. Otherwise, why would they put '0649' in the model name? Mandrake 9.1 detects my card as:

Vendor: CMD Technology Inc.
Description: PCI0649 (Ultra ATA100 Jost Ctrlr)

The '0649' part can't just be a huge coincidence, can it? I would ring a supplier and ask them to read out the chip number on the board.

I mean the 649 is the ATA100 chip, 680 is the ATA133 chip. It seems to fit your card too... ATA133 is easier to find these days.

How many drives are you running?
Did you know that WD drives do not play well with others?
WD+WD okay on one IDE channel (Master Slave)
WD+Other ata device (Master slave)
WD+Any other brand of hard drive--bad. (At least in my experience.)

Raid controllers only like hard drives. (More bad experience. I hate these pseudo raid controllers--they are not a "real hardware raid". A true hardware raid controller is unbelievably expensive--it has its own CPU and ram. I've s-e-e-n one, once.)

Did you get the promise fast track linux driver from the ASUS site?
It is possible that you have to use their driver, because the major/minor and or device id may not be reported correctly. (Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it includes sources and it is compiled for RH8) The release date is: 2003/06/30.

You may be able to get the device id via lspci and check the kernel source documentation to make sure it is reporting the proper device id numbers for Promise Fast track 378. If it isn't, then you have to add some entries in the kernel source which tell it to compile and load the proper modules.

Look here: ITS MISTER DRIVER!!! AND HIS FRIEND, MISTER SOURCE. Found by using www.google.com/linux

http://www.antgel.co.uk/compsci/linu...ise_raid.shtml



Thank Me.

I have 4 drives, and two CD-type units. None of them a WD; three IBM, one seagate HDD. My next one will most probable be a 160Gb Samsung, they are really nice and quiet. :)

I run Gentoo, on a kernel.org 2.4.20 right now with hopes to upgrade (?) to 2.6 some day...

I've tried that one driver. It hangs and behaves in mysterious ways. I'm tired of trying to get it to work, I rather spend a few bucks on something that works without headaches.

I hate that "mysterious ways" thing, that's what went on with that cmd680 based card I have.

I was so P.O.ed I was going to attempt to write a driver for it, but time constraints (and the fact that I'm a sh*tty programmer) put that sucker in the desk drawer.

Being that you are in Sweden, shipping would cost you a fortune, and I suspect Auctions, overstocks, and the like aren't as numerous there.

Bummer.