Install Fedora Core 5 onto High Point 372 (PATA) Raid
 

Greetings,

No bites in the Distro forum so I'll try here. Sorry about cross posting.

I'm somewhat new to Linux so please gear it kind of low.

I’m trying to set up a new web server at my home to host my personal web site and e-mail. I have a High Point 372 (PATA) card and am trying to install Fedora Core 5 on a RAID1 array. The High Point 37x is supported by dmraid and, I am lead to believe, is supposed to have support built into the 2.6x kernel.

When I try to install Fedora on a RAID1 array I get kernel panic errors saying the PCI clock won’t sync. If I have just the card installed with no drives attached to the card and one drive attached to the on-board controller, then no error, but no RAID.

Highpoint only offers a Redhat 9 driver or a generic driver that has to be compiled using ‘make’. Problem is I can’t ‘make’ until the OS is installed and then it’s too late.

Software RAID would be OK too but hardware RAID would be better. The problem I see with SW RAID there is that the /boot partition cannot be in the RAID (won’t boot, obviously) array and therefore resides only on one drive or the other. Only one disc would be bootable and therefore not truly safe (is there really such a thing?).

I could find no helpful information on Google. All I could dig up was for installing RAID on a working system.

Do I not have a clear understanding of RAID? Is there any advice you can give me? Is there a way to get 2 bootable PATA drives working with Fedora Core 5?

There have been a couple of cures. The first I know works.

1. Put your /boot partion on a small pata non raid drive. (This also works for stubborn sata setups.) Install everything else on raid array (put swap on raid).

2. I THINK this works. Temporarily install on a non raid drive, get the raid drivers built and then move them to the raid array.

Hope this helps

Lazlow

Thanks for the reply.

After I build the Highpoint driver where will I find it?

I would assume in whatever directory you build it in. (really not trying to be a smart a*s) But that may be why a lot of people go route 1.

Lazlow

Thanks again for the reply.

I've never built a driver before. I assume I would use 'make', right?

Do you think it might work if I:

1. Install the OS on a drive hooked to the on board coltroller
2. Build the driver
3. Copy it onto a floppy
4. Remove the drive from the on board controller and attach two HDDs to the Highpoint card and build the RAID1 array
5. Install the OS again in text mode and load the driver before proceding with the rest of the install

???

It may be larger than a floppy( I have no idea). I would copy the whole subdirectory. Usually it goes ./configure, make, make install (at least for a regular package). You might post over on fedora forums.

Good luck

Thank you. This should enough to get me going.