Redhat 8.0 Promise FastTrack TX2
 

Ok I have a Promise FastTrack TX2 and I'm trying to install Redhat 8.0 on it. I successfully have the drive partitioned and all of the other pre-setup tasks done. However, whenever I try to open up Disk Druid it says either No Hard Drives Found, or an error about some other thing saying that they need to be initialized. After much work and time I found out that I need a driver from Promise for it to work. I put this on a disk however, when I insert it I get the same error after I type in linux dd or linux expert and try to set it up. In one of those two setups it said failed to install module...Anyway I've tried multiple times and now I have a vaque idea that I need ft.o and a couple other files? Can anyone give me an easy guide to follow about how to do this on Redhat 8? I've found stuff for Redhat 7.3 but those directions never worked for me or I got lost. Any help you could give would be appreciated.

I'm a Linux newb so just to tell you I don't have access to another Linux machine, and I'm not familiar with any of the commands...although I hope to learn about Linux and get to know it first I need to get it on.

OK, the kernel will misread your card as a standard ide controller.

You'll have to insert the driver into the running kernel during install by installing in expert mode

First get
http://www.promise.com/support/file/T-FTS-02-RHD73.zip

NOTE: these drivers state they are for RH7.1/7.2/7.3... I haven't tested them on RH8

Unpack both zip files from this archive and unpack either rhup.zip (uniprocessor) or rhsmp.zip (SMP) onto a floppy.

Start your installation, at the boot: prompt type expert

Go through the install as per normal, it will prompt you to insert third party drivers, when this happens whack in your disk.
You should be able to setup your partitions etc and continue with your install.

When the installation is complete DO NOT REBOOT.
You have to shell out [ ctrl-alt-f2 ], insert your floppy in the drive again and issue the commands

# chroot /mnt/sysimage
# mount /dev/fd0 /mnt
# cd /mnt
# sh setup-ft
# cd /
# umount /mnt
# exit

This sets your root to /mnt/sysimage and installs the ft.o driver (amongst other things) so it loads during boot.

Checkout the README in the packages...

Hm...Ok I tried with that driver again but it still doesn't see my hard drives for some reason...I tried entering the adresses for the HD's that it says in the notes part of the readme but still no luck...Could it be that the drivers aren't compatible with 8.0?

The module still says failed to install as well...

Also sometimes (I'm not sure how I get led to these two errors) it says after the driver disk prompt; insert Supplemental Driver Disk. I leave the same Promise Disk in the floppy drive and then it says failed to mount device...I'm really confused...

Hmm maybe it isn't compatible ( RH8 uses glibc 2.3 doesn't it ??? 7.2 was 2.2.5 )

I do remember I had to jump through a few hoops a year ago for 7.2...

Maybe we should start harassing promise to either
a) GPL their drivers or
b) update them ;-)

I vote GPL!!!

I sent them an email about a week ago asking them if they thought they might open them up or possibly update them. I've been trying to get the onboard promise raid controller for my new gigabyte MB to work with slackware 8.1/current for the past week or so.. to no avail.

still no response on the email.

Is there another version of Linux that I would have better luck with? I'm dowloading the newest Mandrake because I heard it might work...this true?

Well I can offically say that Mandrake is a BAD BAD BAD idea. Graphical install didn't work so I went into text. This was a bad idea since it said it actually saw the partitions. I smiled told it the partition and it formatted it into EXT3. After reboot however all hell broke lose. It had somehow disabled my RAID and now the RAID won't even see the hard drives. Bypassing RAID and taking the HD's off the RAID Linux didn't even install successfully. So now its reformat time. Oh well knew it had to happen sooner or later...