I have been trying to install Redhat 9.0 on a box I just built with an MSI 875P Neo mainboard, 3.0 GHz P4, 2 GB SDRAM, an 80 GB IDE drive, and 2x160 GB SATA drives in RAID 0 via the built-in Promise Fastrak 378 RAID controller. But, no matter what "boot:" parameters I seem to choose, during the very first step of the install, when linux is just booting off the CD, it gets to the disk check, and then fails as it tries to read (what I believe is) the SATA drives. The only chance I have to enter anything or change any options is at the initial "boot:" prompt. I tried entering "noprobe", but the same problem still occured, so it is not just a hardware probe problem. I am thinking that Redhat 9 must not have included support for SATA drives, or else no support for the Promise controller. Does anyone know if Redhat 9 supports both SATA drives and the Promise Fastrak 378 controller that is on many new mainboards?

I thought Promise Technologies had released Linux drivers (binary, no source) for most of their RAID controllers back in July... I saw some annoucement to that effect. But, when I looked on their support/download web page, the Promise 378 was not even listed on their devices. Anyone know where to get Promise 378 drivers? If I can find the necessary driver(s), then there is the "dd" command that can be entered at the boot prompt to insert a drive disk, but I think that it will hang on the boot before even allowing me to insert the disk with the drivers. Any suggestions?

What would happen if I temporarily disconnected the two SATA RAID 0 disks? Would that get me to the point where I could install Redhat 9 on the 80 GB IDE disk? Afterwards, when I hook the SATA RAID0 disks back up, will they retain the Windows OS/data that is currently on them and will Linux be able to boot still, and see the SATA RAID 0 drives?

I will use another distribution if it supports this situation. Does any distribution (Mandrake, Suse, Debian, Gentoo, etc.) have kernel support and drivers for SATA hard-drives and Promise controllers? More specifically, a Promise SATA Raid 0 disk configuration?


Many Thanks,

Chad

Don't know if you are still having trouble, but I have the same exact promise controller and I got it working under RH 9. This is the ONLY distro I've got it working on btw. All other distros don't see the hard drive. Here is the link for the driver:

http://www.promise.com/support/file/..._satarhb11.zip

It is the driver for the SATA150, but it works. If this one doesn't work for some reason, try this one:

http://www.promise.com/support/file/...t3xx-rhb18.zip

Hope this helps you.

If anyone out there knows how to get this controller to be recognized under any other distro please post a reply to this thread or this one.