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Old 04-06-2005, 01:48 AM   #1
scotchfx
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Trying to install SuSE 9.2 Pro on new drive, MSI K8T Master2-FAR w/ a few partitions


I currently have a WinXP workstation with the following specs (in case they don't come up in my sig):

2 x AMD Opteron 248 (2.2GHz)
MSI K8T Master2-FAR / Award v1.1 BIOS
2 GB of TwinX1024RE-3200LLPT (4 x 512MB)
2 x 74GB WD Raptor (*boot partition* RAID Striping Array on VIA K8T800)
Highpoint RocketRAID 1540 PCI card
2 x 250GB Maxtor Diamondmax9 (RAID Mirrored Array on HPT1540)
80GB Western Digital (on 2nd IDE port)
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9700 128MB (AGP 8x)
Enermax EG651P-VEFM (550W 24-pin ATX PSU)
Lian-Li PC-69 Aluminum Mid-Tower Case
WinXP SP2 and all critical updates

XP is booting off of the 2xRaptor partition running RAID 0 through the VT8237 serialATA controller.

I would like to install SuSE on the 80GB Western Digital drive (newly installed) running on the 2nd IDE port of my mobo - it is my intention to create a dual boot workstation running both SuSE 9.2 and WinXP Pro.

Currently when I attempt to run the 9.2 install disk (ordered from SuSE proper) Yast hangs on a "soft raid" initialization.

How do I get Yast to ignore my VT8237 RAID partition (for the moment) and install SuSE 9.2 on the 80GB WD800JB drive instead?

After I have done this, how can I get Yast to recognize the two separate boot partitions (WinXP on 2xRaptors & SuSE on WD800JB) so that I can setup my workstation to give me the selection of either WinXP or SuSE when I power it up?

Help!!!
 
Old 04-06-2005, 05:36 AM   #2
Thoreau
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Registered: May 2003
Location: /var/log/cabin
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http://www.highpoint-tech.com/BIOS%2...suse-v204s.tgz
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/bi...m#LinuxDrivers

alt-F3 then F6.

Hopefully it'll work on 64-bit, but I dunno.

You have a beautiful machine, and if I were you I would disable the software raid in the BIOS and the jumper on the motherboard and grab a 3ware 9500S-4LP. It will gain you hardware RAID with linux native support(GPL). I am running one now, as it were. http://www.3ware.com/products/serial_ata9000.asp

You have a couple of options. Very kickass setup, save the software RAID.
 
Old 04-06-2005, 08:11 AM   #3
scotchfx
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Trying to install SuSE 9.2 Pro on new drive, MSI K8T Master2-FAR w/ a few partitions

Thanks for the response Thoreau,

I've got the drivers for my HPT1540 PCI card (I anticipated this earlier on), but since my XP installation boots of off my 2xRaptor partition which is handled through the VT8237 chipset on the motherboard (the HPT1540 2x250GB RAID1 is not a boot partition - it is actually currently empty waiting to be FAT32 formatted - needs to be done via Linux since I don't want to spend the extra $$$ on partitioning software for WinXP).

My apologies for the confusion... I think my sig needs some slight tweaking:

2 x AMD Opteron 248 (2.2GHz)
MSI K8T Master2-FAR / Award v1.1 BIOS
2 GB of TwinX1024RE-3200LLPT (4 x 512MB)
2 x 74GB WD Raptor (*boot partition* RAID 0 on VT8237)
Highpoint RocketRAID 1540 PCI card
2 x 250GB Maxtor Diamondmax9 (RAID 1 on HPT1540)
80GB Western Digital (on IDE2 port)
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9700 128MB (AGP 8x)
Enermax EG651P-VEFM (550W 24-pin ATX PSU)
Lian-Li PC-69 Aluminum Mid-Tower Case
WinXP SP2 and all critical updates

There are drivers for the VT8237, however I was told by the SuSE Forums admin that I would not be able to shrink the RAID0 boot partition to accomodate both XP and Linux (initially this was my intention). This is why I've got that rather extraneous WD 80GB drive installed on IDE2 - I added this drive specifically for installing Linux, I kept it simple since I know supporting RAID will initially be a hassle, but regardless Yast still tries to initialize "soft raid" upon installation and hangs...

How do I get Yast to install on the WD 80GB and ignore the VT8237 partition until it is time to setup dual boot with WinXP?

The idea I had last night was to either elevate the hard disk boot priority of the WD 80GB in the BIOS above that of the VT8237 partition so that perhaps Yast will recognize it first and will not attempt a soft raid installation, however if this suceeds will I be able to get Yast to recognize the 2nd boot partition on the VT8237 (to setup dual boot selection?)

The other idea, similar to this one, was to disable the VT8237 RAID0 partition altogether (dunno if I can do this since it is integrated in the mobo) but again it leaves me w/ the same "how to recognize the VT8237 partition once Linux in installed" issue...

You have a beautiful machine, and if I were you I would disable the software raid in the BIOS and the jumper on the motherboard and grab a 3ware 9500S-4LP. It will gain you hardware RAID with linux native support(GPL). I am running one now, as it were. http://www.3ware.com/products/serial_ata9000.asp

Actually considered something similar to this awhile back - I ended up getting the HPT1540 on a lark since it was cheap (got it for something like $8 on eBay) but decided not to use it for a boot partition (2x250GB is data only) b/c RAID through the VT8237 is a good bit faster than through PCI. Of course, it would be nice to have native support, but I do need a dual WinXP boot (without XP life would be so dull & drama free

Sorry for the long dawdling post... can you (or anyone) help w/ this issue?

Thanks!!!
 
Old 04-06-2005, 08:43 AM   #4
Thoreau
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Registered: May 2003
Location: /var/log/cabin
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"I ended up getting the HPT1540 on a lark since it was cheap (got it for something like $8 on eBay) but decided not to use it for a boot partition (2x250GB is data only) b/c RAID through the VT8237 is a good bit faster than through PCI. Of course, it would be nice to have native support, but I do need a dual WinXP boot"

You can have windows dual boot on the 3ware. You've spent alot on your rig, and if you want to do it right, it would be best to get that card. The suse admin was right. You can't jack around with a software RAID0. And reading the instructions for your chipset, you can't dual boot either. You have to install one or the other OS separately.

I don't know how much you get paid an hour, but if you calculate the number of weeks you'll spend on this, you'll find that hardware RAID is the better option even if you work as a McDonald's janitor.

My 2 cents. YMMV, but I doubt it. Been there, done that.
 
  


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