Hi,
I have a real RAID caching controller (with hardware XOR even) and it works fine on Ubuntu 8.10. Suse 11.1, fresh install, everything done with Yast gives me input/output errors every time I try to read any file or enter any directory, though I can see the contents of its root directory.

The funky, flunky kernel build instructions result in 2570 lines of stderr and this on stdout:
make V=1 -I/usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi -C /usr/src/linux SUBDIRS=/3ware modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9'
test -e include/linux/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || ( \
echo; \
echo " ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid."; \
echo " include/linux/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing."; \
echo " Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it."; \
echo; \
/bin/false)

ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.
include/linux/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing.
Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it.

mkdir -p /3ware/.tmp_versions ; rm -f /3ware/.tmp_versions/*

WARNING: Symbol version dump /usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9/Module.symvers
is missing; modules will have no dependencies and modversions.

make -f scripts/Makefile.build obj=/3ware
gcc -Wp,-MD,/3ware/.3w-9xxx.o.d -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib64/gcc/x86_64-suse-linux/4.3/include -D__KERNEL__ -Iinclude -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9/arch/x86/include -include include/linux/autoconf.h -Wall -Wundef -Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-trigraphs -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -O2 -m64 -mno-red-zone -mcmodel=kernel -funit-at-a-time -maccumulate-outgoing-args -DCONFIG_AS_CFI_SIGNAL_FRAME=1 -pipe -Wno-sign-compare -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -mno-sse -mno-mmx -mno-sse2 -mno-3dnow -Iinclude/asm-x86/mach-default -fno-stack-protector -fomit-frame-pointer -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wno-pointer-sign -DMODULE -D"KBUILD_STR(s)=#s" -D"KBUILD_BASENAME=KBUILD_STR(3w_9xxx)" -D"KBUILD_MODNAME=KBUILD_STR(3w_9xxx)" -c -o /3ware/3w-9xxx.o /3ware/3w-9xxx.c
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9'

It's too stupid to find my kernel complaining:
"include/linux/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.conf are missing"

A quick locate finds them easily:
godzilla2:/home/brianp/download/3ware/2.6.26.kernel/driver # locate include/linux/autoconf.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/debug/include/linux/autoconf.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/default/include/linux/autoconf.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/trace/include/linux/autoconf.h
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/xen/include/linux/autoconf.h

godzilla2:/home/brianp/download/3ware/2.6.26.kernel/driver # locate include/config/auto.conf
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/debug/include/config/auto.conf
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/debug/include/config/auto.conf.cmd
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/default/include/config/auto.conf
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/default/include/config/auto.conf.cmd
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/trace/include/config/auto.conf
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/trace/include/config/auto.conf.cmd
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/xen/include/config/auto.conf
/usr/src/linux-2.6.27.7-9-obj/x86_64/xen/include/config/auto.conf.cmd

Here's my kernel name:
godzilla2:/home/brianp/download/3ware/2.6.26.kernel/driver # uname -a
Linux godzilla2 2.6.27.7-9-default #1 SMP 2008-12-04 18:10:04 +0100 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Here's my compiler:
godzilla2:/home/brianp/download/3ware/2.6.26.kernel/driver # gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: x86_64-suse-linux
Configured with: ../configure --prefix=/usr --infodir=/usr/share/info --mandir=/usr/share/man --libdir=/usr/lib64 --libexecdir=/usr/lib64 --enable-languages=c,c++,objc,fortran,obj-c++,java,ada --enable-checking=release --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.3 --enable-ssp --disable-libssp --with-bugurl=http://bugs.opensuse.org/ --with-pkgversion='SUSE Linux' --disable-libgcj --disable-libmudflap --with-slibdir=/lib64 --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-libstdcxx-allocator=new --disable-libstdcxx-pch --enable-version-specific-runtime-libs --program-suffix=-4.3 --enable-linux-futex --without-system-libunwind --with-cpu=generic --build=x86_64-suse-linux
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.3.2 [gcc-4_3-branch revision 141291] (SUSE Linux)

The compiler error message suggests that I:
"Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel src to fix it."
Do I want to monkey with my kernel in this way? Will I break my Yast update capability if I revert to some old config?

The 3ware tech guy says he will try to get his hands on a machine to load Suse 11.1 and try to hack one of these cards into it, but he didn't sound very definite on when he could get to it.

I asked the guy to write a configure script smart enough to find a kernel rather than assuming you knew where the kernel was in a hard coded Makefile which crashes and burns. Am I being unreasonable?

Does anybody else have a 3ware 9650SE working on 64 bit Suse 11.1?

Thank you,
BrianP

The files in /usr/src/ are not your kernel.

The kernel is found in /boot/, the link 'vmlinuz' is pointing
to the used vmlinuz-2.6.xx.x.
Kernel modules are in /lib/modules/´uname -r´ > try the
command 'uname -r' to know your version.

The /usr/src/linux... files are meant to be used to build a
new module, and running 'make oldconfig' makes no "old" but
is based on "currently used configuration", using the hidden
file " .config " . Google and 'LQ Search' have lots of info too.

So you can do the commands. Though it not usually necessary
doing this on Suse, before making a module.
...............

# zypper install linux-kernel-headers
# zypper install kernel-source-´uname -r´
to make sure you have the right files.
..............

I have no answer for that, you will have to ask again.
....