Hey, I just got a new computer and I was phyced to get linux and windows on it, so basicly I just downloaded Mandrake Linux 10 and burned it on a couiple discs and I go to instlal and it says it won't work ... how can I get it to load my RAID drivers?

What RAID controller do you have, what RAID-type is
it, how was it originally set-up?

Its the one built in to my mobo, and it was origionally set up by the Windows Installer (it will say press F10 to install RAID drivers. It's an Nvidia chipset if that means anything.

I'm having a "similar" problem (sorta guessing at the conditions). Anyway, I have a GA-7VAXP motherboard with a Promise RAID Function Controller onboard (making it the 20276 chipset ).

I've learned this is technically a software RAID (in that the OS plays a part in the functionality) so setting up my Linux itself is not the problem 'cuase otherwise I'd just turn off the RAID function in the BIOS and have Linux handle it. The problem lies in the fact that I'm not leaving windows completely behind (in case of various minor compatability issues, as well as data currently stuck in proprietary(?) file formats: i.e. Outlook Express e-mail folder files) and will be having a tri-boot system if I can get everything set up right (XP/2000/Mandrake). Linux being a good OS to program and work under and XP/2000 for all the M$ programs that I bought cheap while a student at Purdue (harder to complain then you get an OS for $5... well not that much harder ), games, and other legacy DOS stuff( mostly games ) (2000 seems to be a little more freindly in the DOS aspect)

Anyway, one of the times I tried to install Mandrake, I had to restart part way though (think something locked up or stalled). The RAID controller started up on boot like it usually does and found a "problem" with the array which was corrected by rebuilding the array from the other hard disk and set things back the way they were pre-installation. I tried some Promise RAID drivers I'd found and followed the instructions listed for installation purposes, but it turned out they were for Mandrake 9.0.

I very recently imaged both my windows partitions to a couple spare hard disks so I can recover from disaster, but takes up so much good computing time to have to.

Any ideas, thoughts, or suggestions would be welcome. Heh, constructive of course. Or, if anyone has seen any Promise 20276 chipset drivers floating around for Mandrake 10.0 that would be excellent (complete with pre-installation instructions). In short, any solution such that I could preserve the functionality of my RAID 1 array under windows and Linux along with my windows partitions with out conflicts from the Promise RAID controller software.

(well sorta, at least when it comes to *my* system)


P.S. I've seen this problem listed on other forums and it has either never been answered sufficiently concerning compatibility durring installation or was lacking sufficient detail (or went completely unanswered! ) (see example). I have a good feeling that this forum will be more helpful than others.

example:
http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/modules...2800&forum=1&2

edit: minor grammar adjustment for clarity purposes

Which brand/model of motherboard? Details are your friends in help forums!

You will probably need to wait for promise to release drivers for the 2.6 kernel. They released partial source code which will deal with minor 2.4 kernel upgrades, but I don't think you will get the driver to work with the new kernel. Before that happens you may want to get another hard drive for linux, or if you want to read the data on the windows partition, not use raid.

My computer has the promise controller also, but because I hadn't used windows in half a year, I ended up removing it and running linux only using linux's raid. Not that I am a knee-jerk windows hater, I just coveted the drive space I was wasting.

Thanks for your prompt response . In the words of Inigo Montoya: "I hate waiting." ... but as long as it doesn't take Promise forever to get some good 2.6 drivers out, it's worth a little more wait. Hopefully soon though.

I've technically been looking for drivers for 10.0 since about May when I was going to install it in the first place at an "install-fest" though the people there weren't able to help much ... probably just for the simple fact that not many people actually had RAID arrays already set up of those who turned out to the event.

You asked what mobo I used .. it's the K8N Neo Platnum (MSI) hope that helps, look forward to hearing from you

we had same problem with installing RedHat9 on x235 IBM server with servRaid 6i. Its just not working with 2.6 kernel. We solved that problem after installing RedHat 7.3 and after that it works . pEace to you all

Hmmm.. well after a few hours of searching and downloading a copy of your motherboard's user manual, I get the distinct impression that they do not intend support SATA RAID under a Linux OS. Especially since, in the manual itself, they specify that you have to be running Win 2000 (with SP4 to be bootable), XP Home Edition, or XP Pro to utilize the RAID function and even mention that Win 98 and Win ME can only uses SATA drives as normal storage devices.

Given all this focus on Win 2000/XP, it's sorta doubtful that they're developing any Linux drivers as we speak, but one step that couldn't hurt would be to e-mail the company and ask if and when they plan to release drivers for Linux. Also mention how you bought a computer with their product partly because its SATA RAID capabilities. Tell them how disappointed you were to discover there were no Linux drivers to be found for your SATA RAID controller on their site and that most mb companies at least have *some* Linux drivers. Maybe add in how it could help them expand into other markets or something like that. Something that would make at least some of the higher-ups realize the advantages of writing drivers for at least one or two Linux distros.

Otherwise, you can really only hope for someone else to take up the task of writing a driver for you RIAD controller. It's possible if they can get the source code for the windows version of the driver and reverse-engineer it. In general, larger software companies don't like to hand out source code to just anyone unless they've put up a certain sum of $$$ and/or signed several legal documents, even to the degree of giving them licensing rights to where they could charge for the drivers. Though I haven't heard of people charging for drivers before. (Hope M$ doesn't come across this idea)

That last bit may be unlikely, but I'm *guessing* they have some sort of deal with microsoft if they're only supporting hardware features for Microsoft's most common and recent OSes, wouldn't be the first time microsoft has worked closely with a hardware company .... IBM, Intel ... just to name a couple. That or they might just not have the "fiscal motivation" so to speak (it takes time to develop drivers, time == money, and 2000 and XP are widely used).

Well I'm verging on waxing philosophical on the computing industry for a a simple troubleshooting question, so I'll stop before I go too far

I Will defenitly do that, thank you very much for your help

Just another thing .. where is the linux driver loading thing? with XP it's quite simple .. you know "press F10 to install a third party RAID/SCSI driver" where is something simaler in linux?

usually it involves pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2 to get to a boot prompt and running a script that comes with the drivers ... don't worry, there'll probably be an instruction file in with the drivers...