I have an old Compaq server, with 2 P166 processors, 5 x 4GB SCSI HD, Compaq Smart Array controller, SCSI CDROM. I wanted to install Slackware 9.1 onto it.

Bootup from CDROM is okay.

My problem:-
My RAID 5 hard disk volume - detect using raid.s kernel.
SCSI CDROM using onboard SCSI - detected using scsi.s kernel.

I cannot install my Slackware if I cannot detect both CDROM and HD together.

What can I do to get both to be recognized?

Thank you.

Heh. I had the same problem on a Proliant 5000. I'd recommend you do what I did - cheat.

I just popped an PCI ATA/IDE controller card and used a plain old ATAPI CD-ROM. I still needed to boot from the SCSI CD-ROM with the raid.s kernel image, but I removed the install disk right before detecting install source and plunked it into the ATAPI CD-ROM. Not a great fix at all but it got the job done.

This thread shows some other problems you may encounter as well.

Thank you.

It is indeed a very good idea.
Too bad the server do not have a built-in IDE controller.

Now, the hard part. I have to look for a IDE card+IDE CDROM or soundcard and ATAPI CDROM.

Unfortunately I've not found an easy way to load modules during a slackware install (if anybody knows one I'm all ears) so I can't think of another way other than building your own boot image with the RAID and SCSI drivers.

I had a similar problem.

After I got to the prompt using raid.s I mounted the floppy with a copy of aic7xxx.so (I think that's what the module was, I'm at home I'll check for sure in the morning).

I uses insmod to install the module then I could mount the cdrom. I think it was /dev/sd0

Then during the setup I chose to select an already mounted device for the install media.

I'm pretty sure those are the steps, I can check tomorrow for sure.

The module that I loaded was:

aic7xxx.o.gz

HTH

Thanks.

I will try your method and hope it goes well.
Logically it should works...

Thank again.

buck2bcr (or anyone else)- could you tell me how you got hold of that file (for kernel 2.4.22)? I found a version for an earlier kernel, which didn't work in slackware 9.1, but that's all I could find.

Thanks

I'm not sure if anyone's interested, but I thought I'd post the method I used to install Slackware 9.1 on my Compaq Proliant 5000 since it differs from others on the forum.

When I loaded raid.s I was unable to get the module loaded for the scsi cdrom (aic7xxx.o.gz), and had no easy access to a pci ide controller. I tried connecting one of the scsi harddrives directly to the wide scsi connector as mentioned elsewhere in these forums, but was unable to do so (wrong size, no adapter).

After wrestling with the module mentioned above for awhile I remembered that windows 2000, and 2003 both recognize the cpqarray, AND scsi cdrom.

So I spent the next couple hours reinstalling windows 2003 (the bane of a quad speed?).

Once windows was up I figured I was all set, but another monkey got caught in the gears, or maybe was thrown against a wall (multiple times). The cdrom drive wasn't working properly. I halfway fixed it by remembering to change the OS from linux to win2k using sysconf, however it still didn't work. I kept wrestling with it, and was on the verge of installing win2k once more with the win2k option set in sysconfig when I remembered the beauty of home networking.

I installed the network driver using a floppy disk, and connected to a another computer through which I copied both Slackware cd's to an extra partition (fat32) on the proliant.

Now to boot from the cd, and install from the harddrive.

However, for some reason I couldn't get the cdrom to boot the slackware cd1 (it would boot everything else, rhel 3, fedora 1, win2k). I wrestled with it for a long time, then gave up for an hour or so.

Surprise! When I came back and rebooted the computer (with the slackware d1 in the drive) it booted from the cd. Why the hell it decided to suddenly work I don't know (but believe me, I tried everything I could think of the hour before).

Anyways, the rest was a breeze.. cfdisked the array, mounted the vfat disk, and installed Slackware.

I did have an issue with Lilo not saving properly, but I was able to boot using the cdrom and create a new lilo.conf which worked fine.

Now it's just a matter of compiling the kernel with the pIII option, and then I'll configure my system.

Now my disclaimer:
I am tired. I am very very tired. I probably don't even sound coherent, and the fact that I'm a linux newbie probably doesn't help things.

That said, I hope this helps somebody in the same situation I was in, and that I don't look like a complete idiot for not being able to figure out how to load a driver and save myself hours of extra work.

Trevor

-P.S I would have used a NFS mount, but networking can't be installed without the cd, and the cd didn't work. I know I know, use the floppy boot disks, but I tried and tried, and couldn't get those to work at all (loaded kernel, but not ramdisk images, install.1 and install.2)