SCSI Drivers
 

I need drivers for slackware 7 for my SCSI card. It is an Adaptec AHA-2940AU and an Adaptec AHA-3940AU. I will be using wichever i can find drivers for. I am not 100% posotive that it is the SCSI card i need drivers for though. It just says it can't find a disk to partition. Do i need to do something special when i start the install to make it relise that i have a SCSI card and that is what my hard drive is on? Help ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:Pengy: :newbie:

How would you install drivers for a system with no existing OS ? Your probably better off installing the latest version of Slackware which is 8.1. The version your trying to install is probably over 3 years old and probably just doesn't have builtin support to detect your hard drive with SCSI adapter, etc.

these cards are at least 4 years old does that matter?

It matters because the drivers are under continuous development. You need to stay up to date with the scsi tools in your distro and the kernel support itself. I saw this myself with a Compaq Proliant with a Symbios chipset. It has features that are better supported in the version 2 driver even though the server itself is over 2 years old.
Install with the scsi.s Slackware kernel, it is quite generic and should see the controller. After the install you can make your own custom kernel.

i can't program. i am just asking how do i make it see the scsi card for the install so it knows were to make the partitions!

get a new kernel then enable the aic7xxx low-level drivers. I think it's the good one for that card. If it's doesn't work, try some others drivers (in case of problem ,you can include ALL possible drivers, the kernel will <probably> take the good one...).
To boot the system, use the Slackware 8.0 scsi.s boot disk (I'm not sure if Slackware 8.1 offer floppy boot disks). It will boot your system and enable your scsi card, so you will be able to install/recompile your kernel. Some bootable kernel are also on the Slack 8.1 cd, you can probably find a Scsi kernel usable to you.

im going to simply state this im a n00b and have no idea how to do any of that but im good at figuring stuff out. i have used redhat well for a while but i want to try something new so could you simplify that please?

ok herm well... Get Slackware 8.0 boot disk named "scsi.s", (should be avaible on www.slackware.com) and make the boot disk (instructions are on the slackware page, again, look the "boot disk" section).

Or I think you can use a Slackware 8.1 bootable installation cd. This cd contains a lot of kernel image, I'm sure there is one usable with your scsi card. Put the cd in the computer and try to boot from it. The first menu will give you an indication like "for a list of kernel you can use, press ** key (I don't remember wich key it is).

This were direction to install a new system, if you have already a working system, you need to recompile your kernel to add the correct module. Search in this forum about kernel compile.

me will give that a try

Adaptec drivers for your cards are built into the kernel. in Slackware 8.1, you need to pick adaptec.s as your boot kernel to do the install of (adaptec scsi drivers were moved out of scsi.s to make room for other scsi drivers) in 7.0 it may still be in scsi.s, but look for an adaptec.s first...

Anyhow, if you boot the install with the appropriate kernel you should see the kernel loading your SCSI driver and scanning the SCSI bus when it boots, if it does this and still gives you an error about not finding a disk to partition make sure you have free space to create partitions on. Also, I can't remember 7.0 install but 8.1 install you manually run fdisk prior to running setup, for your SCSI HDD the command will be either "fdisk /dev/sda" or "cfdisk /dev/sda".

Look on the CD for a file called Slackware-HOWTO or at http://www.slackware.com/install/ for a walkthrough of the install process.

Found the answer
 

I have the very same card and same problem, adaptec.s works for me. Hope that helps!. I use Slackware9.0, and new to this too