Slack w/linux-2.6.8.1 & hpt370 help needed

saxa · 10-06-2004, 12:13 PM

Hi guys,
Maybe here someone can help me out. I have Slack 10 on a machine
where 2 drives are connected in RAID 1 with the HPT370 raid chip on the motherboard.
I have installed Slackware with the slack ataraid.i kernel 2.4.26. Till here everything is
ok. I have than downloaded the linux-2.6.8.1 kernel from /testing directory and installed
it. I have made then the initrd image with mkinitrd -c -k 2.6.8.1 -m reiserfs
(I have reiserfs on all the partitions) and put into lilo.conf the configuration for the
second kernel. Updated lilo with /sbin/lilo and rebooted.
The first kernel originaly installed can not boot anymore, the seccond one neither as
is stops with the message

VFS: Cannot open root device "7203" or unknown-block(114,3)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unabl to mount root fs on unknown-block(114,3)

my /etc/lilo.conf is as follows:

Code:

# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
lba32 # Allow booting past 1024th cylinder with a recent BIOS
boot = /dev/ataraid/d0
#boot = /dev/hde
#compact # faster, but won't work on all systems.
prompt
timeout = 50
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
#vga = 773
# Normal VGA console
# vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
# vga=788
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
# vga=787
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
# vga=771
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
# vga=785
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
# vga=784
# VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256
# vga=769
# ramdisk = 0 # paranoia setting
# End LILO global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
delay = 50
default = linux-26
image = /boot/vmlinuz
root = /dev/ataraid/d0p3
label = linux
read-only # Non-UMSDOS filesystems should be mounted read-only for checking
#
image = /boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.8.1
root = /dev/ataraid/d0p3
label = linux-26
initrd = /boot/initrd-2.6.8.1.gz
read-only
# Linux bootable partition config ends
        vga = 775
        append = " read-only"

If I boot the kernel with root=/dev/hde ro it does not find any other partition than root and
it goes into mantainance mode

My fstab follows:

Code:

/dev/ataraid/d0p1 swap             swap        defaults         0   0
/dev/ataraid/d0p3 /                reiserfs    defaults         1   1
/dev/ataraid/d0p2 /boot            reiserfs    defaults         1   2
/dev/ataraid/d0p4 /home            reiserfs    defaults         1   2
/dev/cdrom       /mnt/cdrom       iso9660     noauto,owner,ro  0   0
/dev/fd0         /mnt/floppy      auto        noauto,owner     0   0
devpts           /dev/pts         devpts      gid=5,mode=620   0   0
proc             /proc            proc        defaults         0   0
none            /sys            sysfs           defaults        0   0

Can somebody help me with that ?

Rgds
Saxa

gbonvehi · 10-06-2004, 12:20 PM

My guess is that you can't boot with the old one because it actually point to the symlink Slackware uses for the kernel and not the kernel itself, and when upgrading to the new one maybe it got replaced to point to that one so /boot/vmlinuz points to /boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.8.1 instead of the old one.
So boot with some rescue cd like Slackware's cd 2, and take a look at the kernels you have inside boot and modify lilo according to that.
Does the new kernel support raid?

saxa · 10-06-2004, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by gbonvehi
My guess is that you can't boot with the old one because it actually point to the symlink Slackware uses for the kernel and not the kernel itself, and when upgrading to the new one maybe it got replaced to point to that one so /boot/vmlinuz points to /boot/vmlinuz-generic-2.6.8.1 instead of the old one.
So boot with some rescue cd like Slackware's cd 2, and take a look at the kernels you have inside boot and modify lilo according to that.
Does the new kernel support raid?

I have figured out that about the symlinks thing. This is solved. No problem anymore for that.

Now the problem is only with the linux-2.6.8.1

I looked at the config of the slackware kernel 2.6.8.1 and saw that the support for HPT370 is built into the kernel.
And from that side should be no problem. For the RAID support I have not checked.
Also I dont know the name of the devices in the new kernel.
Before were /dev/ataraid/d0p3 for the / partition but in the new kernel I dont know how to tell the exact
devicename and which module to put into the initrd image.

Is it maybe /dev/md0 ??

Anybody can help with that ?

Thank you for your time.
Saxa

rotvogel · 10-06-2004, 04:29 PM

My guess is that the ATARAID functionality of this controller isn't supported in the 2.6 kernel yet. The device would be /dev/ataraid/d0 if it was supported, but it isn't.
So 2.4 if you want to use ATARAID of the HPT370 controller, or software RAID.

saxa · 10-07-2004, 02:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rotvogel
My guess is that the ATARAID functionality of this controller isn't supported in the 2.6 kernel yet. The device would be /dev/ataraid/d0 if it was supported, but it isn't.
So 2.4 if you want to use ATARAID of the HPT370 controller, or software RAID.

hmm... So the device names are the same ? I was thinking that the device names has been
changed to something else instead of /dev/ataraid/d0 . I dont know if HPT370 is not supported
as raid because I see it in the config file:

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HPT34X=y
# CONFIG_HPT34X_AUTODMA is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HPT366=y

And also at boot time the controller is recognised by the kernel I see all that
HPT370 and so on stuff on the dmesg

Rgds

rotvogel · 10-07-2004, 05:58 AM

From the post halloween document by Dave Jones:
http://www.linux.org.uk/~davej/docs/...loween-2.6.txt

Quote:

Regressions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Things not expected to work just yet)
- The hptraid/promise drivers for proprietary RAID formats are currently
non functional, and will probably be converted to use device-mapper.

I have the same controller and it is working fine in normal IDE mode, the RAID functionality however is not yet implemented in the 2.6 kernel. Above document was written shortly before or after the release of the 2.6 kernel. But I did not see the support for the RAID functionality appearing in the kernel since. You could try it with the driver from Highpoint, http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/b370na.htm . I don't use the RAID features of this controller.

Good luck

saxa · 10-07-2004, 06:21 AM

Yes I saw that document and I was making the same tought as you do. It is quite some
time now what the 2.6 kernel is out and was thinking that the RAID is into it.

I will try to experiment a little with the kernel itself to see if I can get something to work.

Thanks for now.

Saxa

Slacker0815 · 10-08-2004, 04:22 AM

I think you need to disable support for the hpt controller in the kernel since it only supports the hpt controller as non-raid-ide-controller, then recompile the kernel and use the driver from the highpoint website instead. That driver doesn't work if the kernel support for the controller is active.

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/b370na.htm
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/b372.htm

saxa · 10-08-2004, 04:26 AM

I will try that

can you tell me if the driver from highpoint works with the kernel 2.6.8.1 ?

Rgds

Slacker0815 · 10-08-2004, 04:34 AM

No I can't, sorry. I know it works with 2.4.22 and I think it works with 2.6.6, I'm not sure. I stopped using it and will probably just mirror one drive to another one using dd every month or so. No specific reaseon, I just don't trust highpoint that much.

saxa · 10-08-2004, 04:37 AM

Ok thx I will check it

Rgds