[Herts] SuSE8.1 and Promise RAID

[Geoff Pitt]

Hi

After what must be more than a year now I'm determined to resolve using Linux on my RAID, as I'm starting an OU course in February and don't want to have to cope with blue screens while I'm doing course work.

The RAID uses the Promise  PDC20276 chip on my MOBO and the software it runs is called MBFastTrak133 Lite.  I received a patch from Promise to address the problem but had now joy in setting it up.  I've now revisited the readme that came with it and have come across the following:

There is a SCSI Module Issue on SuSE Linux 8.1 SMP kernel.
   Linux SCSI SMP modules, FastTrak included, can't work normally for many
   SMP mother-boards according to our testing. It may make system panic or
   busy all the time.
   It is recommended to replace SuSE 8.1 SMP with SuSE 8.0 SMP.

   Linux Kernels 2.4.x misidentifies Promise ATA-RAID controllers as simple
   IDE controllers. This results in the built-in Linux IDE driver trying to
   handle the controller and can prevent the proper FastTrak ATA RAID driver
   to be loaded.

   Follow the installation instructions AND the parameter commands referred
   to below section. This status we called "IDE issue".
   3.1 "ide0=0x1f0,0x3f6,14 ide1=0x170,0x376,15 ide2=0 ide3=0 ide4=0 ide5=0
        ide6=0 ide7=0 ide8=0 ide9=0"

The first paragraph being the problem; the Dutch/English and my lack of understanding probably explains my having missed it last time and giving up. I can get into root by booting with the installation disk, but where do I find V8.0 SMP and how do I go about using it to replace V8.1?

I've looked on the SuSE web-site and .ac.uk SuSE mirrors without finding it.  Does anyone have a copy of V8.0 they could copy it from for me?

Thanks

Geoff


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