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Are there any distros that support installing on and booting from HPT372
motherboard RAID 1 on which the RAID is already partitioned for
multiboot and on which W2K is already installed to boot from and use the
RAID 1? Google hasn't found me any.

I partitioned a single disk, formatted the Linux partitions using
Knoppix, created the RAID with the BIOS utility, installed W2K, then
tried to install Linux. Mandrake 9.2's installer corrupted W2K's space,
needlessly mangling partition tables that didn't need touching,
preventing booting anything. I next booted a SuSE 9.0 boot.iso, and its
installer showed empty partition tables. I was forced to do a complete
redo from scratch.
--
"The object and practice of liberty lies in the limitation of
governmental power." General Douglas MacArthur

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata *** http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/


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Felix Miata <UgaddaBkidding.due2UCE@dev.nul> writes:

>Are there any distros that support installing on and booting from HPT372
>motherboard RAID 1 on which the RAID is already partitioned for
>multiboot and on which W2K is already installed to boot from and use the
>RAID 1? Google hasn't found me any.

[...]

I doubt that this works at all. The HPT372 chipset is NOT a HW RAID
controller, although the description could make you think it was.
Fact is, all the Promise chipsets do nothing but simply offer
a BIOS setup for creating arrays - but to be able to use them, you
have to install the prorietary drivers they deliver with the motherboard.

There is a Linux driver for the 372 chipset; you could try loading that
first, prior to installing your distribution of choice. I'm sure that
SuSE 9.x has support for this chipset; Mandrake should as well.
You'll simply have to load that first, then setup the partitions on
the /dev/ataraid* devices. However, whether or not this will
keep your existing W2K partitioning is hard to tell; especially
if taking into account your previous failed installation attempts.

Michael
--
Michael Buchenrieder * mibu@scrum.greenie.muc.de * http://www.muc.de/~mibu
Lumber Cartel Unit #456 (TINLC) & Official Netscum
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Michael Buchenrieder wrote:

> Felix Miata <UgaddaBkidding.due2UCE@dev.nul> writes:

> >Are there any distros that support installing on and booting from HPT372
> >motherboard RAID 1 on which the RAID is already partitioned for
> >multiboot and on which W2K is already installed to boot from and use the
> >RAID 1? Google hasn't found me any.

> [...]

> I doubt that this works at all. The HPT372 chipset is NOT a HW RAID
> controller, although the description could make you think it was.
> Fact is, all the Promise chipsets do nothing but simply offer
> a BIOS setup for creating arrays - but to be able to use them, you
> have to install the prorietary drivers they deliver with the motherboard.

That's how it was done with W2K, but I assumed it had to be done that
way only because the HPT372 was created after W2K was developed.

> There is a Linux driver for the 372 chipset; you could try loading that
> first, prior to installing your distribution of choice. I'm sure that

I would have if I could have found any such thing. What I found was a
source archive, but its use presumes a working system on which the
driver could be compiled. I don't know how to compile drivers, nor do I
have a working Linux system of the type I would be installing on the
RAID equipped motherboard. All mine are older distros on older hardware
with no RAID.

> SuSE 9.x has support for this chipset; Mandrake should as well.

After so long since release of the HPT372 (and other types of
motherboard "RAID"), I would have expected by now that the required
driver module would be on the newer distros' CDs, ready to add to the
installer's kernel line.

> You'll simply have to load that first, then setup the partitions on
> the /dev/ataraid* devices. However, whether or not this will
> keep your existing W2K partitioning is hard to tell; especially
> if taking into account your previous failed installation attempts.

Thanks for the help. This subject is poorly covered anywhere, regardless
of distro.
--
"I place economy among the first and most important of republican
virtues,
and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared."
President Thomas Jefferson

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata *** http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/


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Felix Miata <UgaddaBkidding.due2UCE@dev.nul> writes:

>Michael Buchenrieder wrote:

[...]

>That's how it was done with W2K, but I assumed it had to be done that
>way only because the HPT372 was created after W2K was developed.

No, you'll have to do that with all OSes - that is, load a driver.
A real HW controller would be completely transparent to all operating
systems, as the system would then always "see" just a standard drive.

>
>> There is a Linux driver for the 372 chipset; you could try loading that
>> first, prior to installing your distribution of choice. I'm sure that

>I would have if I could have found any such thing. What I found was a
>source archive, but its use presumes a working system on which the
>driver could be compiled.

I know that HighPoint didn't offer drivers for SuSE 9.x when it came
out, but I thought they did in the meantime - did you check the
entris on their download page? Unfortunately, they didn't dare
labelling the SuSE versions precisely, which is a bit odd.

>I don't know how to compile drivers, nor do I
>have a working Linux system of the type I would be installing on the
>RAID equipped motherboard. All mine are older distros on older hardware
>with no RAID.

If there really is no downloadable module yet, you could simply ask someone
with a SuSE 9.0 systems to compile the driver for you as a module, and then
use that one. Be aware, though, that the support for this chipset might
need additional modules installed. This can be tricky in your situation;
I guess there's no chance to setup a temporary system on an additional
HD to prepare a matching kernel?

Michael
--
Michael Buchenrieder * mibu@scrum.greenie.muc.de * http://www.muc.de/~mibu
Lumber Cartel Unit #456 (TINLC) & Official Netscum
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>>>>> "Felix" == Felix Miata <UgaddaBkidding.due2UCE@dev.nul> writes:
Felix>
Felix> Michael Buchenrieder wrote:
>> Felix Miata <UgaddaBkidding.due2UCE@dev.nul> writes:
Felix>
>> >Are there any distros that support installing on and booting from
>> >HPT372 motherboard RAID 1 on which the RAID is already partitioned
>> >for multiboot and on which W2K is already installed to boot from
>> >and use the RAID 1? Google hasn't found me any.
Felix>
>> [...]
Felix>
>> I doubt that this works at all. The HPT372 chipset is NOT a HW RAID
>> controller, although the description could make you think it was.
>> Fact is, all the Promise chipsets do nothing but simply offer a
>> BIOS setup for creating arrays - but to be able to use them, you
>> have to install the prorietary drivers they deliver with the
>> motherboard.
Felix>
Felix> That's how it was done with W2K, but I assumed it had to be
Felix> done that way only because the HPT372 was created after W2K was
Felix> developed.
Felix>
>> There is a Linux driver for the 372 chipset; you could try loading
>> that first, prior to installing your distribution of choice. I'm
>> sure that
Felix>
Felix> I would have if I could have found any such thing. What I found
Felix> was a source archive, but its use presumes a working system on
Felix> which the driver could be compiled. I don't know how to compile
Felix> drivers, nor do I have a working Linux system of the type I
Felix> would be installing on the RAID equipped motherboard. All mine
Felix> are older distros on older hardware with no RAID.
Felix>
>> SuSE 9.x has support for this chipset; Mandrake should as well.
Felix>
Felix> After so long since release of the HPT372 (and other types of
Felix> motherboard "RAID"), I would have expected by now that the
Felix> required driver module would be on the newer distros' CDs,
Felix> ready to add to the installer's kernel line.
Felix>
>> You'll simply have to load that first, then setup the partitions on
>> the /dev/ataraid* devices. However, whether or not this will keep
>> your existing W2K partitioning is hard to tell; especially if
>> taking into account your previous failed installation attempts.
Felix>
Felix> Thanks for the help. This subject is poorly covered anywhere,
Felix> regardless of distro.

Go to this page:

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/Japan/b372jp.htm

and download the appropriate zip file, and unzip it. For RedHat, for
instance, it will tell you how to make a driver floppy that you can
give to the installation program when it asks for any additional
drivers you might have.

However, my advice is to not use that RAID chip and to do software
RAID in linux instead. Based on how you describe your setup, dual
booting with windows already installed on the hp372 RAID, I am not
sure that will work. Your choices might be to use the linux driver or
to start over completely.

--Rob

Rob Ristroph wrote:

> Based on how you describe your setup, dual
> booting with windows already installed on the hp372 RAID, I am not
> sure that will work. Your choices might be to use the linux driver or
> to start over completely.

What do you mean by start over completely. I don't know that for W2K
there is any way other than what I did to have RAID 1.
--
"I place economy among the first and most important of republican
virtues,
and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared."
President Thomas Jefferson

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata *** http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/


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Michael Buchenrieder wrote:

> Felix Miata wrote:

> >Michael Buchenrieder wrote:

> >That's how it was done with W2K, but I assumed it had to be done that
> >way only because the HPT372 was created after W2K was developed.

> No, you'll have to do that with all OSes - that is, load a driver.
> A real HW controller would be completely transparent to all operating
> systems, as the system would then always "see" just a standard drive.

What I meant is that any OS that predates the hardware it is being
installed on normally can't be expected to have a suitable driver
present in an unmodified version of the OS installation media. Supplying
a driver at install time in this circumstance is to be expected
regardless of OS.
--
"I place economy among the first and most important of republican
virtues,
and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared."
President Thomas Jefferson

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata *** http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/


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Felix Miata <UgaddaBkidding.due2UCE@dev.nul> writes:

[...]

>What I meant is that any OS that predates the hardware it is being
>installed on normally can't be expected to have a suitable driver
>present in an unmodified version of the OS installation media. Supplying
>a driver at install time in this circumstance is to be expected
>regardless of OS.

[...]

This is correct, but you missed my point ;-) The problem with
the cheap RAID cards is that they don't provide any real RAID
functionality on the card; instead, some 90% or so are done via
OS-dependant drivers - which practically makes them useless
in an environment with different operating systems that need
to have access to the data on the RAID. Whether or not sharing
the RAID in between W2K and Linux (and any other OSes) will
reliably work is unknown to me, but I wouldn't suggest doing it.
You're only asking for trouble. Better get a secondary machine
running _one_ OS with the RAID, and share some of its resources
via LAN. Or connect 4 disks to the HPT controller[1], and make
2 different RAID arrays, one for each OS.

Michael

[1] Assuming the 372 has 4 channels, as you should not try
connecting more than one drive per channel on a RAID setup.

--
Michael Buchenrieder * mibu@scrum.greenie.muc.de * http://www.muc.de/~mibu
Lumber Cartel Unit #456 (TINLC) & Official Netscum
Note: If you want me to send you email, don't munge your address.

>>>>> "Felix" == Felix Miata <UgaddaBkidding.due2UCE@dev.nul> writes:
Felix>
Felix> Rob Ristroph wrote:
>> Based on how you describe your setup, dual
>> booting with windows already installed on the hp372 RAID, I am not
>> sure that will work. Your choices might be to use the linux driver or
>> to start over completely.
Felix>
Felix> What do you mean by start over completely. I don't know that
Felix> for W2K there is any way other than what I did to have RAID 1.

By "start over completely" I mean re-install everything, wiping out
what you have done so far.

If Windows needs the hpt372 active to do RAID, but Linux is doing
software RAID and needs it inactive, you will have to fiddle with the
BIOS everytime to boot into a different OS, and even that might not
work.

Your best bet may be to go to the highpoint-tech.com site and get the
driver floppy for RedHat and try to use it to install Redhat along
side your windows.

--Rob

rgr@sdf.lonestar.org (Rob Ristroph) wrote in message news:<87y8rfg7bd.fsf@rgristroph-austin.ath.cx>...
> >>>>> "Felix" == Felix Miata <UgaddaBkidding.due2UCE@dev.nul> writes:
> Felix>
> Felix> Rob Ristroph wrote:
> >> Based on how you describe your setup, dual
> >> booting with windows already installed on the hp372 RAID, I am not
> >> sure that will work. Your choices might be to use the linux driver or
> >> to start over completely.
> Felix>
> Felix> What do you mean by start over completely. I don't know that
> Felix> for W2K there is any way other than what I did to have RAID 1.
>
> By "start over completely" I mean re-install everything, wiping out
> what you have done so far.
>
> If Windows needs the hpt372 active to do RAID, but Linux is doing
> software RAID and needs it inactive, you will have to fiddle with the
> BIOS everytime to boot into a different OS, and even that might not
> work.
>
> Your best bet may be to go to the highpoint-tech.com site and get the
> driver floppy for RedHat and try to use it to install Redhat along
> side your windows.
>
> --Rob

I have a highpoint hpt374 built-in motherboard. I could access raid
with highpoint's driver support for Red Hat 9. However, with that
driver used, I can't upgrade/recompile my kernel. For instance,
whenever there are new kernel (like 2.4.24), how can I make it
workable with my raid disk?