Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-17 Thread Chuck Campbell
On Thu, Sep 13, 2007 at 10:11:35PM +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
 
 This is one the major issues with the Linux process these days, as you move 
 from kernel to kernel there is almost zero assurance of driver abi/api 
 stability - and that in turn creates a situation like this wherein one 
 kernel works while another does not. Its enough of a situation that on a 
 lot of platforms sysadmins will not upgrade a kernel unless they really 
 really need to. On CentOS and the EL codebase, this isnt so much of an 
 issue because upstream do some work on trying to make sure they dont break 
 driver compatibility. If they do break this compatibility, its easy to 
 detect.
 
 And most of the heavy lifting is getting done by a fairly simple shell 
 script called weak-modules, based in /sbin/ and comes from 
 module-init-tools.rpm
 
 weak-modules will basically take a given driver .ko and check what other 
 kernels installed at this time will work with it, it will then create the 
 symlinks for each of those kernels to point at this .ko. It will then check 
 each initrd in the /boot dir, and update each initrd for kernels it found 
 compatible with the driver. Rather than overwrite the initrd, it will 
 create a new one with the same-name but followed by a number. It will then 
 edit /etc/grub.conf and add a *new* section for this just created initrd. 
 So when you reboot the machine you have the choice to boot the kernel.rpm 
 shipped initrd or the newly updated one.
 
 Ok, so how does this work ? lets say you have drivers ( from install time ) 
 in /lib/modules/2.6.8-8.el5/updates/
 
 1) sudo to root
 
 2) find /lib/modules/2.6.8-8.el5/updates | /sbin/weak-modules --add-modules
This didn't work.  I did:
  ls -1 /lib/modules/2.6.8-8.el5/updates | /sbin/weak-modules --add-modules
 
 3) watch the blinking lights, depending on how many kernels you have 
 installed it could be a few seconds
 
 4) check /boot/ and make sure you have the new updated initrd's for all 
 kernels you thought it would work with.
 
 5) check /etc/grub.conf for new sections [1]
 
 6) reboot with whatever kernel + initrd you want

All worked fine for the 2.6.18-8.1.8.el5xen kernel.
 
 7) all further kernels brought down by yum from the centos repos will auto 
 magically get this driver included in the initrd. ( rpm -q --scripts 
 kernel-version will show you what happens in the post install section, and 
 how weak-updates does an --add-kernel )

New kernel was released, so I did yum update.  The new kernel boots, but
does not see the raid devices on the 3ware card.  the update also seems to
have removed my install kernel (2.6.18-8.el5xen).  Did that step on 
something?  If I boot the 2.6.18-8.1.8el5xen kernel, I still see my raid
devices, so it worked for the first update...

 I will try this in a few moments.  One last observation though, 3Ware has
 a newer driver for the updated kernel.  If I wish to use it, is it a simple
 matter of replacing the 3w-9xxx.ko file with the appropriate one?  If it
 is more complicated than that, where do I find info about this issue?
 
 well, in this case, build that .ko agains the oldest kernel-devel you have 
 on the machine ( ideally, I should say only against the installtime kernel, 
 but lots of people dont have that hanging around :/ ) and weak-modules 
 should do its magic.

There is a pre-built (by 3ware) .ko file for 2.6.18-8.1.8.el5xen  

I don't know what to do with it though.

 Slight change in plan, I did this braindump and you get to write the wiki 
 page :) 

I've never done a wiki page, but I'm okay with writing this all up, once I
understand it.  I can put what you wrote above (with some minor fixes), but
it didn't exactly work out for further kernel updates...  Not sure what
to say about that.

 You might also want to look and see how the 
 /lib/modules/kver/extras/ directory contents are handled and include some 
 info on that. Since that would basically address non install time .ko

The extras dir in the orig install kernel tree is empty.  So is the 
weak-updates dir, since the kernel update removed the install kernel???

The 2.6.18-8.1.8.el5xen tree has a weak updates tree which appears to duplicate
the old lib/modules tree.  It looks like this:

/lib/modules/2.6.18-8.1.8.el5xen/weak-updates/lib/modules/2.6.18-8.el5xen/updates/3w-9xxx.ko

So I'm completely confused at this point...

-chuck

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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-13 Thread Chuck Campbell
On Wed, Sep 12, 2007 at 08:06:03PM +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
 Chuck Campbell wrote:
 http://pastebin.ca/693896
 http://pastebin.ca/693905
 
 As you have already pointed out in this email, yes - the installtime kernel 
 does see the drives fine.

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it!

-chuck
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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-13 Thread Chuck Campbell
On Wed, Sep 12, 2007 at 08:10:32PM +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
 Chuck Campbell wrote:
 If you want to keep the driver in-place even when the kernel updates, you 
 might want to investigate the weak-updates process and how you might get 
 a driver included into that. Pretty much everything you need to make it 
 happen would be on the system already.
 
 
 Where do I find info about this?  I suspect I will need to do this with 
 every kernel update???
 
 how exactly where you planning on managing out-of-tree kernel drivers 
 otherwise ?

I've no idea...  I've never had to deal with this before, so I didn't
even understand this could be an issue.

It raises more questions for me than I had thought of previously though.
I have more homework ahead of me :-)

 btw, since this is a stable distro you are using, the chances are that the 
 same driver will work through the life of the product. Try this command : 
 /sbin/weak-modules and register the driver you have against that. Then 
 reinstall the updated kernel and the driver should move along.

I will try this in a few moments.  One last observation though, 3Ware has
a newer driver for the updated kernel.  If I wish to use it, is it a simple
matter of replacing the 3w-9xxx.ko file with the appropriate one?  If it
is more complicated than that, where do I find info about this issue?

 I shall try and do some more specific docs on this, in the centos wiki, 
 over the next few days.

Thanks, I'm anxious to learn, since I'll probably need to deploy more systems
with this (and other similar) issue(s).

-chuck
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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-13 Thread Karanbir Singh

Chuck Campbell wrote:
how exactly where you planning on managing out-of-tree kernel drivers 
otherwise ?

I've no idea...  I've never had to deal with this before, so I didn't
even understand this could be an issue.


This is one the major issues with the Linux process these days, as you move from 
kernel to kernel there is almost zero assurance of driver abi/api stability - 
and that in turn creates a situation like this wherein one kernel works while 
another does not. Its enough of a situation that on a lot of platforms sysadmins 
will not upgrade a kernel unless they really really need to. On CentOS and the 
EL codebase, this isnt so much of an issue because upstream do some work on 
trying to make sure they dont break driver compatibility. If they do break this 
compatibility, its easy to detect.


And most of the heavy lifting is getting done by a fairly simple shell script 
called weak-modules, based in /sbin/ and comes from module-init-tools.rpm


weak-modules will basically take a given driver .ko and check what other kernels 
installed at this time will work with it, it will then create the symlinks for 
each of those kernels to point at this .ko. It will then check each initrd in 
the /boot dir, and update each initrd for kernels it found compatible with the 
driver. Rather than overwrite the initrd, it will create a new one with the 
same-name but followed by a number. It will then edit /etc/grub.conf and add a 
*new* section for this just created initrd. So when you reboot the machine you 
have the choice to boot the kernel.rpm shipped initrd or the newly updated one.


Ok, so how does this work ? lets say you have drivers ( from install time ) in 
/lib/modules/2.6.8-8.el5/updates/


1) sudo to root

2) find /lib/modules/2.6.8-8.el5/updates | /sbin/weak-modules --add-modules

3) watch the blinking lights, depending on how many kernels you have installed 
it could be a few seconds


4) check /boot/ and make sure you have the new updated initrd's for all kernels 
you thought it would work with.


5) check /etc/grub.conf for new sections [1]

6) reboot with whatever kernel + initrd you want

7) all further kernels brought down by yum from the centos repos will auto 
magically get this driver included in the initrd. ( rpm -q --scripts 
kernel-version will show you what happens in the post install section, and how 
weak-updates does an --add-kernel )


thats about it. Give it a shot and let me know how you get along. I am writing 
this from memory so i might have missed something :) One way to find out


btw, before everyone crys foul over where the drivers are put insalltime - 
remember, even when the kernel rpm is removed, because there are files under the 
tree that are not owner by rpm, it wont zap those files. So once in the system 
your driver is going to stay there. Keep that in mind.



I will try this in a few moments.  One last observation though, 3Ware has
a newer driver for the updated kernel.  If I wish to use it, is it a simple
matter of replacing the 3w-9xxx.ko file with the appropriate one?  If it
is more complicated than that, where do I find info about this issue?


well, in this case, build that .ko agains the oldest kernel-devel you have on 
the machine ( ideally, I should say only against the installtime kernel, but 
lots of people dont have that hanging around :/ ) and weak-modules should do its 
magic.


I shall try and do some more specific docs on this, in the centos wiki, 
over the next few days.

Thanks, I'm anxious to learn, since I'll probably need to deploy more systems
with this (and other similar) issue(s).


Slight change in plan, I did this braindump and you get to write the wiki page 
:) You might also want to look and see how the /lib/modules/kver/extras/ 
directory contents are handled and include some info on that. Since that would 
basically address non install time .ko


[1] I know its called Red Hat Updated Driver Model, if someone files a bug at 
http://bugs.centos.org/ I will make sure that its changed for next update.


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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-12 Thread Chuck Campbell
On Tue, Sep 11, 2007 at 10:37:05PM +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
 Chuck Campbell wrote:
 Bothe kernels see the card though (looking in /var/log/messages after boot.
 
 Can you post the output from 'dmesg; lsmod; lspci -n' booting the 
 installtime kernel at http://pastebin.ca/ and post the url to that here..

I concatenated dmesg, lsmod and lspci outputs from booting the install
kernel into a single file and put it here:

http://pastebin.ca/693896

Glancing through dmesg I do see the 3ware controller and sda, sdb, 
sdc and sdd, so in the install kernel, it looks like everything is 
recognized.

I then booted the updated kernel and reran the dmesg, lsmod and lspci
commands, then concatenated the outputs into another file and put it here:

http://pastebin.ca/693905

I see differences with respect to the 3ware stuff and disks recognized, but 
I don't know how to reconcile them with the new kernel.  Both kernels
seem to load the 3ware module (lsmod output), but the updated kernel
doesn't see the raid devices (only /dev/sda and /dev/sdb).  

-chuck

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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-12 Thread Chuck Campbell
On Tue, Sep 11, 2007 at 05:19:07PM +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
 
 If you want to keep the driver in-place even when the kernel updates, you 
 might want to investigate the weak-updates process and how you might get a 
 driver included into that. Pretty much everything you need to make it 
 happen would be on the system already.
 

Where do I find info about this?  I suspect I will need to do this with 
every kernel update???

-chuck
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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-12 Thread Karanbir Singh

Chuck Campbell wrote:

http://pastebin.ca/693896
http://pastebin.ca/693905


As you have already pointed out in this email, yes - the installtime kernel does 
see the drives fine.



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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-12 Thread Karanbir Singh

Chuck Campbell wrote:
If you want to keep the driver in-place even when the kernel updates, you 
might want to investigate the weak-updates process and how you might get a 
driver included into that. Pretty much everything you need to make it 
happen would be on the system already.




Where do I find info about this?  I suspect I will need to do this with 
every kernel update???


how exactly where you planning on managing out-of-tree kernel drivers otherwise 
?

btw, since this is a stable distro you are using, the chances are that the same 
driver will work through the life of the product. Try this command : 
/sbin/weak-modules and register the driver you have against that. Then reinstall 
 the updated kernel and the driver should move along.


I shall try and do some more specific docs on this, in the centos wiki, over the 
next few days.


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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-11 Thread Chuck Campbell
On Sat, Sep 08, 2007 at 01:07:50PM -0700, mark pryor wrote:
 
 
 This is what you said in the OP 
 quote
 The intent is to install the OS onto the 2-320GB drives on the motherboard 
 controller (preferrably in a raid 1 configuration).  The other disks are for 
 our data requirements.
 
 /quote

Yes, but it turned out that my install media was indeed corrupt, even though it
passed media verification.

I got a new iso image for the install dvd from a different location, and
burned a new disc.  I did an install from this w/o the earlier reported hang,
or SQUASHFS errors.

I couldn't figure out how to do the raid1 boot device on the MB controller,
or how to do it via s/w raid in the installer, so I installed onto a single 
disc on the MB controller.  I now have 2 individual disks which show up as 
sda and sdb.  I did custom partitioning in the install and set up a /boot, / 
and swap partitions on sda.  I set up additional swap and other partitions 
on sdb.

During the install, I deselected the sdc and sdd, devices during 
partitioning (these are the raid arrays on the 3ware card).  Each is over
2 TB as they stand, so I was afraid of problems with the mke2fs step, and
thought I'd create filesystems after initial boot.  I believe I need to use
4KB block size (or maybe 8KB) to get 2TB filesystems, and wasn't sure the
installer would do this correctly.

The installer saw the 3ware devices (2 of them) because I loaded a driver
from floppy (linux text dd).  I just didn't use them in the install steps.

I ran the install as described above and put grub on the MBR of sda.

The system now boots, so I ran a yum update, which updated 156 packages.
The kernel was updated too, so I set it up to boot the new xen kernel.

The large arrays on the 3ware card don't seem to be recognized either before
or after the yum update.  The /var/log/messages file shows the 3ware card was
found, but doesn't seem to find any exported devices...

The smartd man page indicates I need to use /dev/twaN in the smartd.conf
file, but these device files don't exist.

I'm stuck and at a loss on how to find these 3ware arrays to put filesystems
on.

 
 The MB controller is fakeraid and to use it would require the dmraid support 
 in the install.

is this through a driver disk?  I'll have to delve into this another day, I 
need to get this machine online with the big raid arrays useable ASAP.

 Was your MB setup by the reseller with the 2 320 GB drives in Raid1? What 
 shows in the Intel Matrix Raid bios? 

No, I added the disks after the machine arrived w/o any OS installed.  At boot
time I see the six onboard slots, with two 400gb grives recognized.

Following this, the 3ware bios reports the other 8 disks in two arrays.

Lastly the adaptec scsi card bios shows no devices attached (this if for the
tape drives later).

 I have installed Fedora on such a SuperMicro board and we went Raid1 using 
 the onboard device. What's easy to mess up is the boot order menu. If you 
 want to boot from the Raid1 array, you have to bring it in as one of the 
 choices. If you have never setup Linux on a SuperMicro its a little tricky.

I have, but not as raid1.  I still haven't done a raid1, because I just 
installed on a single disk to get down the road.

Unfortunately I can't see my 3ware raid arrays now...  I'm getting a bit 
frustrated.

-chuck


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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-11 Thread Karanbir Singh

Chuck Campbell wrote:
Unfortunately I can't see my 3ware raid arrays now...  I'm getting a bit 
frustrated.


Are you using a 3ware-96xx card that you need a driver disk ?

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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-11 Thread Karanbir Singh

Chuck Campbell wrote:

The system now boots, so I ran a yum update, which updated 156 packages.
The kernel was updated too, so I set it up to boot the new xen kernel.


Depending on the way your Driverdisk is setup - it would have only installed the 
drivers for the kernel you installed initially. So if you have problems talking 
to the 3ware drives, try booting from that kernel instead.


If you want to keep the driver in-place even when the kernel updates, you might 
want to investigate the weak-updates process and how you might get a driver 
included into that. Pretty much everything you need to make it happen would be 
on the system already.


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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-11 Thread Chuck Campbell
On Tue, Sep 11, 2007 at 05:19:07PM +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote:
 Chuck Campbell wrote:
 The system now boots, so I ran a yum update, which updated 156 packages.
 The kernel was updated too, so I set it up to boot the new xen kernel.
 
 Depending on the way your Driverdisk is setup - it would have only 
 installed the drivers for the kernel you installed initially. So if you 
 have problems talking to the 3ware drives, try booting from that kernel 
 instead.
 
 If you want to keep the driver in-place even when the kernel updates, you 
 might want to investigate the weak-updates process and how you might get a 
 driver included into that. Pretty much everything you need to make it 
 happen would be on the system already.

yes, it is a 3ware 9650SE-8ML.

I used the driver disk during the install, and the installer saw the 
raid devices.  I deselected them during the partitioning of the install
disks, and the installed system doesn't see those devices.

I then updated the kernel and the new kernel doesn't see the devices either.

When I boot the old kernel again, it still doesn't see the devices.

Bothe kernels see the card though (looking in /var/log/messages after boot.

-chuck

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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-11 Thread Karanbir Singh

Chuck Campbell wrote:

Bothe kernels see the card though (looking in /var/log/messages after boot.


Can you post the output from 'dmesg; lsmod; lspci -n' booting the installtime 
kernel at http://pastebin.ca/ and post the url to that here..


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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-08 Thread Chuck Campbell
On Fri, Sep 07, 2007 at 03:32:55PM -0700, mark pryor wrote:
 
 
 Chuck Campbell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have a new machine I'm trying to 
 install Centos 5.0 on and I'm not getting
 very far.
 
 Chuck,
 
 I'm suprised that the raid array wasn't named as
 /dev/mapper/isw_xxxyyyxxx

raid arrays are real hw raid on the 3ware card, and show up as very large 
disks.

I was trying to install to a single drive (non raid) in the earlier messages.

 
 to be named as /dev/sdc suggests that anaconda didn't use dmraid.
 To be sure that the installer missed using dmraid, you could do a quick 
 knoppix (4.0+) live session and try to mount and read the fakeraid array 
 named above.

There are no fake raid arrays, just the hw raid arrays and the two individual
disks, which show up as sda and sdb (very large 2Tb disks) and sdc, sdd which 
are the two single disks.

 
 If you don't find the isw_ device, then you will have to redo the install, 
 adding the dmraid kernel parameter along with dd text dmraid.

The install never runs, it just hangs as I described, so I have nothing on
any of the disks...

 As far as the blank screen, while in the knoppix session try to see if your 
 xorg.conf is missing a modeline. If missing, add a modeline suitable for your 
 monitor.

Not a blank screen, a screen full of hash with an X cursor which changes to 
the arrow, but I cvan't see anything in the the hashed up screen.

I'll look for the xorg.conf details in knoppix, but how do I use those to do 
a centos graphical install?

-chuck


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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-08 Thread mark pryor


Chuck Campbell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Fri, Sep 07, 2007 at 03:32:55PM 
-0700, mark pryor wrote:
 
 
 Chuck Campbell  wrote: I have a new machine I'm trying to install Centos 5.0 
 on and I'm not getting
 very far.
 
 Chuck,
 
 I'm suprised that the raid array wasn't named as
 /dev/mapper/isw_xxxyyyxxx

raid arrays are real hw raid on the 3ware card, and show up as very large 
disks.

I was trying to install to a single drive (non raid) in the earlier messages.



This is what you said in the OP 
quote
The intent is to install the OS onto the 2-320GB drives on the motherboard 
controller (preferrably in a raid 1 configuration).  The other disks are for 
our data requirements.

/quote

The MB controller is fakeraid and to use it would require the dmraid support in 
the install.
Was your MB setup by the reseller with the 2 320 GB drives in Raid1? What shows 
in the Intel Matrix Raid bios? 

I have installed Fedora on such a SuperMicro board and we went Raid1 using the 
onboard device. What's easy to mess up is the boot order menu. If you want to 
boot from the Raid1 array, you have to bring it in as one of the choices. If 
you have never setup Linux on a SuperMicro its a little tricky.

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[CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-07 Thread Chuck Campbell
I have a new machine I'm trying to install Centos 5.0 on and I'm not getting
very far.

The system is 2 dual core xeons (5160, 3.0 GHZ) w/ 8GB ram.  It has two
320 GB disks on the motherboard controller (Supermicro X7DAE+), and 8 750
GB disks on a 3ware 9650SE-8ml, pcie (x4) controller card.  The 8 disks are
set up as two raid 5 volumes (4 disks each).

There is a scsi card in the machine w/ nothing attached to it.

The graphics card is na NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 (pci express x16).

The intent is to install the OS onto the 2-320GB drives on the motherboard
controller (preferrably in a raid 1 configuration).  The other disks are for
our data requirements.


1)I used bit torrent (azureus on windows) to download the dvd iso for Centos
  5.0, and it completed without any errors.  I believe it does the checksumming 
  verification automatically.  I also ran sha1sum against the image, and it 
  came out fine.

2)I burned the image to a dvd using roxio.  No errors.  When I couldn't get
  down the road, I burned another copy with no errors.

3)During the install, I verified the media with no errors for both of the
  disks.

4)I downloaded the driver for this OS and raid card from AMCC-3ware site and
  made a driver floppy.

5)I booted the dvd and ran linux dd to do the install.

  Should the graphical installer work on an nvidia quadro fx1500 graphics 
  card?  At the present it doesn't appear to work for me, I get hash all 
  over the screen, once X starts.

6)I booted the dvd again and ran linux text dd.  I verified my dvd media 
  without problems, and it reads the driver floppy and loads the 3w-9xxx
  driver.  It asks questions about lang, kbd and timezone.  

7)For partitions, I selected custom, created a /boot, /, swap and /home on
  the first 320 GB disk (it turns out to be sdc, with sda and sdb being the
  big raid volumes).  After the grub section (I told it to put grub on
  the /boot partition) the screen is blue, and it just sis without any further 
  response (I left it over night, so it should have finished).

8)If I press alt-f3, the last thing I see is:
13:18:16  INFO :  Moving (1) to step reposetup

9)If I press alt-f4, the last thing I see is:
5SQUASHFS error : sb_bread failed reading block 0x6acc
5SQUASHFS error : unable to read page, block 1aaa0d9, size 9154

8)I'm at a loss as to what to try next, or how to find out what is wrong.

thanks in advance for any and all help,
-chuck

By the Way, a knoppix 3.8 live cd will boot and run fine on the hardware.


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Re: [CentOS] Installation troubles

2007-09-07 Thread mark pryor


Chuck Campbell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have a new machine I'm trying to 
install Centos 5.0 on and I'm not getting
very far.

The system is 2 dual core xeons (5160, 3.0 GHZ) w/ 8GB ram.  It has two
320 GB disks on the motherboard controller (Supermicro X7DAE+), and 8 750
GB disks on a 3ware 9650SE-8ml, pcie (x4) controller card.  The 8 disks are
set up as two raid 5 volumes (4 disks each).

There is a scsi card in the machine w/ nothing attached to it.

The graphics card is na NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500 (pci express x16).

The intent is to install the OS onto the 2-320GB drives on the motherboard
controller (preferrably in a raid 1 configuration).  The other disks are for
our data requirements.


1)I used bit torrent (azureus on windows) to download the dvd iso for Centos
  5.0, and it completed without any errors.  I believe it does the checksumming 
  verification automatically.  I also ran sha1sum against the image, and it 
  came out fine.

2)I burned the image to a dvd using roxio.  No errors.  When I couldn't get
  down the road, I burned another copy with no errors.

3)During the install, I verified the media with no errors for both of the
  disks.

4)I downloaded the driver for this OS and raid card from AMCC-3ware site and
  made a driver floppy.

5)I booted the dvd and ran linux dd to do the install.

  Should the graphical installer work on an nvidia quadro fx1500 graphics 
  card?  At the present it doesn't appear to work for me, I get hash all 
  over the screen, once X starts.

6)I booted the dvd again and ran linux text dd.  I verified my dvd media 
  without problems, and it reads the driver floppy and loads the 3w-9xxx
  driver.  It asks questions about lang, kbd and timezone.  

7)For partitions, I selected custom, created a /boot, /, swap and /home on
  the first 320 GB disk (it turns out to be sdc, with sda and sdb being the
  big raid volumes).  After the grub section (I told it to put grub on
  the /boot partition) the screen is blue, and it just sis without any further 
  response (I left it over night, so it should have finished).

8)If I press alt-f3, the last thing I see is:
13:18:16  INFO :  Moving (1) to step reposetup

9)If I press alt-f4, the last thing I see is:
5SQUASHFS error : sb_bread failed reading block 0x6acc
5SQUASHFS error : unable to read page, block 1aaa0d9, size 9154

8)I'm at a loss as to what to try next, or how to find out what is wrong.


Chuck,

I'm suprised that the raid array wasn't named as
/dev/mapper/isw_xxxyyyxxx

to be named as /dev/sdc suggests that anaconda didn't use dmraid.
To be sure that the installer missed using dmraid, you could do a quick knoppix 
(4.0+) live session and try to mount and read the fakeraid array named above.

If you don't find the isw_ device, then you will have to redo the install, 
adding the dmraid kernel parameter along with dd text dmraid.

As far as the blank screen, while in the knoppix session try to see if your 
xorg.conf is missing a modeline. If missing, add a modeline suitable for your 
monitor.

Section Screen
...
Modes 1280x1024
EndSection

-- 
Mark

RT3 RPM for C5
http://www.tlviewer.org/rt3

   
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