Hi folks,

I have a sata sil3512 card and it is impossible to use it on opensolaris
as it seems.
The device driver utility shows "Driver missing", it seems that is due
its fake RAID BIOS the driver refuses to accept this card in non-raid
modus. The cards BIOS would need to be flashed with a NON-RAID BIOS, see
http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~hburde/solaris_bmc4401.html at the
bottom. But my card has a not re-flashable EPROM on it (HT27C010, see
the datasheet PDF at
http://www.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/pdf/96732/HOLTEK/HT27C010.html
so I can't flash it with a non-raid BIOS (which is available at
http://www.siliconimage.com for download).
It is no problem at all to use this card with its current BIOS on Linux
or Windows with drives connected to it. There is a BIOS setup utility
built in the card, just don't built an array there, no problem at all
with Linux or Windows to access the single drives connected to that
card, or built an array and use the dmraid utility for Linux or the
correct "RAID" driver for Windows. I used this card for almost two years
with several Linux kernels and the sata_sil.ko module (driver) and mdadm
softwareraid without any issues in my main desktop.
In other words, it is absolutely possible to use that card even with a
RAID-BIOS in a non-RAID configuration, there is NO (visible) reason for
the driver in opensolaris to not support that too!

See
ftp://ftp.kernel.at/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/piet/linux-2.6.21.1_uprev/drivers/ata/sata_sil.c
 for a quick look if you want (the only ftp/http accessable copy I found *g*) 
or grab the latest kernel tarball from kernel.org. I myself have no idea about 
programming and I just want to provide the link so a programmer may have a look 
if he needs or wants to.

Linux lspci -nn (list pci devices with PCI ID in squared brackets)
output for the controller:
00:0a.0 RAID bus controller [0104]: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3512
[SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller [1095:3512] (rev 01)

So please, would it possible to enable the driver to use the controller
in non-RAID mode even with a raid BIOS in opensolaris? I am absolutely
new to opensolaris, but if I can be of any help (testing the driver
changes or giving more information for instance) I would be glad!

greetings
Michael

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