I understand how the controller works, I just want a driver that works with it. I don't care how the drives come up I just want to be able to use them, software raid or not. >From: Civileme <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "John Clark" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Re: [newbie] M694D, Mandrake 8.0, Promise Fastrack 66/100, >Lockups, only sees one channel >Date: Fri, 18 May 2001 10:28:34 -0700 > >On Thursday 17 May 2001 07:32, John Clark wrote: > > I have a MSI 694D motherboard with onboard VIA 686a chipset ide >controller > > and Promise FastTrak 100 w/ lite bios. > > I also have an additional Promise FastTrak 66 with full bios. > > > > I am trying to use Mandrake 8.0 > > > > I have 5 hd's and a cdrom all set to master. > > 20gig onboard VIA ide channel 1 > > cdrom onboard VIA ide channel.2 > > 40gig onboard fastrack channel 1 > > 40gig onboard fastrack channel 2 > > 30gig on pci fastrack channel 1 > > 30gig on pci fastrack channel 2 > > > > If I have all drives hooked up and boot the cd the cd hangs affter it > > detects hda and hdc > > the pdc driver in the kernel only sees 1 channel on the 2 promise cards. > > > > If I unplug the cables from the drives on the promise cards I can boot >the > > cd and install. > > > > after installing I can plug the cables back in and see 1 40gig and 1 >30gig > > drive but I get random lockups. (do I need to recompile the kernel???) > > > > I have tried changing the way the drives are in the promise bios (1 >drive > > stripe, 2 drive stripe, 2 drive mirror, etc) with no different results. > > > > My guess is that the kernel module needs some parameter passed to it to >see > > the second channel on the promise controllers, but I don't know what to >do. > > > > I have searched and searched on the net for answers and put my problem >into > > mandrake expert but still no answers. > > > > If someone could help me I would appreciate it much! I don't want to > > install windows again just to use my drives. > >Sorry, Promise FasTrak is NOT SUPPORTED. > >To be blunt, IDE RAID Controllers, with the exception of 3ware, are more >notable for the amount of money they are able to make fleecing consumers >than >for any hardware RAID. The RAID functions are controlled by secret EPROM >software and are far less efficient and totally incompatible with Linux >Software RAID. Also, they are proprietary, and they have no drivers for >kernel 2.4. (RH driver for kernel 2.2 existed but it was also not free >software) > >We have been able to use them only by turning off the RAID, or, lacking >that, >by installing on ONE drive and using it in mirroring mode, using the >controller to copy to the second drive. Also, our tests showed that drives >attached to that controller ran slightly faster and with much higher noise >immunity, if driven at udma4 instead of udma5... In other words, the >limited >tests we were able to do showed that it handled the drives better at >Ultra-66 >than at Ultra-100. > >Civileme > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
