DavidPhillips & sharkyr0lz

I've done it! Yepp, FINALLY my Mandrake instalation seems to work fine...

Thanx so much for your help.

BTW: I had to use a mix of instructions both of you gave me but I'm glad I succeeded.

Can you say what exactly you did? (Some newbies can be reading)

I used this sequence:

At the beginning:
#cd /modules
#modprobe sd_mod
#insmod_ hpt37x2.o

At the end:
#mkdir fdtemp
#mount /dev/fd0 fdtemp
#cp fdtemp/* /mnt/boot

# /mnt/usr/sbin/chroot /mnt
# cd /mnt
# mkdir floppy
# mount /dev/fd0 floppy
# cp floppy/* /boot

#lilo

However, I still have some problems. I tried to configure Lilo to change the boot window but everytime I try to do so from the system configurator window (or whatever it is called) the system seems to sort of hang - does nothing for a long time and I have to reboot. Is there any way I can configure lilo by let's say editing some file?
I also have problems with my input devices. I have Microsoft Explorer mouse and from time to time the mouse just stops responding - like when I select USB in Hardware configuration window. Also the system "hangs" when I try to change my keyboard in the same setup window. Any hints?

/etc/lilo.conf

You can try also with the kde control panel.

Did you try runing

# setup

from the the tty (text mode)?

I can't open that damned /etc/lilo.conf !!!
I tried it in a console while being logged as root, but I don't know the proper command.
If switch to /etc directory and just write lilo.conf, it gives me an error message, # bash doesn't help either and I don't know any other commands.
Could you possibly give me a hand with this one?

I know this may be a dumb question--hoping to just get pointed in the right direction.
I tried the procedure supplied by "sharkyr0lz" to install RH8 on my AthlonXp1900/kr7A-133R.
After learning to type the module command really quickly, everything worked fine--until the end. The instructions are to install two files to /boot. BUT:
When jumping out of the installer, /boot is not yet in the file structure. Did a mount of sda1 to a dummy mt point, but there was nothing there.
Also, cant see where the two files in question are (on the boot floppy made with the instructions, the files are in a compressed form, with a different name.

Maybe related--I am really currious about not finding /boot. Did a minimal install without the RAID and found /boot there, but not on the drive i specified when partitioning. When you tell RH8 to have /boot on a separate drive--does it ignore you? OR (my guess) is there a mount automatically set up to the first hda (or sda)? If so, why could I not also see the boot files there by making my own mount to a temp directory?

Sigh--so much to learn....

-Mark

I may be wrong but I think

/mnt/boot is where the files go

that's mandrake anyway, redhat should be mounted somewhere too

the system that's being installed to the hard drive is mounted in /mnt


you should have been chrooted into /mnt at that point. then the boot folder would be in /boot

if it's not there then you have not completed the setup yet

Hi!

I've been reading this thread and similar for couple days, but it didn't become more clear for me. This is my situation:
I have IT7-Max with on-board HPT374 (this is Intel rig). And yes, I'm using it as a raid ). Actually, I have 4 disks connected. Two of them combined into RAID0 where I have Windows , two of others also combined into RAID0 where I hope to install Linux.
I took standard RH8.0, and tryied to install. I was carefull, because I do have some data on my Windows disks, so I don't want to lose it. So, I deleted my linux-to-be RAID0 array, and made it just 2 single disks (they still connected to HPT374 controller). Despite all problems here, RH8.0 installed itself with no problem whatsoever on one of those disks, and I even managed to boot from it, and connect to Internet ). Now, I want make RAID0 from that two disks, and install RH8.0 on that raid. Well, in BIOS I created array, inserted CD with RH8.0, and tried to install. And here is a problem: Redhat cannot see those disks as a RAID. It sees them as a single disks (all 4 of them). OK, I went to Highpoint website, downloaded their driver for HPT374/RH8.0, and did everything as they said:
1. At the "boot:" I typed "linux text expert hde=noprobe hdf=noprobe hdg=noprobe hdh=noprobe hdi=noprobe hdj=noprobe".
2. Installator asked me - "Do you have a driver disk"? I selected Yes.
3. It showed me in driver selection list "HPT374 <whatever>", I choosed it.
4. It asked me "Insert your driver disk and press OK to continue". I did it.
5. Installator said something "Disk not found, nothing mounted" or something like this (I was doing it yesterday and don't recall exact message - anyway, it was looking like it cannot find floppy drive, but before that it found it!!!).
And here I'm stuck.

I've read that kernel 2.4.19-ac4 works with HPT374 natively, and probably 2.4.20 would work too. Now my question is: where could I find RH-based distribution that will work with my RAID? (i.e. include 2.4.19-ac4 or higher, or something)?
Or how I could make that downloaded HPT driver work?
I don't want build kernel - I have no time nor knowledge.

Thanks everybody!

you can use the image from sharkey

it will work. After that you can change the kernel if you want


when you were to load the driver did you try mounting the floppy?

I'v been using sharky's image to boot from.

I've always been able to insmod the driver at the beginning of the install, but I could never get past the reboot.

When I went to the VT the directory structure was screwing me up.

Even after discovering "chroot", I didn't know where root actually was.

I found it and now I'm writing this on machine running RH8 spinning 4 drives on my RAID 0. Mine turned out to be:

/mnt/sysimage

Maybe this will help anyone else struggling with this.

Sharky: If your listening, my next question is: how can I customize my kernel?
If I use original source for 2.4.18-14 I get stuck after make bzImage. The next step is to compile a module.
Do I need this or do you already have the module compiled on your download?
If need to compile, is there a specific directory that it must be compiled. If it's already compiled, what to do next before running make modules?

I'm attempting to work up a new server for my little network based on an Abit KG-7 RAID motherboard. This is a server so reliability is crucial. I'd like to set up the boot disk as a RAID 1 array through the Hightpoint HPT 370 built into the motherboard (that's why I bought this motherboard). I've skimmed through the discussions in this thread but its not always clear whether someone is talking about RAID 0 (striping) or RAID 1 (mirroring).

Some questions:

Has anyone gotten something like this up and running using either somebody's modified kernel source or the Highpoint proprietary drivers?

It appears that the kernel only supports RAID 0 with the native drivers and the HPT 370 controller. I'm guessing I have to set up an initrd if I use the Highpoint drivers so that LILO can use its physical map to pull everything the kernel needs off of the RAID array at boot time. Is this correct?

Anyone know why RAID 1 isn't supported by the native kernel driver? I've poked around in the hptraid.c code and there is a simple test to see if the array is RAID 0 and, if not, the code bails. The maintainer is one of the people who simply said, "look at software RAID 1" This is based on looking at the 2.4.20, 2.4.21-pre4 and 2.4.21-pre4-ac? sources.

Thanks!

Ive got..

Gigabyte ga-6bxd dual p3 500
Highpoint rocket raid 404 / hpt 374
Redhat 8
with matrox G450 video

Raid install worked fine using the highpoint driver on there site, but when I boot system hangs at grub.

Grub...

any ideas?

Can boot from my boot disk but that dosent give me smp kernel.

Or how can I make a boot disk with smp kernel?

Thanks

Take a look at the Linux ATA RAID how-to. Hidden deep and within is the line: "When the install asks you to choose Boot loader configuration, please choose »LILO only«. Do not choose »GRUB« as your boot loader." The last update is from May of 2002 but I don't have any reason to believe its not still correct. The extra functionality you get from GRUB comes at the price of it needing more access to the boot disk. Could be this is why LILO is recommended.

Looks like I'm going to have to use the Highpoint proprietary drivers. I pulled down their "open" code and I'll see if I can get that to work with either the current kernel (2.4.20) or the current Red Hat customized kernel for 2.4.18.

I've been in touch with the fellow who maintains the ATA RAID kernel drivers. My assertion was that the native Linux Highpoint driver seems to work fine in a RAID 1 configuration (I had to modify the hptraid.c file to let this happen... don't be too impressed since all I did was remove a "return" statement). His response was that its still only writing to one disk in the array and that I should look at the implementation of the Promise native Linux driver (pdcraid.c). After a quick look it became apparent that the implementation was really just a specialized form of software raid since the driver still had very specific knowledge that it was working with several individual disks; not a single device presented by the hardware controller.

I e-mailed the maintainer and was told, "Of course, there's no such thing as a true hardware RAID implementation." His assertion is that all RAID is implemented in the software drivers not the controller. I'm pretty dubious of this since the whole idea of a hardware RAID controller is to get the hardware to do the mirroring, striping or whatever and keep that transparent. Anyone out there have any real experience with this?

Its amazing what happens when you put things out "in the universe" and sometimes the universe answers. Someone posted a review of the book on slashdot today.