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Re: Trouble installing with HPT370 RAID


On Feb 20, 2005, at 7:00 AM, xerces8 wrote:


From: Miroslav Maiksnar <ml@mixi.cz>


On Saturday 19 February 2005 20:50, Sage wrote:

I'm attempting to install Sarge (via the netinst CD image, using the
Debian installer) onto an Iwill DVD266u-RN motherboard with onboard
RAID. The RAID controller is a Highpoint HPT370 chip, and it is set up 
to perform RAID 1.

When installing, I always boot linux26.  I have already noticed that
the installation hangs on all sorts of things unless I use the "noapic 
nolapic" option at boot.

I have two 80GB disks in a RAID 1 array.  However, when it comes time
to set up partitions, the installer treats the disks like two separate 
drives, as though it detects the HPT370 as nothing more than an IDE
controller.  If I install onto only one drive, the mirror array is
broken.

Is there a way to force the installer to recognize the array?  I was
under the impression that Highpoint HPT370 RAID support was built into 
the kernel, though I am noticing that all references are to the 2.4
kernel -- has it been removed from the 2.6 kernel, and if so, how do I 
rectify this?
HPT370 is not HW RAID, but SW RAID, so preferred solution is use it as IDE 
controller and setup linux's native SW RAID on top of two separate IDE
drives. It will be far more stable and even more effective than using weird RAID implementations on cheap "RAID" controllers which is anyway done 95% in 
software.
I agree, but he seems to already have stuff on the disks that he does not want 
to lose.
No, I was installing onto a new partition. My real issue was making sure that I was able to boot from either disk if one were to die. In the past, software RAID has been problematic because if the primary disk died, the boot loader wouldn't be installed on the second disk in the array. I found information in the software RAID howto that allows me to rectify that, though, so software RAID is a fine solution. 

Thanks for the advice. :)
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