Promise SX6000 IDE-RAID installation on Debian

["Lasse Øverlier" <lasse@zone.no>]

<sorry>
that some of you have seen this before (on debian-user), but I guess this is
the correct list for this type of questions.
</sorry>

Hi there,

Anyone have a successful "IDE-RAID-only" installation on a SuperTrak SX6000
disk system? I have drivers for RedHat 7.1 (installs & works fine) and found
GPL source for building drivers, but I am having problems with module
dependencies for the GPL code and Debian (2.2.r4 installation).

The main problem is that I am unable to load drivers for the disks so I 
have nowhere to install Debian :)

Do I :

1) make a driver floppy with /boot/pti_st.o ?
   - when I try to use insmod on the object file I have built (quite 
many now...) I get a list of unresolved symbols: kmalloc, 
scsi_unregister_module, scsi_register, unregister_blkdev, 
pcibios_present, free_irq, register_blkdev, iounmap, __ioremap, 
pci_read_config_word, io_request_lock, kfree, pci_devices, request_irq, 
scsi_register_module, pci_write_config_word, sprintf, printk, 
scsi_unregister
   - am I missing any modules that should have been added here? (have tried
to add scsi_mod.o, but I am having problems finding the kernel source used
for the installation kernel. I use kernel-source-2.2.19 found in the
distribution)
   - parameters for compiling pti_st.o (SMP computer) have been taken 
from the supplied GPL'ed Makefile

2) make a bootable floppy with a 2.4.17(?) kernel? How do I get this to 
be the "default kernel" in a Debian installation? Any pointers to this 
kind of information is also appreciated. Or anyplace I might obtain
information on how to make my own bootable debian-installation (using the
existing one as a base) on fd,cd,dvd?

3) boot drivers that need to be loaded at boot-time? Do I use mkinitrd (is
this available and supported in potato, or woody, installation ?) Or any
pointers to information on how this is done?

4) Install REdHat 7.1 base and overwrite this with Debian? Is this possible
(and recommended)? Gives me an opportunity to try new kernels, but I am not
to deep into RedHat and really would like to continue to use Debian...

5) something completely different (?)


Anybody know of some newer/modified source code for the SX6000 
somewhere? Maybe with a HOWTO or README file added?

If someone have useful information, please reply with a cc directly to me.

Thanks !

  - Lasse Øverlier, lasse@zone.no