Re: Hardware IDE ATA Raid 1 support in Linux Debian - Linux disapointment
On Sat, Feb 15, 2003 at 01:18:39AM -0000, Pedro Ruivo (TRQV-DSI) wrote:
[ please don't top post. ]
> Thanks for you msg.
> What i'd like to would be to use hardware raid, i'm used to Compaq (HPAQ)
> servers whith smart array controller i thought i would get the same kind of
> functionality (limited to raid 0 and 1) on this ide controller.
>
> I guess i'll toss out this controller and use the onboard ide controller (1
> disk on each channel as i have a SCSI CD-Rom).
There's a world of difference between your average SCSI RAID
controller, and your average IDE RAID controller, the difference being
that the IDE versions are almost always vastly inferior[1].
> Maybe i keep the controller just to try with a newer kernel.
This is a Promise controller, right? They don't exactly have a great
reputation with regards to good hardware or with providing the
necessary info to create a device driver.
> Guess Debian is out of hardware manufacturers linux distro list.
Only if the hardware manufacturer isn't interested in supporting
linux. Adaptec figured this out a long time ago.
> I understand the difficulty to make a "for Linux" driver, and hope that LSB
> get's more attention in order to easy this Linux difficulties which M$
> doesn't have.
I don't understand the difficulty .. all you have to do is release the
appropriate information with the hardware. If you want a driver
written real fast, you hire someone to do it or send a free on to Alan
Cox[2]. of course there are plenty of hardware manufacturers out
there who don't want to release hardware specs for varoius reasons.[3]
I also don't see how the LSB is going to help in this arena; the LSB
is a "standard base" which third party software can depend on to
provide certain features and library versions.
[1] I hear 3ware doesn't suck, but I've never used one.
[2] Or some other intelligent kernel hacker type
[3] Video guys like to claim that they'll reveal some trade secret if
they release specs. I've been hearing that song since I started
playing with computers in the 80s. I suspect in this case Promise
doesn't want to release specs because that would make it apparent that
their RAID card isn't really a RAID card.
--
Nathan Norman - Incanus Networking mailto:nnorman@incanus.net
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small
minds discuss people.
-- Laurence J. Peter
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