Help with HPT370 RAID and RedHat v7.0

[obihato]

Greetings o'enlightened ones!

I'm trying to install RedHat v7.0 so that I can learn it and I've stumbled right at the begining! It will not recognize my HD which is located on a HPT370 controller. I have an ABIT BX133 board and far too many IDE devices!

A word of warning, I'm not too hot on Linux. I've used windows/dos for a very long time and now I'm sick of em. I know computers well but linux is Chinese to me and I don't speak Chinese! I know a few commands but they are not enough to install a driver. I've been reading but I'm finding Chinese difficult without practising, enough about that already, I think u get the picture.

Please help me or point me in the right direction.

1. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif
2. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/tongue.gif
3. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/cool.gif
That's better!

[This message has been edited by obihato (edited 11 December 2000).]

[2thumbs]

easy http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

I dont have that controller per se, but it should be similar. When the installer is running, switch to a different tty (CTRL-ALT-F2 or F3 or whatever). Type cat /proc/pci somewhere in the output you will see something like " **** mass storage controller" (where the **** is the name)
you should get 5 hex addresses. Note those down. To the end of the second one add a 2 and to the end of the 4th one add a 2 (ignore the 5th one) so you would have something like:
0x9400
0x9000
0x8800
0x8400
0x8200
add a two to the 2nd and 4th one, ignore the 5th and you end up with
0x9400, 0x9002, 0x8800, 0x8402 easy http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif
now reboot. When you get to the prompt (boot : ) type in
linux ide2=firsthex,secondhex ide3=thirdhex,fourthhex
So using my examples it would look like this:
Boot: linux ide2=0x9400,0x9002 ide3=0x8800,0x8402

then hit enter. It should detect these now. I have never set up a RH box, so I'm not sure on this step, but it should let you edit your lilo settings somewhere during the install process. You will need to edit it and to the linux options add append="ide2=firsthex,secondhex ide3=thirdhex,fourthhex"

That's it http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif


[This message has been edited by 2thumbs (edited 10 December 2000).]

[This message has been edited by 2thumbs (edited 10 December 2000).]

[obihato]

Thumbs up for the Chinese lesson 2thumbs http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif , but I'm still stuck http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/frown.gif .
I guess I didn't state my problem correctly. http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/confused.gif

(this smily business is interesting!)

I presume that what you have told me to do is what I would do when I already have linux installed.

I have only one hd located on the HPT370 controller. I need to install redhat and it refuses to see it to begin with!

is there a way I do something like that at the installation stage so that it'll see the drive?

Thanks a lot

[This message has been edited by obihato (edited 10 December 2000).]

[2thumbs]

No http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif this is for the installation. Like for example, I use Mandrake. The installer starts, but when it ask me to pick filesystems it tells me that I don't have a harddrive. At this point I hit CTRL-ALT-F3 and I get a $ prompt. So I type in cat /proc/pci . This gives me a dump of all the stuff hooked to my pci bus (eventhough the controller is on board it shows up http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif). I pull out the hex settings and follow the instructions as I typed them out in my first post. Now when it asks me to pick partitions, it finds my harddrive .. simple.

Oh, I did run into a little problem though. At the point when it tells me it can't find the harddrive, mandrake does not yet have a /proc/pci so I couldnt get the settings http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/mad.gif . So I booted from my Stormix2000 CD, and pulled the settings from there. But from what I understand, RH will have a /proc/pci. I really can't give any RH specific help, but the way I described it should work.

[obihato]

Thank you very much http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif

I got the hard disk recognised http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/biggrin.gif

but now I'm having trouble with the partitioning. too many primary partitions on one drive. However the documentation on this is simplified Chinese so I guess I'll be alright!

PS. Have you noticed that all the posts except the first have 3 smilies? I'm gonna go and edit the first one now, just like a kid would have to step on line with his left foot, if he steped on a line with the right one! http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ubb/smile.gif