Problem with UDMA controller

[DNL]

I am having trouble installing RedHat 8.0 (Knoppix also dies) -- the installation hangs shortly after replying to the boot: prompt.

The problem is caused by a Promise Ultra 66 HD controller. If I remove the Promise card and connect the hard drives to the EIDE controller on the motherboard, the install goes OK. But I would like to install Linux and keep the Promise card in the system for better performance.

I described this problem in another thread. I started this new thread now that I know the Promise card is part of the problem. Here is how my system is configured ...
* primary EIDE cntlr on M/b - not used
* secondary EIDE cntlr on M/B - CD-ROM and LS-120 UHD floppy
* primary UDMA on Ultra66 card - two 10GB hard drives
* secondary UDMA on Ultra66 card - not used

The Windows device manager shows the Promise card as a SCSI controller. The two HD are definitely IDE devices.

I have tried many options at the boot: prompt but nothing has helped. I tried entering an append line as suggested by mdwatts in my other post but I am shooting blind because I do not know what to enter here. (BTW, I tried to access another virtual console when the install hangs to see if I could learn anything else but the system is locked and does not respond.)

I've checked the RedHat and Promise sites and did not find anything helpful. Can anyone help?

[redcape]

Promise's site contains a closed-source driver for Redhat 7.0.

ftp://ftp.promise.com/Controllers/IDE/FastTrak66/Linux/Linux62_70UniProcessor.zip

They say they intend to release updates for newer kernels. Apparently they haven't. I think you can see how in-tune they are with the Linux way of working by the fact that they distribute their drivers in a zip file.

You might be able to get this driver to work with Redhat 8.0, I don't know. It's probably easiest to install Redhat without using the Promise, then try to get the Promise working, then move the disk onto the Promise.

Unless someone knows of an open source driver?

[kevinalm]

For that type of udma controller to be identified by windows as scsi is normal. I have a siig pci udma66 myself and that's how it appears, also the manual specifically says so.

What you probably need to do is find out the actual chipset used by the controller card and go from there. Start with Promise's website (if they have one). Then search this and other linux websites for chipset specific problems.

Probably support for your chipset will need loading/compiling in. It is likely not being recognized or is being misidentified or misconfigured.

[redcape]

Doh, I got the wrong driver. It's actually
ftp://ftp.promise.com/Controllers/IDE/Ultra66/RedHat/Driver/Beta/U66d100.zip

But the readme file says that an open-source driver was added to Linux in kernel 2.2.10, so you shouldn't need their drivers. So I have no idea why it doesn't work.

[AussieJohn]

Hello there. Yes you are doing something wrong. I too am using a Promise Ultra 66 controller for second Linux setups. I have successfully installed RH 8 on it and it now has Mandrake 9.0on it instead. No problems.

You may be have to reinstall Linux but this time don't try to be too technical changes in setting up by making choices that you "think" should be made and go more with the default settings, after all that is what the distros have spent so much time and effort to determine and make things easier for you.

[DMR]

A) kevinalm is correct: Windows will identify the controller as a SCSI device in Device Manager.

B) Unless there's some bug in Rh 8.0 that I'm unaware of, I'll go with AussieJohn on this one. Versions 7.2 and 7.3 of Redhat haven't had any problem with my Promise Ultra 100 controllers, so I don't see why version 8.0 would have a problem with your Ultra 66 card.

Some things to try:

- Turn off Plug-N-Play OS support in your BIOS before installing- it will save you a lot of hassle in terms of getting any of your PCI cards recognized/configured.

- Try moving the Promise controller to a different PCI slot, especially if you use an AGP video card and the Promise card is installed in the PCI slot closest to that, or if you have an ISA slot and the Promise card is in the PCI slot closest to that.

- Try it with just one of the drives attached to the Promise card (properly jumpered as the Master drive, of course)

- As far as the boot options you've tried, what are the exact ones you've tried?

[DNL]

Thank you all for your suggestions.

One of DMR's suggestions helped.

I removed the slave drive from the controller and the installation got past the point where it always hung before.

Moving the controller to a different PCI slot (with both drives) did not help.

I have tried the following options at the boot: prompt ...
1. nothing (took all defaults) -- this is what I tried first, of course.
2. noprobe
3. ide=nodma
4. expert
5. and various combinations of the above plus other parameters I did not expect to help like skipddc, noapic, askmethod, lowres, nousb and dd.

The two HD on the Ultra66 are identical -- both Maxtor 10GB drives. One is jumpred as master, the other as slave.

More suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[AussieJohn]

This may seem like a dumb question but when you say you are using the 2 HDDs on your Promise Ultra66, are you by any chance using one on each channel of the Ultra 66 card?? If you are and you have one HDD set as Master and the other as Slave then you are not set up correctly. Depending on the brand of HDD, when using a single device on a channel then the device must be set as Master or as with Western Digital to neither Master or Slave. Those two sockets on the Ultra66 are two seperate channels not just 2 connectors. It is like a second IDE setup.

[AussieJohn]

A extra point is that you ONLY use Master and Slave settings when 2 devices are connected on to the one same channel. I am presently using 2 Western Digitals on ONE channel and they are connected as master and slave and I have never ,repeat never had any problem installing Mandrake or RedHat on this subject. And I might add that my second install of Mandrake for me to experiment with and even screwup, is installed on one of these two discs.
As you were advised by hlguy, go back and make sure that you have disabled Plug and Play in the BIOS. It is amazing how many install problems are caused by not doing this even though all the available literature advises you to do this. Because if you don't do this you are preventing Linux from identifying your hardware and threrefore preventing it from setting ITSELF up properly.

[DNL]

AussieJohn,

Thanks for the suggestions.

I am aware of the things you discussed. Both HDs are on the same channel (same ribbon cable). That means one controller channel on the PCI card is not used and one controller channel on the motherboard is not used.

Sorry I didn't reply to the suggestion about PnP. Yes, it's disabled. I ran into that problem a long time ago with Windows.

It may have gotten lost in my first message but I have the same problem with Knoppix. The installation boot starts and then hangs almost immediately. I tried various options with (noprobe, etc) and it did not help.

I guess what I will try next is connecting the two HD to different channels. If this works, I will have to find out whether I created an IRQ conflict for Windows (which unfortunately, I must use for at least a while).

[DNL]

I did some more testing.

I tried various combinations of master/slave jumpering (actually, no jumper is used for slave) and also cable select. No combination worked.

I moved one HD to the second channel of the Promise card (both jumpered as masters) and now the Linux installation boots OK. Windows seems to be happy with this arrangement so I will leave it this way and get on with Linux.

I am still curious why there was a problem. If anyone has further thoughts on what might have been wrong, I'd like to hear them.

Otherwise, thanks to all who threw some suggestions my way.

[kevinalm]

That is very strange indeed. Frankly, I'm at a loss. You might check the hd manufacturer's data re jumpering. Sometimes there are alternate configurations to use to designate master/slave in problematic systems.

[DNL]

I did check Maxtor's website when I was having problems just to make sure I was not doing something wrong.

There are two ways to jumper the drives:
1. jump MA for the master; no jumper for the slave
2. jump CS (cable select) for both

I tried both ways and got the same results.

Thanks again for the replies.