Can't install on Hardware SATA RAID10 on startech.com ICPSATA4R1

[Gary Stainburn]

Hi folks.

Having been badly burned again with software RAID I've opted for a hardware 
RAID controller, buying the one above.

However, I cannot install Fedora. I've tried 14 and 16.  Both installs see the 
hardware RAID

http://www1.ringways.co.uk/RAID_detected.jpeg

but when I select it and try install the system crashes.

http://www1.ringways.co.uk/RAID_debug.jpeg

I've installed the controller, 4x500GB drives and configured RAID10 through 
the controller's BIOS before booting from the Fedora DVD.

Any ideas what I can do next?

[Alan Cox]

On Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:49:09 +0000
Gary Stainburn  wrote:
> Hi folks.
>
> Having been badly burned again with software RAID I've opted for a hardware 
> RAID controller, buying the one above.

The card you mention (its PCISATA... not ICPSATA) is an SI3114. Thats a
generic SATA controller with some BIOS boot support for software RAID.
> However, I cannot install Fedora. I've tried 14 and 16.  Both installs see the 
> hardware RAID

They say "firmware" - so they've noticed it appears to a BIOS RAID
format, but then it fails. Probably the format is similar but not the
same as a supported BIOS RAID device.

Either way it'll use the software RAID stack even if you get it working.

If the software RAID is proving unreliable though you need to debug the
*real* underlying problem given that code is very reliable on a lot of
boxes.

Alan