fedora CORE 1 (x86-64) on ASUS K8V/AMD64 and Promise RAID

[Gene C.]

On Saturday 13 March 2004 12:31, Jesse Keating wrote:
> On Saturday 13 March 2004 00:18, Mark Page wrote:
> > I've just installed the x86-64 version of FC1.
> >
> > The K8V mobo comes with a Promise SATA RAID controller. I've got two
> > SATA disks (80gb each) which I initially had striped for performance
> > (i.e. one large disk with 160gb).
> >
> > During the fedora install the promise controller is found and the SATA
> > disk drives seen - but not as a striped set, that is FC sees two 80gb
> > drives. This is also the same if I use the two disks in a mirrored set.
> >
> > If I let the install run it finishes ok, but refuses to boot - 'GRUB'
> > appears on screen but immediately hangs.
> >
> > To get round this I've just got one disk striped (cannot disable RAID on
> > Promise controller) and it's been fine.
> >
> > I can't find any help on the net about this particular issue, does any
> > one know what I should be doing to get either striped or mirrored RAID
> > set working properly?
>
> Will not work with opensource software.  Promise may have some binary
> drivers, but good luck there.
>
> And yes, with the Asus K8V Deluxe board, you can change the promise
> controller from a raid controller to  just a sata controller.  It's a bios
> option.  You can't do this for the VIA controller though.

OK, maybe there is something about what is being said that I do not understand 
but ...

I have an Asus SK8V (940 pin version) supporting the Athlon64 FX and Opteron 
processors (Opteron 140 in my case).  This mobo has both Promise and VIA 
controllers connected to SATA interfaces (two each for a total of four).  The 
Promise controller can be enabled/disabled in the BIOS and (when enabled) can 
be configured as raid or ide.  The VIA controller does not have any BIOS 
configuration that I have seen.

I currently have the Promise controller disabled in the BIOS and a single 
Maxtor 120GB SATA drive connected to the "SATA Raid1" interface.  This comes 
up (FC1 X86_64) as a scsi drive (/dev/sda) and seems to work fine.  At some 
point it might be interesting to connect two drives to this interface to see 
what happens but, for now, it seems to function properly as a single drive.

I have not (yet) tried this with FC2 since (I understand) the SATA support is 
"different".
-- 
Gene