How to auto-detect Smart Array disk controller

[BillyBobber]

Greetings,

I have a Compaq ProLiant DL360 rack-mount PC which uses a Compaq Smart Array Controller to run a pair of SCSI HDs. Thus far, the only way I've been able to get Linux on the machine at all is to use the "compact" pair of install floppies. However, I want Knoppix plus all the goodies on this machine.

When I boot with the Knoppix install CD, it doesn't recognize the HD controller so the drives cannot be mounted, preventing me from installing onto the HD.

Is it possible for those who release Knoppix to add auto-detection for this controller? If you run "make xconfig", you can see the "Smart" disk controller listed under "block devices".

Can someone explain to me (someone with just basic Linux experience) how to get this done, what are my options, steps to perform, etc.? I want to be able to get Knoppix and all of its goodies intalled onto this Compaq box.

I was able to get Knoppix to install on an IDE system with no problem. Is it possible to rebuild that kernel with the Smart Array controller selected and then make a Knoppix install CD from the HD image? Of course I'd then use this new CD to auto-detect on bootup and install onto the Compaq.

Thanks much for your help!

[BillyBobber]

I tried replacing the Kernel but it didn't fly.

- I used "dd if=/cdrom/KNOPPIX/boot-en.img of=/dev/fd0" to write the boot image from the Knoppix CD to a floppy.
- Then I copied vmlinuz from the Compaq rack-mount system. Note that this kernel runs fine except it was made from the "compact" pair of floppies for installation so it doesn't have all the Knoppix goodies.
- Then I copied the Knoppix CD to the HD on a working system with "cp -r /cdrom/* /root/new_cd/."
- Then I used "dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/root/new_cd/KNOPPIX/boot-en.img" to update the boot image on the HD.
- Next I built a new ISO image with `mkisofs -pad -l -r -J -v -V "KNOPPIX" -b KNOPPIX/boot.img -c KNOPPIX/boot.cat -hide-rr-moved -o /new_img.iso .` from the /root/new_cd directory.
- Lastly I burned the /new_img.iso image to a CD and booted the Compaq with it -- everything seems okay except when I run knx-hdinstall it complains with "No swap partition could be found on the chosen hard disk. The script will be terminated"

Does anyone have any ideas on how to blend the Knoppix install CD with a kernel that can handle these "Smart" Array Controllers from Compaq?

Thanks!

[poraon]

I work with a Compaq ProLiant ML460 rack-mount PC which uses a Compaq Smart Array 5300 Controller with two 9 Gbytes SCSI drives.

When I boot with the Knoppix install CD, the SmartArray controller is recognized, and the driver cciss is loaded (verify with lsmod), but the special files needed to access the drives does not exists.

The best way to create these files is to execute the script ./MAKEDEV placed in the /dev directory.

The complete command is : cd /dev; ./MAKEDEV -v cciss
The directory /dev/ and special files for 3 drives are created (0,1,2).

If your controller is configured with 2 logical drives (RAID 0), you can verify drives access with the commands :
fdisk -l /dev/cciss/c0d0
fdisk -l /dev/cciss/c0d1

An other way to create special files is to use the mknod command.

Bye

[babbet]

Did you get anywhere with this, I have the same issue, I have 2 x 36gb drives RAID'd and thought the NTFS on these may have been the issue. I have just added a new 9gb drive and not RAID'd this, I formatted it as FAT32 but I still cannot see the drive.

[stonent]

what does lspci say about the smart raid controller? (lspci -v and lspci -n)

I've got a smart/2p controller here.

[arozeluk]

I have exactly the same server (Compaq DL360) and I've just tried Knoppix 3.3 (20030924).

Same issue still exists - cannot see the drives connected to the Smart Array controller.

I have tried the MAKEDEV suggestion, but it did not solve the problem. The special files already existed anyway, so it seems (to me, anyway) that the problem lies with the module itself (is it loaded? is it part of the autodetection? Hard to tell what's wrong here).

Note that a stock Redhat 7.2 OS is currently running on this box (which will be upgraded shortly) and was working fine from day one.

Mainly I was interested in Knoppix to try performing some diagnostics and backups.

[Rajashankar]

I have a Compaq Smart Array 64xx on my HP ML370. Tried knoppix today.
Booted, but no show of my HDs on the array. Did a insmod cciss. *Became
root* (*this is importan*) and issued: cd /dev;MAKEDEV -c cciss (if I am not
root, obviously, I dont have right permissions), all my dev files were created.
I could mount my HDs on the array. Let me know if that helps.