Re: [PATCH] aic79xx should be able to ignore HostRAID enabled adapters

[Matthias Andree]

On Sat, 03 Dec 2005, Jeff Garzik wrote:

> Matthias Andree wrote:
> >In my message I asked whether it was feasible for you to look at
> >FreeBSD's "ataraid(4)" driver to learn the Intel ICHx-R SoftRAID format.
> >I know FreeBSD understands this format, and dmraid did not when I sent
> >the email.
> 
> Read the readme :)
> 
> http://people.redhat.com/~heinzm/sw/dmraid/readme
> 
> The following ATARAID types are supported:
> 
> Highpoint HPT37X
> Highpoint HPT45X
> Intel Software RAID
> [...]

I know it claimed support, but didn't appear to work for me (kernel
2.6.13 as on SUSE 10.0, ICH7-R chipset).

What good is this readme if "dmraid -s" doesn't come up with anything?

I cannot recreate the problem any more, as the machine, as I wrote, has
moved forward to an Escalade 8000 series controller (it's more
convenient anyhow).

Attached my original message from 4 weeks ago.

-- 
Matthias Andree
> --- Begin Message ---
> Heinz,
>
> I'm not sure if you can read German or if that's adequate, so I'm
> writing in English.  But if you find German more convenient, feel free
> to use it in your reply.
>
> I was recently asked to install SUSE Linux on a Primergy RX100S3, to
> find out that Linux's libata AHCI driver 1. doesn't support hotplug yet
> (as of 2.6.13, to be more precise), 2. doesn't understand the BIOS RAID
> stuff. It exposes my SATA RAID1 physical volumes as block devices though.
>
> I tried dmraid 1.0.0.rc8, but apparently it is unable to understand this
> Intel metadata layout.
>
> I then tried FreeBSD 6 since it claims support, and it (ataraid(4))
> indeed detects the Intel software RAID layout properly; unfortunately
> the underlying ata(4) driver only detects the drive if the BIOS is set
> to "compatibility" mode which makes one drive disappear - so FreeBSD
> doesn't work for this particular machine yet (I presume 6.1 will do).
>
> However, as the FreeBSD kernel sources are open source and AFAIR without
> BSD advertising clause, it should be safe to ask: could you have a look
> at the FreeBSD ataraid(4) source code and see if you can learn the
> ICH7-R metadata layout and bring it into dmraid 1.0.0.rc10?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> -- 
> Matthias Andree
>
> --- End Message ---