Installing SuSE Linux 8.0 or 8.1 on a Promise or Highpoint IDE RAID Controller

Support knowledgebase (promise80)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Versions 8.0 to 8.1

Symptom

You would like to install SuSE Linux 8.0 or 8.1 on a machine equipped with a Promise or Highpoint IDE RAID controller. During this process, you also want to partition an existing or a newly created RAID drive. However, this fails with a message about fdisk reporting an error.

Cause

The kernel modules for these RAID controllers (pdcraid and hptraid) currently lack the ability to unregister the disks that form a RAID array. Thus, the kernel sees both the raid array and the disks that form this array. A partition table on such a system looks like this:

Rescue:~ # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/ataraid/d0: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 1580 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

           Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System

Disk /dev/hdg: 16 heads, 63 sectors, 26377 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System

Disk /dev/hde: 16 heads, 63 sectors, 26377 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System

The device /dev/ataraid/d0 is the RAID, which consists of /dev/hdg and /dev/hde. In this case, the RAID is laid out as RAID 1 (mirror) and no partitions have been defined.

Solution

After having partitioned with YaST2, reboot your machine and repeat the partitioning with YaST2 in exactly the same way as before. During the reboot, the devices are read again and the partitions will be correctly written to the RAID and the disks.


Keywords: PROMISE, HIGHPOINT, HPT, PDC, ATARAID, RAID, FDISK, ERROR, INSTALLATION, PARTITIONING

Categories: IDE

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SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 21. Jan 2003 by pthomas (sdb_gen 1.40.0)