[Techtalk] Simply Hardware 3B

[Sophie]

On Tue, Aug/20/02 11:56:35PM -0400, Andrew wrote:
> 
> that's two references to building a kernel...(-: (-;  :-) 
> whhaat am I in for????

Just a patch to add the driver to control your raid board to the rest of the kernel (it's not yet a standard driver). The rest of it is easy ;)


> 	Actually I and it have gone back to the work bench, the 
> drives are all loose and ready to take out so I can get at the 
> jumpers rather than rely on CableSelect.

I tend to lie the case on it's side (assuming it's a tower) and have all the drives and whatever hanging out, resting on any flat surface I can find, so it's easy to get at. And then only screw things down when I'm confident it's working correctly - I've wasted alot of time doing it the other way around!


> These things will arrive in a few days.

I'll be back at my own systems then, so we can walk through building a kernel at the same time, if you wish.


> drive (a 15gb) all the drives moved adjacent to each other rather 
> than skipping a bay. I will put four small fans ahead of each space 
> between the drives.

Wow, you actually have that many drivebays? I had to hack my case up to fit my drives in! (6 ide & 1 scsi) I think i'll try putting two pieces of sheet metal down each side of the caddy (slung under the floppy drive etc), going down to the floor, with holes drilled in for drives. That way, I can have drives evenly spaced (with airflow!) from top to bottom. (excuse me thinkign aloud :) There's a photo of the case with just the ide drives in here, if you're bored enough to look:
http://cats.meow.at/~sophie/tmp/boxen/dioptre-0.png


> 	Making the raid in hardware was remarkably easy, the PCI card 
> bios did it with the selection of F3 and arrow keys.

Great!


> Problem was/is 
> it would not move on to boot. Removing the PCI card, (disconnecting 
> the 4x60gb's) adding an extra drive has it booting the CD, and 
> writing, but still not yet booting off even the new 5th 15 gb.
> 	The video card is a AGP not PCI is there still a possibility 
> of conflict?

Yes, AGP is actually addressed through the PCI bus - it's just an extension that allows a differnt addressing from the AGP card to the ram, if I rember correctly. From memory, AGP cards show in /proc/pci as PCI devices, too. It's unlikley, though... fingers crossed :)

I have a whole bunch of cards in with this controller, and no conflicts. It was picky about the *order* though, as this determins who boots first. Also, my network card is picky, causing much confusion!

The thought occurs, you're not trying to boot *from* the raid controller, right? You're saying "boot from the cdrom only" in the bios... so that the raid controller initialises the drives and then is forgotten about.


> The cables are 80 pin so that should be right. I had the 
> video card half way out before I realized it had no other place to 
> go.(OOP'S) Raid card is now in an upper slot (1 vs 5), PCMCIA card 
> reader is in #5 slot.

Did you try booting with *just the raid card and video card* installed?

Do you have access to another system to test the raid card in? (to see if that system boots)


> Questions:
> 		The 5th drive is on the secondary mboard slot as 
> master by itself. What number position is it?  3 maybe???? In the 

In Linux, that will be /dev/hdc so third, yes. "Secondary Master"


> 	Anyone concerned about the 300w power supply?
> 		(2-3 inch, 4-small fans, 7 drives, 3 or 4 PCI cards.)

My system I mentioned is a dual p3 with 7 drives and full of PCI cards, and it has no problems running off a 300W psu. I hope :)


> 	This is intended as a S video editing PC. The "Vid ed" card 
> is not purchased yet, any recommendations?

None whatsoever. Anyone?


> 	IRC is not for me...My Mac is to old and slow and crashes a 
> lot when I try it, unless it's web based,(java) even then it's 
> re-boot city. Almost can't wait to get this Linux machine going! I am 
> avoiding telling my daughter the new machine will do IRC, well, maybe 
> I'll tell her, after school starts up.

Intresting reason :) Stay away from irc; it's addictive!


> 	Thank You all for the support,

You're welcome

- sophie