DAC960P-2 upgraded to 2.73, but Debian still refuses to install
shinguz
The raid on the 520 is reflashed to 2.73 and reconfigured to 8.6G raid0 with
the Mylex-supplied DACCF.EXE. DACD.EXE shows a perfectly working adapter
with 100% disks.
For some reason the Potato vanilla and compact installers still do not
recognize the array at all. Could have something to do with the kernel
configuration in this case. Woody compact recognizes the array and hangs at
the DAC960 driver copyright line. Too big of a disk, maybe? Buggy installer?
Bug-eyed operator?
Someone running debian on such a controller over there?
--
Posted with an IBM 8640-2d0 on a gprs connection
Reply to shinguz at phreaker dot net to get an answer,
just hitting reply will get you killfiled.
Stephen Howard
> This is getting frustrating.
>
> The raid on the 520 is reflashed to 2.73 and reconfigured to 8.6G raid0
> with the Mylex-supplied DACCF.EXE. DACD.EXE shows a perfectly working
> adapter with 100% disks.
>
> For some reason the Potato vanilla and compact installers still do not
> recognize the array at all. Could have something to do with the kernel
> configuration in this case. Woody compact recognizes the array and hangs
> at the DAC960 driver copyright line. Too big of a disk, maybe? Buggy
> installer? Bug-eyed operator?
>
> Someone running debian on such a controller over there?
>
>
ISTR that the 2.xx series of DAC960 based controllers were only very
recently added as "supported" by the linux dac960 driver. I no longer own
such a controller now, I'm currently using a Mylex DAC960PD with rev 3.51
under Debian woody with no problems, only caveat is that the stock kernel
has no support built in, so I use an Adaptec 2940 as a boot device then
load the DAC960.o module. However I do know for a fact that my controller
can be used as a boot device, I had it working as such on RedHat 6.2, you
just need a kernel with initrd support (which I suppose the stock RH kernel
must have had).
You might want to check out the DAC960 Linux page at
www.dandelion.com/Linux/DAC960.html.
Hope this is of some use.
Steve
shinguz
> such a controller now, I'm currently using a Mylex DAC960PD
Here could be one part of the problem. The controller sitting in the
computer is a DAC960P-2 according to Mylex.
If you recompile the kernel with a static dac960 driver, you should be able
to boot straight from the array. At least that's the way it works on the
Compaq SmartArray2. For the eisa Smart, you have to append at least
smart2=0x?000 where ? stands for the eisa slot in question.
Laust Brock-Nannestad
> Here could be one part of the problem. The controller sitting in the
> computer is a DAC960P-2 according to Mylex.
Mine is a DAC960P-2 as well (D040351), and has worked fine with Debian
Woody in an EISA/PCI Server 320 (compiled into the kernel, not as a
module). No extra boot arguments were required. I've never booted off
it, though.
Maybe the MCA code in your kernel is interfering? that's about the only
thing I can think of. Maybe you should compile another kernel without
any MCA support and see if it boots? obviously it won't be useful except
for troubleshooting...
Regards,
Laust
shinguz
server on the thing just for s***s and giggles and the thing got to figuring
out what type of disk adapter I'm running to just "system halted, contact
hardware vendor".
Which installation disk set did you use? Vanilla, compact, idepci or
something else? The woody you're running is probably a bit earlier than the
3.0r0 that I'm trying to install.
What comes to compiling another kernel just for the installation
media....doing kernels on 486 boxes is not exactly fun considering that it
still might not help. The only things that I have running Debian at the
moment are the three legendary Prosignias, you see.
The thing boots, allright. It just will not boot with anything that actually
can see the DAC. When I get it to boot, the installer barfs up this very
helpful message "you are installing on a diskless workstation etc" which
obviously is not quite correct.
I think that I'll d/l the latest compact installtion disks off a suitable
mirror tonight and dd them tomorrow. Maybe even go to the Sid installer, I
believe that it is running 2.5.x at the time. OTOH, I haven't tried the
Sarge disks yet. Would be easier as I have a very recent snapshot of Sarge
on cd's. Even SCO Unix could be a viable option as I happen to have the open
version disks here.
- pull !@#$ William R. Walsh
"shinguz" <dev...@punkass.com> wrote in message
news:aq9lga$766nv$1...@ID-163445.news.dfncis.de...
> Could this be a hardware malfunction, perhaps? I tried to install NT40
> server on the thing just for s***s and giggles and the thing got to
figuring
> out what type of disk adapter I'm running to just "system halted, contact
> hardware vendor".
Uh-oh...that doesn't sound good. I've never had NT ever fail while detecting
disk controller adapters but that's only with a Cheetah on a 500. Still,
given that what you're dealing with and the Cheetah are both Mylex, I would
expect many similar behaviors and problems.
Just my own personal $0.02 that if it won't work under NT (which even though
it is pretty tough on hardware reliability it is probably less demanding
than a *nix) then you're stuck with a problem. Bad adapter, perhaps?
William
Laust Brock-Nannestad
> Could this be a hardware malfunction, perhaps? I tried to install NT40
> server on the thing just for s***s and giggles and the thing got to figuring
> out what type of disk adapter I'm running to just "system halted, contact
> hardware vendor".
It might be. I seem to remember finding a diagnostic tool on Mylex' home page
as well, might be worth checking out.
> Which installation disk set did you use? Vanilla, compact, idepci or
> something else? The woody you're running is probably a bit earlier than the
> 3.0r0 that I'm trying to install.
I added the DAC960 to an already running system, booting off another
controller entirely and I used my own kernel build.
> What comes to compiling another kernel just for the installation
> media....doing kernels on 486 boxes is not exactly fun considering that it
> still might not help. The only things that I have running Debian at the
> moment are the three legendary Prosignias, you see.
Yes, I know :-) All it requires is patience, though.
Alternatively, send me your kernel config file and I'll build a kernel (or
more) for you.
> The thing boots, allright. It just will not boot with anything that actually
> can see the DAC. When I get it to boot, the installer barfs up this very
> helpful message "you are installing on a diskless workstation etc" which
> obviously is not quite correct.
What about DOS and the DAC960's BIOS (int 13) support, does that work?
> I think that I'll d/l the latest compact installtion disks off a suitable
> mirror tonight and dd them tomorrow. Maybe even go to the Sid installer, I
> believe that it is running 2.5.x at the time. OTOH, I haven't tried the
> Sarge disks yet. Would be easier as I have a very recent snapshot of Sarge
> on cd's. Even SCO Unix could be a viable option as I happen to have the open
> version disks here.
I wouldn't recommend those. I'm currently running Sarge, but stepped down to
the 2.4.18 kernel from Woody again after a brief run with 2.4.19 from
Sid/Sarge (which resulted in a lot of oddness, random crashes, etc.)
Regards,
Laust
T.Sunagawa
> Could this be a hardware malfunction, perhaps? I tried to install NT40
> server on the thing just for s***s and giggles and the thing got to figuring
> out what type of disk adapter I'm running to just "system halted, contact
> hardware vendor".
You need to use NT driver ( dac960nt.sys and oemsetup.inf ) floppy.
after you set NT install diskette #2. Get SWKIT200.exe at Mylex
web site. But NT4 is not your choice anyway...waste of time ?
---
T.S
shinguz
;)
After serious reconfiguring, llf:ing and re-raiding the dac960, I'm still
not getting any further than the copyright notice of the DAC960 driver.
Then, massive hang.
From what I've learned so far, it seems that the installer hangs when trying
to locate the actual disks. As for why, I have no clue.
The Mylex diagnostic reports a fully functional controller and disks as does
the configuration program. Later today I will try the Sarge installation
disks, both vanilla and compact just to see if they make a difference. If
those hang, it's time to see if any NT will work, this time with the
appropriate drivers that Sunagawa-san suggested. There's also the remote
possibility that I will try the Redhat <horror> installer just in case.
I _could_ obviously try another distro or check out a BSD flavor along with
OS/2 or SCO, but I'm a bit partial about Debian. We'll see what happens.