# HPT RocketRAID 2320 problems

## _fr0st

Hello!

I got my new hpt2320 a couple of days ago, but I can't get it to work..

My configuration:

-Gentoo_AMD64 up-to-date system

-EMT64 CPU

-Latest open source driver from HPTs web-page (v1.03)

-Tried with these kernels:

   - 2.6.18.1

   - 2.6.19-rc3

   - 2.6.19-rc3-mm2

   - 2.6.19-rc4-mm1 

All the kernels is configured with:

   - RAID Transport Class

   - legacy /proc/scsi support

   - SCSI disk support

   - SCSI generic support

   - Probe all LUNs

Some output:

~ $ dmesg | grep -i rr232x

rr232x:0: RocketRAID 232x controller driver v1.03 (Nov  1 2006 07:52:47)

rr232x:0: adapter at PCI 4:4:0, IRQ 16

rr232x:0: start channel [0,0]

rr232x:0: start channel [0,4]

rr232x:0: channel [0,0] started successfully

rr232x:0: channel [0,4] started successfully

scsi0 : rr232x

$ cat /proc/scsi/rr232x/0

RocketRAID 232x controller driver v1.03 (Nov  1 2006 07:52:47)

Controller 1: RocketRAID 232x SATA Controller

------------------------------------------------

1/1 SAMSUNG HD401LJ     , 399968MB, Normal [RA][WC][NCQ]

1/5 SAMSUNG HD401LJ     , 400088MB, Normal [RA][WC][NCQ]

Logical devices

-----------------------------------------------

 ~ $ cat /etc/make.conf

# These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically built this stage

# Please consult /etc/make.conf.example for a more detailed example

CFLAGS="-march=nocona -O2 -pipe"

CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"

CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"

#FEATURES="distcc ccache"

CCACHE_SIZE="2G"

GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/gentoo.org"

USE="apache2 mysql -X -kde -qt -gnome -gtk -gtk2 -xpm -ipv6 nptl nptlonly"

MAKEOPTS="-j4"

As you can see, the driver (and the BIOS) finds the two connected disks perfectly, but "ls -lh /dev/s*" shows nothing more than sda->sdh, and these 8 disks is connected to another controller..

I also testet kernel 2.6.17 btw, since I saw in the drivers changelog that that was the last kernel it was updated to, but that version of the kernel doesn't have a new enough driver to the other controller of mine (which my system disk is connected to), so I couldn't boot to try it... 

Is there any tricks here that I'm missing?

Oh, and two more things: I have tried to boot the kernel with acpi=on and acpi=off, without any differences at all + I've tried to compile the driver as a module instead of in the kernel - also without any differences.

Thanks in advance!

_fr0st  :Smile: 

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## _fr0st

Okey, I found out what my problem was, and I think it all breaks down to one thing: HighPoint sucks.

To access the disks connected to 2320 (or any other 2xxx-card) yo _have_ to include them in a RAID. Once you have created a RAID they appears in /dev/.  It can be 8 JBOD's with 8 single disks, thats okey... but 8 single disks without JBOD, no way!

I don't like those kinds of "hardware" raids, if something happends to the controller, I have to buy a new 2xxx-card to restore the raid, I like software RAID  :Smile: 

The other thing is that once I create a RAID on the 2320, my motherboard skips the loading of my next controller! Thats why I never tested making a single JBOD on the 2320, cause then I couldn't boot. It was first when I tried out the hptsrv and hptraidconf tools in linux that I accidentally found out the stupid fact that the a RAID must be made.

If any of you have any idea about how I can use my disks without making 8 JBOD RAIDs I would be very very pleased  :Smile: 

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## _fr0st

I have now found a temp-solution untill I can get an answer from HighPoint if it's possible to load a disk without include it in an array, that I thought I should share with you:

My problem with the arrays on the 2320 card was that whenever I created an array on that card, my motherboard skipped the loading of one of my other cards. I have also read about a bunch of other guys having the same problem, so here's a workaround! (This should work on every HPT 2xxx-cards!)

There is 3 ways to do this, hehe...:

1. Boot up in either DOS or Wintendo (yeah windows guys..), download the BIOS-utility from their homepage (www.highpoint-tech.com), and run:

    - load.exe /C <-- if you are in DOS

    - hptflash.exe /C <-- if you are in Wintendo

   This way you can configure the bios before flashing it, and uncheck "int13".

2. Press the "end" button on your keyboard during POST every time you boot your PC.

3. (This is a funny one, but it actually works) Unplugg all the sata-cables that are connected to the card. Boot your PC, let it finish the POST process. When GRUB/LILO/whatever comes up, connect all the cables again and boot one of your kernels.

The first one of these workarounds skips the BIOS booting feature onboard the controller, and the other 2 methods makes the controller skip the loading of it's BIOS.

I have now created 4 JBOD arrays with one disk in each that I can use untill I get a new controller  :Smile: 

Hope this helps some of you, so you don't have to use as much time as I have on this problem.. 

_fr0st  :Very Happy: 

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## Blef

I have my 2320 set up as a 4 disk raid5 (on card) and can access it fine from linux, with the proprietary open-source kernel module.  It does sort of suck that you can't just leave the drives as plain SATA and use the linux software raid utilities.  My main problem is that I can't boot from these drives?  I installed grub onto the MBR of the raid array. GRUB comes up and starts the boot, but doesn't actually load the initrd.  It just sort of hangs there.  I'm not sure if it is a initrd problem, or something simple like some bad kernel options.  Any one else experience this?  I have the rr232x driver compiled into the kernel, so I don't think its a matter of the kernel not seeing the array.

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## alexcorn

Have any of you gotten the RAID Management utility to run properly in Gentoo? I've been trying for a long time, and Highpoint support is useless. htpsvr seems to start and then immediately bail out, which means that running hptraid and trying to connect to the local host fails. Any ideas?

(By the way, I have gotten the management utility to work fine in SuSE on the same workstation)

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## Blef

Well my boot problam was indeed some kernel misconfiguration that I have not pinned down yet.  Boots fine now direct from the array.  I'll play around with the management utility soon.

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## Nemesis

Any luck with the utility?

Just bought a 500gb hdd to add to my 5 drive array and I just cant get the utility working and thus no more space for my array. =/

uname -a: Linux vishnu 2.6.22-gentoo-r9 #3 SMP Tue Nov 27 17:57:55 CET 2007 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Card: Highpoint RocketRaid 2320

errors: Driver not loaded (with all versions of the opensource driver and utility)

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## Alcyone

I got it (hptraidconf and hptsvr, CLI version) working straight out of the tgz (my version is CLI-Linux-2.3-3-1214.tgz). Notice that just copying the contents of usr/bin to respective places in / aren't enough, you must copy also the contents of usr/share/hpt/hptsvr-*/lib (contains libraries the binaries are linked against).

BTW the newest Highpoint drivers for 2320 (v1.07) work with 2.6.23-series kernels (I'm running on vanilla 2.6.23.14 now and considering to upgrade to 2.6.23.17).

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## Nemesis

Well, I just installed a micro XP besides the linux partition and used the windows utilities... Worked like a charm until I realized I had chosen the wrong disklabel type, msdos. Msdos label wont support 2TB+ volumes and my array just broke that barrier leaving me with a half-resized 238GB JFS partition and alot of lost data. 

Remade the partition as ext3 and used GPT label instead and now it works (except the utilities ofcrs)  :Sad: 

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## Nemesis

I found a solution to the problem which is probably plaguing lots of other people!

http://debianclusters.cs.uni.edu/index.php/HighPoint_RocketRAID:_Installation

It also details a very good install guide for bios update, driver and management utils.

(even tho its for Debian its still a real treat for any linux dist...)

Getting the "Driver is not loaded" is actually a config error as it(for me at least) 

installed a config file(/etc/hptcfg) that says RR232x... 

Well that's fine cause that's the module loaded right? No, not really...

Doing a strace on hptsvr reveals that it is looking for /proc/scsi/RR232x/ and

that it doesn't exist as linux is case sensitive and the open source module is named rr232x

Solution is to just change RR232x(or whatever your /etc/hptcfg contains) to your module...

If you do not know the module name you can get it by doing this:

```
lsmod | grep rr | grep -v scsi | awk '{print $1}'
```

The real treat(for me that is a windows gamer junkie...) with the hptsvr is that you can 

connect to it over your network with the windows GUI. Just install the windows version 

of the gui(except for the service(windows hptsvr) files) and add your server with the 

standard port: 7402 and voila remote gui management...

In case you don't know the standard login(case sensitive):

```
user: RAID

password: apt

```

Getting the utils working is for me nice but still for anyone in the market for a 

hardware raid solution steer clear of "hardware" solutions like the Highpoint cards 

and go for a real raid solution like the 3ware instead...

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