# [solved]  SATA Raid, SATA HDD, Grub and a huge mess.

## barlad

Hey there,

here is the setup: 

I have a P4G8X motherboard with a Silicon Image 3112 SATARaid Controller. I just got myself a SATA HDD from Maxtor.

From what I saw in the 2.6 kernel there is support for my silicon image chipset so it should not be too much of a problem to have it working.

I now have 3 hdd:

2 scsi (sda/sdb) and 1 SATA.

The problem is that when I plugin my SATA HDD, Grub crashes and I cannot boot.  Grub is installed on the MBR (i.e hd0 which is sda).

I guess it comes from the fact that I have to install it when it can see the 3 harddrives and not 2 of them. I.E I have to boot in a working environment recognizing my SATA controller and my SATA hdd and then reinstall grub on the MBR, right?

Well my question is how do I do that? The livecd I have (gentoo 1.4 pentium IV) does not recognize my SATA controller and there is no module called siimage (which is the one used by 2.6 kernel). Thus, I have no way to boot in a sane environment seeing my 3 hdds.

Any clue please?Last edited by barlad on Tue Nov 04, 2003 9:07 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## pross

the smp boot image supports silimage..you have to put:-

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> smp doataraid
> 
> 

 

----------

## taskara

um.. what's the boot sequence in the bios.

make sure it's hdd first, then scsi / sata after

btw, if u are only using 1 hdd, then u do not need raid - so make sure you don't go into the silicon image bios and create a raid array.

just let it detect the hdd, then keep on booting.

hope this helps

----------

## barlad

OK thanks, I made some progress but it still does not work:

I booted with the regular gentoo livecd kernel which does support perfectly my SiI chipset. I figured out why grub is messed up: the sata device became hd0 so I need to put grub on it.

The problem is that after putting grub on it and changing accordingly my grub.conf I get the follow thing:

"Loading Grub Stage 1.5

Grub Loading please wait..."

The PC does not crash, it just hangs at Grub Loading please wait...

Nothing happens.

here is my grub.conf

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> timeout 30
> 
> default 0
> ...

 

Linux is on SDB, linux boot is on sdb1

Windows is on sda.

I am starting to wonder if there is not a problem with my SATA drive MBR. If that's the case, is there anyway I can install grub somewhere else (i.e some other partitions) and have my system boots on it?

----------

## Garbz

On my computer back when i was using the promise PDC controller, starting grub took 35 minutes.  (found out as a fluke cause i was called to dinner).

Try that.

Also i'd just add that the support for your chipset is very grey atm.  I personally haven't been able to get gentoo running on it (suse runs fine).  Gentoo (all live cds) didn't detect the Raid array!

----------

## Garbz

On my computer back when i was using the promise PDC controller, starting grub took 35 minutes.  (found out as a fluke cause i was called to dinner).

Try that.

Also i'd just add that the support for your chipset is very grey atm.  I personally haven't been able to get gentoo running on it (suse runs fine).  Gentoo (all live cds) didn't detect the Raid array!

If you do get this working, I sugest you write a quick howto.  That will prevent a LOT of these repeditive Silicon Image + SATA RAID problems.

----------

## barlad

I let grub run for a couple hours (well I went to work whlie it was running) but still no go. I assume it is not working at all.

I am really pissed about that... SiI does some god damn RAID components that are to be used on servers using UNIX/LINUX and their drivers do not even work decently. I cannot boot into my computer but even if I could, from what I saw with the liveCD, the driver is so poor and most likely bugged that I get a whoopy 1,24MB/s output with hdparm.

Anyway, enough with the rant, back to the subject.

Anyone knows if there is any way to have the computer assign hd0, hd1 to my scsi drivers and then hd2 to my sata drive instead of doing hd0 to sata drive and then hd1/hd2 to my scsi HDDs. There must be something  to do in the bios about it but I have not seen anything like that.

I read somewhere a command called "reverse-ide" that I could put in GRUB. 

Any idea?

----------

## barlad

All right, it's solved..

The solution is: ditch grub, use lilo. Well that's a temporary solution at least, till I find out what's wrong with grub. (I remember putting a lba32 in lilo.conf, might need to specify that too in grub)

As for the SiI chipset, it seems to work ok under 2.6 test 6.

I am getting this with hdparm:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> /dev/hde:
> 
>  Timing buffered disk reads:  124 MB in  3.02 seconds =  41.01 MB/sec
> ...

 

I am not sure if that's really good but at least, that's better than the 1,42 mb/s I get with 2.4 kernel.

----------

## taskara

Did you take my suggestion and change the boot sequence in the bios?

if u had, then Linux should have seen the sata as hd2, and your machine woudl not be trying to boot from it, and you wouldn't have had to change any boot loader information.

----------

## barlad

Nah that's not possible. The ASUS bios is about one of the worst piece of crap I have ever seen.

SATA Disk information does not appear in Asus Bios,  only PATA are managed by ASUS bios. As for the SATA Controller BIOS, all it let me do is create a Raid set. (thanks SiI). I don't have access to SATA in the boot sequence.  It is taken first, no  matter what.

Anyway, the boot sequence in P4G8X Deluxe BIOS is totally screwed and if you write to ASUS tech support about it they take one week to answer: "Please, plug out your hard drive and see if it works". Thanks Einstein.

I am bitter today ;p

----------

## taskara

hehe ahh well at least it's all working for you  :Smile: 

----------

