# LSI Megaraid i4 - 2006.0 LiveCD - No Devices

## potsofdirt

I am 99% sure this card uses the old megaraid driver (it currently have FC4 installed using that). Is there any way to get the 2006.0 LiveCD to recognize the card so that I can try to install Gentoo on it? 

I don't know if it will help, but here is the lspci output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (different version?) (rev c1)

00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 1 (rev c1)

00:00.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 4 (rev c1)

00:00.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 3 (rev c1)

00:00.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 2 (rev c1)

00:00.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 5 (rev c1)

00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP2A ISA bridge (rev a3)

00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP2A SMBus (rev a1)

00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP2A USB Controller (rev a1)

00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP2A USB Controller (rev a1)

00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP2A USB Controller (rev a2)

00:04.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP2A Ethernet Controller (rev a3)

00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation MCP2S AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a1)

00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP2A PCI Bridge (rev a3)

00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP2A IDE (rev a3)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (rev c1)

01:06.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6120/VT6121/VT6122 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev 11)

01:07.0 RAID bus controller: American Megatrends Inc. MegaRAID (rev 02)

01:09.0 PCI bridge: Hint Corp HB6 Universal PCI-PCI bridge (non-transparent mode) (rev 11)

02:00.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:01.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:02.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:03.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:04.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:05.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:06.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:07.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:08.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:09.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:0a.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:0b.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:0c.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:0d.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:0e.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:0f.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:10.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:11.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:12.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:13.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:14.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:15.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:16.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:17.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:18.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:19.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:1a.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:1b.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:1c.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:1d.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:1e.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

02:1f.0 Multimedia video controller: Internext Compression Inc iTVC16 (CX23416) MPEG-2 Encoder (rev 01)

03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)

gentoo@livecd ~ $ sudo lspci -n

00:00.0 0600: 10de:01e0 (rev c1)

00:00.1 0500: 10de:01eb (rev c1)

00:00.2 0500: 10de:01ee (rev c1)

00:00.3 0500: 10de:01ed (rev c1)

00:00.4 0500: 10de:01ec (rev c1)

00:00.5 0500: 10de:01ef (rev c1)

00:01.0 0601: 10de:0080 (rev a3)

00:01.1 0c05: 10de:0084 (rev a1)

00:02.0 0c03: 10de:0087 (rev a1)

00:02.1 0c03: 10de:0087 (rev a1)

00:02.2 0c03: 10de:0088 (rev a2)

00:04.0 0680: 10de:008c (rev a3)

00:06.0 0401: 10de:008a (rev a1)

00:08.0 0604: 10de:008b (rev a3)

00:09.0 0101: 10de:0085 (rev a3)

00:1e.0 0604: 10de:01e8 (rev c1)

01:06.0 0200: 1106:3119 (rev 11)

01:07.0 0104: 101e:1960 (rev 02)

01:09.0 0604: 3388:0021 (rev 11)

02:00.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:01.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:02.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:03.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:04.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:05.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:06.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:07.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:08.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:09.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:0a.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:0b.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:0c.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:0d.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:0e.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:0f.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:10.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:11.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:12.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:13.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:14.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:15.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:16.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:17.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:18.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:19.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:1a.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:1b.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:1c.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:1d.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:1e.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

02:1f.0 0400: 4444:0016 (rev 01)

03:00.0 0300: 10de:0322 (rev a1)

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## dsd

the device support was shuffled around recently. it is now only supported by the new-gen megaraid driver. i think the module is called megaraid_mbox. remember to boot the livecd with the 'doscsi' option.

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## potsofdirt

Thanks for the pointer. I used modprobe to load the megaraid_mbox module but still nothing in /dev for the card. Is there anything else I should have to do?

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## dsd

not exactly sure. try looking at "dmesg" output after loading the driver. also make sure that the sd (scsi disk) module is loaded.

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## potsofdirt

Again, thank you for the help. I really don't have any experience debugging hardware issues like this with Linux.

The relevant info from dmesg is:

megaraid cmm: 2.20.2.6 (Release Date: Mon Mar 7 00:01:03 EST 2005)

megaraid: 2.20.4.6 (Release Date: Mon Mar 07 12:27:22 EST 2005)

This does not seem to change whether I have the megaraid_mbox module loaded or not. By default when I boot the system the megaraid module is loaded. Could this be causing issues? I tried adding megariad_mbox with and without the megaraid module loaded.

Also I tried to load the module sd, but it was not found. Is there an alternative for this? I made sure when I booted the live CD to boot "gentoo doscsi".

Here is the output from lsmod (if it helps):

```
livecd scsi # lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

megaraid               30440  0

ipv6                  187744  10

parport_pc             26948  0

floppy                 46244  0

pcspkr                  1156  0

rtc                     8948  0

forcedeth              16356  0

via_velocity           22400  0

crc_ccitt               1216  1 via_velocity

mptfc                   5060  0

mptspi                  5352  0

mptscsih               23984  2 mptfc,mptspi

mptbase                34208  3 mptfc,mptspi,mptscsih

atp870u                25248  0

dc395x                 25904  0

sim710                  3396  0

53c700                 20672  1 sim710

qla1280               112172  0

imm                     9352  0

parport                21544  2 parport_pc,imm

dmx3191d               10752  0

sym53c8xx              60244  0

qlogicfas408            3784  0

aha152x                28880  0

aha1740                 5696  0

BusLogic               62100  0

aic7xxx               131252  0

aic79xx               156888  0

scsi_transport_spi     13216  4 53c700,sym53c8xx,aic7xxx,aic79xx

sg                     24672  0

dm_mirror              14672  0

dm_mod                 37048  1 dm_mirror

pdc_adma                6212  0

sata_mv                12516  0

ata_piix                6532  0

ahci                    9124  0

sata_qstor              6468  0

sata_vsc                5316  0

sata_uli                4644  0

sata_sis                5220  0

sata_sx4               10052  0

sata_nv              ]   5924  0

sata_via                5668  0

sata_svw                4932  0

sata_sil24              7684  0

sata_sil                6244  0

sata_promise            7716  0

libata                 35912  15 pdc_adma,sata_mv,ata_piix,ahci,sata_qstor,sata_vsc,sata_uli,sata_sis,sata_sx4,sata_nv,sata_via,sata_svw,sata_sil24,sata_sil,sata_promise

sbp2                   16484  0

ohci1394               25140  0

ieee1394               57272  2 sbp2,ohci1394

sl811_hcd               9344  0

ohci_hcd               14916  0

uhci_hcd               24144  0

usb_storage            49920  0

usbhid                 28992  0

ehci_hcd               22856  0

usbcore                80068  7 sl811_hcd,ohci_hcd,uhci_hcd,usb_storage,usbhid,ehci_hcd
```

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## dsd

sorry, i meant sd_mod

after you load the megaraid_mbox module i'd expect it to print more messages, about the detection of the hardware.

please post the output of "lspci -vns 01:07.0"

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## potsofdirt

sd_mod also could not be found. I tried looking in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/scsi and couldn't find anything that included 'sd'

When i 'modprobe megaraid_mbox' the following is appended to the end of dmesg output:

```

megaraid cmm: 2.20.2.6 (Release Date: Mon Mar 7 00:01:03 EST 2005)

megaraid: 2.20.4.6 (Release Date: Mon Mar 07 12:27:22 EST 2005)

```

and the output of "lspci -vns 01:07.0" is:

```

01:07.0 0104: 101e:1960 (rev 02)

        Subsystem: 101e:0511

        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11

        Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64K]

        [virtual] Expansion ROM at e0010000 [disabled] [size=32K]

        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2

```

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## potsofdirt

I just noticed this in the dmesg output and I thought maybe it is relevant since it mentions LSI Logic (I included a few lines before and after):

```

input,hiddev96: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [??¡???? ??????????????????????????????] on usb-0000:00:02.1-3

device-mapper: 4.4.0-ioctl (2005-01-12) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com

NCR53c406a: no available ports found

scsi: <fdomain> Detection failed (no card)

GDT-HA: Storage RAID Controller Driver. Version: 3.04

GDT-HA: Found 0 PCI Storage RAID Controllers

qlogicfas: no cards were found, please specify I/O address and IRQ using iobase= and irq= optionsFailed initialization of WD-7000 SCSI card!

NCR53c406a: no available ports found

imm: Version 2.05 (for Linux 2.4.0)

sym53c416.c: Version 1.0.0-ac

Fusion MPT base driver 3.03.04

Copyright (c) 1999-2005 LSI Logic Corporation

Fusion MPT SPI Host driver 3.03.04

Fusion MPT FC Host driver 3.03.04

ReiserFS: hdc: warning: sh-2021: reiserfs_fill_super: can not find reiserfs on hdc

VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev hdc.

VFS: Can't find an ext2 filesystem on dev hdc.

```

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## dsd

how irritating.

the megaraid_mbox driver in 2.6.15 only selectively supports the Megaraid3 devices (it checks their subsystem) rather than supporting the full range of devices based on vendor/product ID.

the legacy megaraid driver supported all megaraid3 devices based on VID/PID, before gentoo modified it in 2.6.15.

given that we tested this patch for several months in the portage tree before putting it on a livecd, i was convinced that there were no megaraid3 devices available which had subsystems other than the ones listed in megaraid_mbox.

your subsystem is not listed in the mbox driver, so the driver does not pick it up. this means that neither driver on the livecd will work.

as this was fixed properly in 2.6.16, the next Gentoo livecd release will solve this problem. for now, you need to either use an older Gentoo livecd and use the legacy 'megaraid' driver during install, or find another type of livecd and install gentoo through that, using the megaraid_mbox driver if that livecd is 2.6.16 or newer.

another option is using a different SCSI controller at install time, then switching to megaraid_mbox on 2.6.16 once things are up and running.

sorry about that.

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## potsofdirt

So if I were to use install-x86-minimal-2005.1-r1.iso I should be able to boot off of that, correct?

With the netinstall, I assume I will be building the latest kernel and everything, so I should get 2.6.16 and be able to boot once I have that installed?

Thanks for your help! I have found that this card is probably the biggest problem when installing Linux, but it is nice to have some difinitive answers to work with.

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## dsd

i think that should be ok, but i cant remember for definite if our megaraid patch (which broke support for your device) was included back then

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## dsd

oh, completely forgot

its not that easy. here's a bit of history:

we traditionally shipped the original megaraid on our release media. then megaraid_mbox was added to the kernel, with one annoying restriction: you could not build megaraid-legacy and megaraid_mbox into the same kernel (even as separate modules), meaning that no distro could support both hardware ranges on release media.

dell came along and shipped millions and millions of servers with devices only supported by the mbox driver and we had plenty of users asking that we dropped megaraid-legacy in favour of megaraid_mbox - and we did, starting from 2004.3. most other distros did the same.

then about a zillion users came along and told us that dropping megaraid-legacy was bad because they couldnt install gentoo any more.

that wasn't much fun, so i produced the patch which we included in 2005.1, which allowed both drivers to coexist. (while the patch seemed to be ok, and many users jumped for joy, it apparently wasnt quite right since it totally excluded support for your hardware)

after that, i persuaded LSI to fix the drivers so that both could be built, and they produced a slightly different patch which was included in linux as of 2.6.16.

so, if you want to install gentoo from a current livecd, you need to find a livecd which is either brand new (based on 2.6.16) and inclusive of the megaraid_mbox driver (which now works with your hardware), or you need to find a live cd which is sufficiently *old* because almost all distro's dropped megaraid-legacy when mbox came along.

in terms of old livecds, if you hop in your time machine and go back to 2004.2, i think that one will work (using the legacy driver). as for new livecds, a fellow developer recommends kanotix, which is based on 2.6.16, and hopefully includes the mbox driver. http://debian.tu-bs.de/project/kanotix/preview/KANOTIX-2006-Easter-RC4.iso

yes, there are no problems with installing from an old livecd if you do a networked install (i.e. use 2004.2 livecd but 2006.0 stages). the livecd which you are booted from falls out of the equation quite early on, so as long as it boots, you are good to go.

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## meulie

Any idea on where I can obtain a 2004.2 livecd ?    :Crying or Very sad: 

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## meulie

Well, I found a 2004.2 version, but of course that doesn't seem to support the Broadcom ethernet interfaces...   :Sad: 

Just wondering: How easy/difficult would it be to insert a more modern kernel into the current livecd?

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