# Highpoint 840A RocketRAID NOT detected [WORKAROUND]

## mael

Hello,

My freshly bought Highpoint 840A RocketRAID Controller and its 8 connected "Samsung 860 EVO" ssd harddrives are NOT detected by the "SCSI_HPTIOP" kernel low-level scsi driver module, but it seems to be the smaller brother of the already from kernel supported 3740A RocketRAID controller by Highpoint.

The only differnence seems to be that the 840A supports only 6Gb/s per channel.

Thats is also confirmed by the top down view onto the expansion card.

In the upper right corner you can see the described dual product markings "RocketRAID 3740A/840A", so the layout and most likely also the raid processor of the controller has been used at least twice by Highpoint.

It also seems that the 840A is a 1:1 clone of the 2840A RocketRAID controller, because on some internetstores the 840A is actually sold as the 2840A.

My controllers firmware is the recent 1.0.0 version.

I couldnt find any other driver module that is matching my controller more closely.

The current published linux drivers by Highpoint are useless under (Gentoo) Linux.

The controller and its connected drives are working flawlessy under Windows 10, so its not damaged.

My motherboard is a "Gigabyte X99-SLI" motherboard with recent F24a bios version.

I am also willingly able to provide regular dump logs to kernel developers for driver debugging.

I would be VERY thankful for including support into the next kernel for this cool piece of hardware! UPDATE: ITS JUNK, DONT BUY IT! PLEASE READ MY LAST 3 POSTS!  :Twisted Evil: 

Top-down view onto the expansion card:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images1000x1000/highpoint_rocketraid_3740a_12gb_s_pcie_1269779.jpg

dmesg outputs only this, then nothing else related to my controller:

```
RocketRAID 3xxx/4xxx Controller driver v1.10.0
```

lspci -kvv outputs this:

```
02:00.0 RAID bus controller: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. Device 0840 (rev a1)

        Subsystem: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. Device 0000

        Physical Slot: 6

        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-

        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-

        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes

        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11

        NUMA node: 0

        Region 0: Memory at d0900000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=1M]

        Region 4: Memory at d0a00000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256K]

        Expansion ROM at dfe00000 [disabled] [size=128K]

        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 3

                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0+,D1+,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold-)

                Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

        Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable- Count=1/32 Maskable+ 64bit+

                Address: 0000000000000000  Data: 0000

                Masking: 00000000  Pending: 00000000

        Capabilities: [b0] MSI-X: Enable- Count=18 Masked-

                Vector table: BAR=0 offset=00038000

                PBA: BAR=0 offset=00039000

        Capabilities: [c0] Express (v2) Endpoint, MSI 00

                DevCap: MaxPayload 512 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <128ns, L1 <2us

                        ExtTag- AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset- SlotPowerLimit 0.000W

                DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-

                        RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop+

                        MaxPayload 256 bytes, MaxReadReq 512 bytes

                DevSta: CorrErr+ UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq+ AuxPwr- TransPend-

                LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 8GT/s, Width x8, ASPM L0s L1, Exit Latency L0s <128ns, L1 <2us

                        ClockPM- Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot- ASPMOptComp+

                LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- CommClk-

                        ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-

                LnkSta: Speed 8GT/s, Width x8, TrErr- Train- SlotClk- DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-

                DevCap2: Completion Timeout: Range B, TimeoutDis+, LTR-, OBFF Not Supported

                DevCtl2: Completion Timeout: 50us to 50ms, TimeoutDis-, LTR-, OBFF Disabled

                LnkCtl2: Target Link Speed: 8GT/s, EnterCompliance- SpeedDis-

                         Transmit Margin: Normal Operating Range, EnterModifiedCompliance- ComplianceSOS-

                         Compliance De-emphasis: -6dB

                LnkSta2: Current De-emphasis Level: -6dB, EqualizationComplete+, EqualizationPhase1+

                         EqualizationPhase2+, EqualizationPhase3+, LinkEqualizationRequest-

        Capabilities: [100 v2] Advanced Error Reporting

                UESta:  DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-

                UEMsk:  DLP- SDES- TLP- FCP- CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF- MalfTLP- ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-

                UESvrt: DLP+ SDES+ TLP- FCP+ CmpltTO- CmpltAbrt- UnxCmplt- RxOF+ MalfTLP+ ECRC- UnsupReq- ACSViol-

                CESta:  RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr-

                CEMsk:  RxErr- BadTLP- BadDLLP- Rollover- Timeout- NonFatalErr+

                AERCap: First Error Pointer: 00, GenCap+ CGenEn- ChkCap+ ChkEn-

        Capabilities: [300 v1] #19
```

Highpoints 800er series RocketRAID website:

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series-rr800-overview.htm

Highpoints 3700er series RocketRAID website:

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series-rr3700-overview.htm

I also reported this to the kernel bugzilla bugtracker already:

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=198975Last edited by mael on Tue Dec 18, 2018 2:12 pm; edited 3 times in total

----------

## NeddySeagoon

mael,

Welcome to Gentoo.

What does 

```
lspci -knn
```

tell for the card?

The important bits are the vendor and device IDs

If none of the drivers in the kernel know them, none of the drivers will bind to the card.

It may be as simple as a one line change to a kernel driver so it knows about your card.

----------

## mael

thank you for your quick advice,

actualy i am already a veteran user of gentoo but this is the first problem i couldnt resolv by net research  :Wink: 

keep up the goog support work  :Smile:   :Smile:   :Smile: 

lspci -knn outputs this:

```

02:00.0 RAID bus controller [0104]: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. Device [1103:0840] (rev a1)

        Subsystem: HighPoint Technologies, Inc. Device [1103:0000]

```

cant wait to move my gentoo onto the raid phalanx   :Twisted Evil: 

----------

## blopsalot

u forgot to look at manufacturer website

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/BIOS_Driver/RR3740A_840A/Linux/RR3740A_840A_Linux_Src_v1.14.0_16_11_11.tar.gz

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/PDF/News_Review/Linux_Driver_Auto_Compile_Feature.pdf

----------

## mael

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> The current published linux drivers by Highpoint are useless under (Gentoo) Linux.
> 
> 

 

no, i diddnt! this "autocompile" feature doesnt work under gentoo and the drivers itself are fashioned for other older distros like debian and centos

----------

## blopsalot

yeah i'd use the kernel raid as opposed to some nvidia type drivers for a RAID card

----------

## mael

device drivers should be as always ias soon as possible integrated into the kernel. experimental stuff can be included in the staging area of the sources... 

at least i am happy that highpoint has "open source" drivers that can be in some way reverse engineered and adapted into it! we dont need another nvidia like behavior

----------

## mael

Has anybody an idea if this problem is beeing worked on?

----------

## krinn

well, you've made the bug report to kernel.org, and we're not highpoint software company, so what did you expect?

but, if you are feeling dangerous, and your assertion that the 840A is a 1:1 clone of the 2840A is true, then you might just hack yourself the driver, because generally there's no huge mechanism to detect a card other than just checking its pci vendorid:deviceid ; so if its the case and assuming the card won't burn and assuming indeed they are just clone, you can alter the 2840A pci info in the driver to the one use by your 840A and if it work, jump like mad, yelling that you did it!

----------

## mael

highpoint has ABSOLUTLY no interest to integrate in-kernel drivers for the rocketraid 800er series.

also the raid controller CANNOT boot from RAID 6, RAID 5 yes but no bootable RAID 6 arrays were supported! best of it it wasnt pointed out in their advertising, that only RAID 6 as a non-bootable data array is supported because of a small f*****g firmware bug which they dont wanna fix, but only delivering much lies AND excuses... i smell big fraud here! anyone interested taking part in a US-based class action lawsuit? feel free to contact me via private messages

i almost locked myself out after converting via the web management gui the raid 5 array to raid 6, the controller didnt recognize the system partition anymore, therefore my system went almost unuseable... but thanks to a emergency backup gentoo on a classic spinning drive i survived it  :Wink:  even the gui didnt warn me, that raid 6 is not bootable on their controllers! yes, not even on more expensive 2000/3000 series rocketraid cards, according to a support engineer   :Evil or Very Mad:   :Evil or Very Mad:   :Evil or Very Mad: 

i had a very interesting (NEGATIVE) conversation logged with an (support)engineer and would WITH CLEAN CONSIENCE NOT recommend to buy any products from them... they are like nvidia, to recite mr. torvalds: "they just want to sell chips..."

now i am looking for a new raid 6 bootable hardware raid controller... pricing doesnt matter, only the following...

- BOOTABLE RAID 6 ARRAY SUPPORT  :Twisted Evil: 

- PCIEe 3.0+ card

- 16 sata drive support via 4 internal SFF-8643 mini-SAS HD connectors

- NOT FROM HIGHPOINT TECHNOLOGIES  :Exclamation:   :Exclamation:   :Exclamation: 

- already (mature) full in-kernel driver support

- completly managability over a clean and structured firmware interface

- some kind of a opensource cli or (qt-based) gui managenent tool would be nice but is NOT mandatorial

my simple plan is just swap the pcie card, reconfigure and reinstalling my kernel for the new raid controller, moving the backup partitions on the new raid 6 array, reconfiguring grub, rebooting and FINALLY enjoying gentoo powered by raid!  

has anybody a recommendation what controller matches that criteria or anybody here using a 16 disk raid 6 under gentoo? still smoking of anger about highpoint here... taking a cold shower now!

----------

## mael

thanks again all for the massive help here, but for me the case is closed!

i ordered already the:

Areca ARC-1883ix-16 PCIe Hardware Raid Controller

https://www.areca.com.tw/products/1883.htm

Product Picture:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91lJ6t1gicL._SL1500_.jpg

as a worthy replacement, the only drawback seems he is nearly 2,5 times as expensive than its highpoint counterpart  :Crying or Very sad: 

needed in-kernel driver module: 

```
 SCSI_ARCMSR 
```

i talked a lot with a VERY friendly and competent support engineer from areca...they  seems areca manage things like amd style : open and transparent

also thanks to areca for perfect linux driver support und regular firmware updates on reported problems ... unlike highpoint

----------

## mael

so, i wanna give a final status update and want to mark this thread as [WORKAROUND]

my new Areca raid controller works like a charm (DAMM FAST SYSTEM NOW!!! i STRONGLY recommend also to use a ram disk for compiling) and i just switched completly to gentoo linux ... finally the crapware filled windows 10 free YEAH!!!  :Twisted Evil: 

and the moral of the story is ... stay away from highpoint take areca if you need reliable, ultra-fast throughput and ultra-low access times in data storage solutions (especially in a linux based environment  :Wink:  )...

i admit they are more expensive BUT they are worth it every penny ... PERFECT HARDWARE, PERFECT FIRMWARE, PERFECT IN-KERNEL OPEN SOURCE DRIVERS, PERFECT SUPPORT, I REALLY THINK THEY DONT KNOW THE TERM "DISCONTINUED PRODUCTS"... unlike highpoint

THUMBS UP ARECA  :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:   :Razz:  you are now my first choice when buying raid controller stuff  :Exclamation: 

ah yes i almost forgot: ... a final word to highpoint ... i have completly logged the support ticket discussion on one page and still have plans to publish it so every interested one can take a look on your "buisness methods", because your company has the worst (product) support i ever encountered in my engineers life and other customers should be protected from you! DONT EVEN TRY TO SUE ME OR YOU WILL WAKE THE SLEEPING DRAGON ... we in germany are proud to have a constitutional law thats called "meinungsfreiheit" (translation: freedom of speech) which is backed-up by proveable facts...

----------

