# Promise FastTrack TX4310

## xorinox

Dear Gentoo Community,

a few weeks ago I have started to create a very nice and small gentoo nas server using a few very exciting components listed below. Before I ordered them I was very sure it should be possible to make them working under Gentoo but it looks like I have to give up here. Either the builtin driver than the source code from the website I wasn't able to bring to work.  :Sad: 

Gentoo kernel 2.6.15-r1 config (after a lt of tries it ended up with the latest kernel version   :Smile:  )

Device drivers

-> SCSI device support

-> SCSI low level drivers

-> Serial ATA (SATA) Support

-> Promise SATA TX2/TX4 support

Components:

FastTrack TX4310 SATA-RAID controler

SuperSwap 4100

Maybe there is a generic sata-raid driver available which has not all features but at least access to the raid controler attached hard drives. I have also tried to compile to the source code driver from the Promise website called FastTrak TX2300/4300 Linux Partial Source Code. But there I have several problems finding all header files e.g. blk.h and tqueue. h and Promise doesn't over any support for this source code. I never could find them in any kernel sources. Googeling the problem does not bring many results.  Last idea I had to somehow use the binary drivers for Redhat or Suse Promise offers at least. Maybe one of you guys is able to help me.

Cheers XorinoxLast edited by xorinox on Sun Feb 12, 2006 12:29 pm; edited 2 times in total

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## dsd

please post "lspci" and "lspci -n" output

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## xorinox

Hi dsd, here the inforamtion you asked for. Thanks for looking into it. Cheers

nehemiah ~ # lspci

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8623 [Apollo CLE266]

0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8633 [Apollo Pro266 AGP]

0000:00:08.0 RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc.: Unknown device 3515 (rev 02)

0000:00:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)

0000:00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)

0000:00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)

0000:00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)

0000:00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)

0000:00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge

0000:00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)

0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)

0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)

0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8623 [Apollo CLE266] integrated CastleRock graphics (rev 03)

nehemiah ~ # lspci -n

0000:00:00.0 Class 0600: 1106:3123

0000:00:01.0 Class 0604: 1106:b091

0000:00:08.0 Class 0104: 105a:3515 (rev 02)

0000:00:09.0 Class 0c00: 1106:3044 (rev 80)

0000:00:10.0 Class 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 80)

0000:00:10.1 Class 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 80)

0000:00:10.2 Class 0c03: 1106:3038 (rev 80)

0000:00:10.3 Class 0c03: 1106:3104 (rev 82)

0000:00:11.0 Class 0601: 1106:3177

0000:00:11.1 Class 0101: 1106:0571 (rev 06)

0000:00:11.5 Class 0401: 1106:3059 (rev 50)

0000:00:12.0 Class 0200: 1106:3065 (rev 74)

0000:01:00.0 Class 0300: 1106:3122 (rev 03)

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## dsd

please try this patch: http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd/kernel/sata-promise-tx4310.patch

be cautious when testing, since patching storage drivers has its risks (but this will almost certainly 'just work')

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## xorinox

Hi dsd,

I have installed the patch on the file patch -p1 < /usr/src/patches/sata-promise-tx4310.patch and gave the input linux/drivers/scsi/sata_promise.c

Afterwards cat linux/drivers/scsi/sata_promise.c |grep 3515 gave an result.

Have compiled it make && make modules_install && make install

After loading the the module, the date was new, still the same lspci output. I'm writing you that because it was the first time I have patched some files myself. Maybe there is a mistake but I don't think so. What's very interesting dmesg output is showing me the lines below. I'm testing now connecting the harddrives to it. I'm not yet sure if it means that the patch was successfull.

Thanks for help,

Cheers Xorinox

libata version 1.20 loaded.

sata_promise 0000:00:08.0: version 1.03

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:08.0[A] -> Link [LNKA] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11

ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xDE984200 ctl 0xDE984238 bmdma 0x0 irq 11

ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xDE984280 ctl 0xDE9842B8 bmdma 0x0 irq 11

ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xDE984300 ctl 0xDE984338 bmdma 0x0 irq 11

ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xDE984380 ctl 0xDE9843B8 bmdma 0x0 irq 11

ata1: no device found (phy stat 00000000)

scsi0 : sata_promise

ata2: no device found (phy stat 00000000)

scsi1 : sata_promise

ata3: no device found (phy stat 00000000)

scsi2 : sata_promise

ata4: no device found (phy stat 00000000)

scsi3 : sata_promise

Have just installed klive  :Smile: 

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## xorinox

Hi dsd,

it looks like it's working, great !!! What I could not find is the specific raid5 volume I have created in the controlers bios. Is there any chance how to find out? dmesg didn't tell me to much. I have just access to the single drives. It looks like the driver is just wokring in a sata controler mode than raid mode. If there is nothing I can do, I will create a software raid that would also work.

Just for letting you know not that I'm very said about that the "monitoring" leds from the hard drives are not working.

Cheers Xorinox

nehemiah ~ # hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

 Timing cached reads:   536 MB in  2.01 seconds = 266.38 MB/sec

 Timing buffered disk reads:  168 MB in  3.03 seconds =  55.41 MB/sec

nehemiah ~ # hdparm -tT /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:

 Timing cached reads:   556 MB in  2.01 seconds = 276.88 MB/sec

 Timing buffered disk reads:  168 MB in  3.02 seconds =  55.70 MB/sec

nehemiah ~ # hdparm -tT /dev/sdc

/dev/sdc:

 Timing cached reads:   552 MB in  2.01 seconds = 274.88 MB/sec

 Timing buffered disk reads:  168 MB in  3.01 seconds =  55.77 MB/sec

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## dsd

great! indeed it will not affect lspci output - whether lspci can name a device or not is *no* reflection as to whether the kernel can or cannot support a device.

lspci has a totally independent database. if you run "update-pciids" you'll find that lspci now has a name for the device.

i'll send the patch upstream for hopeful inclusion in 2.6.16. thanks for testing and getting back to me.

as for the RAID, well, its not real hardware RAID, its what is commonly known as "fake RAID", i.e. RAID implemented by the BIOS which is supposed to look like real RAID.

if you really want to use promise fakeRAID then you can use dmraid which supports the fasttrak format. there is a brief readme here:

http://people.redhat.com/~heinzm/sw/dmraid/readme

the required tools are in portage, however there isn't any official Gentoo documentation on setting up dmraid (if you feel like contributing some, please attach something to bug #104942!). you might try searching the gentoo wiki to get started.[/bug]

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## xorinox

hi dsd,

thanks a lot for your help. It's one of my main reason why I'm using gentoo. The help you can get is just awesome!

Was just checking dmraid, a good introduction could be found in the forum itself. I think my controller or hard disks are just to new!

Dmraid -s generates the following error message:

dmraid -s

ERROR: pdc: identifying /dev/sda, magic_0: 0x11cd3387/0x290208, magic_1: 0x11cd3                                        387/0x2f80208, total_disks: 3

ERROR: pdc: identifying /dev/sdb, magic_0: 0x11cd3387/0x280208, magic_1: 0x11cd3                                        387/0x2f80208, total_disks: 3

ERROR: pdc: identifying /dev/sdc, magic_0: 0x11cd3387/0x270208, magic_1: 0x11cd3                                        387/0x2f80208, total_disks: 3

No RAID disks

dmraid -V

dmraid version:         1.0.0.rc8 (2005.05.19) shared

dmraid library version: 1.0.0.rc8 (2005.05.19)

updating the lspci database did help indeed! I'm no creating a software raid and let you guys know if its working.

Cheers Xorinox

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## xorinox

...- it's working great the software raid. Just not high performing about 4.5mb/s over the network using samba. It's related to the slow via nehemiah cpu I think. It was the original idea to have the controller does help to do the raid work instead of the cpu but ok.

Cheers Xorinox

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## bosto

heya, i am interested in buying this raid controller and i am wondering, is it already supported by recent linux kernel (gentoo patched) or is the patch from this thread still needed to make it work? Id like to use bootable software raid1 array, is this possible with this controller ?

Thx for replies   :Very Happy: 

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## xorinox

...- it is supported by the recent driver but booting from a raid1 will not work as it works only as a sata controller and does not support the bios raid feature of the controller itself. This would be maybe possible with the linux driver from Promise but I was not able to compile it and Promise was not very helpfull. I'm using it as a sata controller only but have created a software raid. I actually described it here: http://de.gentoo-wiki.com/Raid_5_Verbund_mit_mdadm_erstellen

If you realy need performance and a good driver support go for a different controller with real hardware raid.

cheers

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