# 2.6 kernel for emulating 2.6 drivers?

## nlieb

First post: new to Gentoo, haven't even compiled my kernel yet. Read through the how to and it seems straightforward enough. I'm writing because I need hardware buying advice, ie, I would like to ask: if I buy this hardware will it work with my linux?

There's a really really cheap raid controller I have my eye on that's on ebay, a 3Ware 9550SX-12SI. Does absolutely everything I need for literally a tenth to a twentieth the cost of what I could get new today. Only problem is, being old, its latest drivers are for the 2.6 kernel. Ideally, I would run open-source drivers, but I'm not sure if there are any. If there aren't, my other idea was that it might be possible to emulate the 2.6 kernel within my compiled 3.* environment, using 2.6 to pass data to 3.*. Does anyone have any ideas about how I might go about doing this? Otherwise, I'll just find another card, just sounded like fun trying to get this working.

Thanks,

Ned

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## nlieb

It strikes me that I could just install in 2.6, but then forever after I'd be restricted to 2.6.

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## krinn

Just check if kernel 3x have drivers for it, you're 2x->3x is a no go.

As usual many hardware vendors does a basic drivers for kernel X so they can say it's working under linux and drop their support after, most of the time they gave help to the open driver maintainer to make it work.

I'm not sure if anyone really seriously has used vendor provided drivers

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## nlieb

 *krinn wrote:*   

> Just check if kernel 3x have drivers for it, you're 2x->3x is a no go.
> 
> As usual many hardware vendors does a basic drivers for kernel X so they can say it's working under linux and drop their support after, most of the time they gave help to the open driver maintainer to make it work.
> 
> I'm not sure if anyone really seriously has used vendor provided drivers

 

How would I find out whether or not someone has continued working on these drivers? Is there a list somewhere of drivers included with the kernel?

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## Otamay

From http://www.3ware.com/support/OS-Support.asp#lincon :

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> 9550SX(U) Series
> 
> Officially supported Linux distributions (x86 & x86_64) versions
> ...

 

It says that the module is included in the kernel mainline since 2.6.14.

According to google "modprobe 9550sx" , the module is named "3w-9xxx" which is under Device Drivers -> SCSI device support -> SCSI low-level drivers . I think it should work.

--EDIT--

(Checked under 3.8.0 kernel)

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## NeddySeagoon

nlieb,

The 3.8.0 kernel says:-

```
CONFIG_SCSI_3W_9XXX:                                                           │  

  │                                                                                │  

  │ This driver supports the 9000 series 3ware SATA-RAID cards.                    │  

  │                                                                                │  

  │ <http://www.amcc.com>                                                          │  

  │                                                                                │  

  │ Please read the comments at the top of                                         │  

  │ <file:drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.c>.                                                 │  

  │                                                                                │  

  │ Symbol: SCSI_3W_9XXX [=n]                                                      │  

  │ Type  : tristate                                                               │  

  │ Prompt: 3ware 9xxx SATA-RAID support                                           │  

  │   Defined at drivers/scsi/Kconfig:402                                          │  

  │   Depends on: SCSI_LOWLEVEL [=y] && PCI [=y] && SCSI [=y]                      │  

  │   Location:                                                                    │  

  │     -> Device Drivers                                                          │  

  │       -> SCSI device support                                                   │  

  │         -> SCSI low-level drivers (SCSI_LOWLEVEL [=y])        
```

That looks promising for a 3Ware 9550SX-12SI.

Without the PCI Vendor and DeviceIDs its not possible to say more.

The cards that Google has turned up for me are all PCI-X cards.  Thats a standard than was only ever used in servers.

If you can get the ebay vendor to provide the Vendor and Device  IDs we can check for a curent linux driver, ortherwise, do you feel lucky?

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## nlieb

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> nlieb,
> 
> The 3.8.0 kernel says:-
> 
> ```
> ...

 

No problem on the pci-x, my computer is based off of an aging tyan workstation motherboard with pci-x support. Actually, pci-x is preferable to pci-e since besides the one I'm using for my video card I only have one additional pci-e slot. 

LSI, which bought 3ware, still provides all of the documentation, so I'll see whether or not I can look up those details.

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## nlieb

No luck with the documentation. I'll try the seller.

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## NeddySeagoon

nlieb,

Did you do what it said in the kernel help and 

```
Please read the comments at the top of                                         │ 

  │ <file:drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.c>. 
```

```
   2.26.02.004 - Add support for 9550SX controllers.

   2.26.02.005 - Fix use_sg == 0 mapping on systems with 4GB or higher.

   2.26.02.006 - Fix 9550SX pchip reset timeout
```

Thats your card, if you win the auction.

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