# Adaptec 1420Sa Sata Card [Solved]

## Jeroend

Hi,

i bougt an adaptec Sata 1420 Card but can't get it to work adaptec only suplies a few binary kernel modules vor suse and rh

it uses an marvell  88sx6541 Chipset

i looked all over the net but only found source dirvers for card using 88sx6041 chips and they didn't seem to work with mine

anybody an idea how to still make use of the card , 

thanks

JeroenLast edited by Jeroend on Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:53 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## NeddySeagoon

Jeroend,

You could unpick the rpm files and see whats inside.

The kernel modules may even work.

You may as well try 

```
emerge app-arch/rpm2targz
```

 and see what rpm2targz does to the rpms

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## Jeroend

i already tried that whit a few of them and i always get 

insmod: error inserting 'aar81xx.ko': -1 Invalid module format

would it mather if i tried the same kernel version this module was build for ?

the module is:

vermagic=2.6.5-7.139-default 586 REGPARM gcc-3.3

while my other modules are:

vermagic=2.6.12-gentoo-r4-Jerre- preempt K7 gcc-3.3

Thanks

Jeroen

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## NeddySeagoon

Jeroend,

Try 

```
insmod -f <module>
```

the further you get from the right kernel, the less likely it is to work.

-f means force the load, even when the version magic doesn't match.

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## Jeroend

i found anohter module thats a bit newer, and when i try to force this one it gives me

(i did have to copy it to my other modules dir and use modprobe -f beceause insmod would respond to -f)

FATAL: Error inserting aar81xx (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r4-Jerre-/kernel/drivers/scsi/aar81xx.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

and dmsg then says:

aar81xx: no version magic, tainting kernel.

aar81xx: Unknown symbol __cond_resched

aar81xx: Unknown symbol kmap_atomic

aar81xx: Unknown symbol kunmap_atomic

aar81xx: Unknown symbol __might_sleep

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## NeddySeagoon

Jeroend,

With unknown symbols like that, its unlikely to work.

insmod needs the path to the module, including the .ko on the end of the module name

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## Jeroend

ow well il just try an older kernel tomorrow and else im just gonna get rid of the card

anyway thanks a lot for your help

Jeroen

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## Jeroend

Ok Newest kernel prepatch with following patch fixed it

 :Razz: 

--- linux-2.6.13.orig/drivers/scsi/Kconfig 2005-09-03

06:42:20.000000000 -0700

+++ linux-2.6.13drivers/scsi/Kconfig 2005-09-03 06:44:29.000000000 -0700

@@ -466,6 +466,8 @@

          This option enables support for the Marvell Serial ATA family.

          Currently supports 88SX[56]0[48][01] chips.

+ Also Including Adaptec 1420SA Card (using marvell chip pci-id

0x0241).

+

          If unsure, say N.

 config SCSI_SATA_NV

--- linux-2.6.13.orig/drivers/scsi/sata_mv.c 2005-09-03

06:40:07.000000000 -0700

+++ linux-2.6.13/drivers/scsi/sata_mv.c 2005-09-03

06:39:47.000000000 -0700

@@ -286,6 +286,7 @@

        {PCI_DEVICE(PCI_VENDOR_ID_MARVELL, 0x6041), 0, 0, chip_604x},

        {PCI_DEVICE(PCI_VENDOR_ID_MARVELL, 0x6080), 0, 0, chip_608x},

        {PCI_DEVICE(PCI_VENDOR_ID_MARVELL, 0x6081), 0, 0, chip_608x},

+ {PCI_DEVICE(PCI_VENDOR_ID_ADAPTEC2, 0x0241), 0, 0, chip_604x},

        {} /* terminate list */

 };

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## hoyanf

hi jeroend i need to get the patch files.. if u dun mind can u pls provide the links...

Thanx

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## Jeroend

I found it at http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/9/27/14

but its nor realy working 100% ok atm reading from the disk is no problem but if u start to write a lot it somthimes fails and the disk becomes inaccesible

be sure to let me know if u have the same probs

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## Jeroend

Upgraded to kernel 2.6.14-git1 and it seems to be functiong a lot better now,

The only error i get now is

Assertion failed! 0 == (sg_len & ~MV_DMA_BOUNDARY),drivers/scsi/sata_mv.c,mv_fill_sg,line=800

but it doesn't seem to hang up the card anymore

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## hoyanf

am using the latest stable kernel 2.6.14-1. so far all looks gud... will update if anything goes wrong...

thanx

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## hoyanf

jaroend forgot to check with you, your 1420SA bootable ?? i cant seem to be able to boot from it... maybe my mobo bios prob...

just checking with you...

thanx

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## Jeroend

I haven't tried booting from it , its not my primary disk

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## wltjr

Just curious on how everything went. Unfortunately I have ended up with one of these cards. I am still looking into alternatives, but does not seem to be much in the low $ range for SATA3G card supporting RAID1. If anyone knows of one please let me know.

Anyway if it's stable and performance is not bad, then most likely I will stick with card and proceed. I assume since there were no follow ups on thread that all is still well with kernel, patches, drivers? What's the latest? Any advice? Comments? Thoughts? Other than get another card, or that this one is a piece  :Smile: 

Thanks much

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## Jeroend

Well it works using a modified 2.6.15-rc1 or git1 but hangs at boot with the 2.6.15 kernel, so dunno what will happen in the future, if you can still trade in your card i would do so, otherwise just give it a try works pretty stable here with rc1

Jeroen

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## wltjr

Pathced or unpatched kernel? I assume you are not using any of the adaptec binary drivers? What device in /dev do you use to access the raid array?  Thanks Looking into alternative cards and might send this one back yet. Most likely will have to.

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## Jeroend

no the adaptec binary drivers are only for red had and suse,

i use a patched kernel, and i don't run any raid just plain disk access so devices are /dev/sda etc

Jeroen

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## wltjr

Well after days of screwing around, I decided to just go with the current vanilla kernel. 2.6.16-rc1 using it's marvell sata driver sata_mv and doing software RAID 1 instead of the Adaptec HostRaid.

At one point I was able to make a i686 kenrel using CentOS kernel sources 2.6.9-22.EL and renaming to 2.6.9-11.EL to make version magic happy. However since this is on a AMD64 proc, i686 is not good enough. Despite all efforts I never could build a x86_64 kernel. Nor could I figure out what sources I used to build the i686 one? Started with a src.rpm at first then had problems. I must have ended up using a 2.6.9 kernel from kernel.org or something. Thought it was the kernel-devel package, but that's just headers.

Anyway even if I succeeded, I am not sure I could get an older kernel to support my chipset of ServerWorks HT1000. So I decided to lose HostRaid support in favor of HT1000 chipset support. And go with software raid.

Really would have like to see how HostRaid performs, if it's better/worse than software. Since it's a hybrid of some sort. Or just marketing  :Smile:  Anyway if anyone makes further progress on this let me know. Ideally I would prefer to use HostRaid over softraid. But can't waste anymore time on this, I need server up  :Smile: 

Also current kernel does not seem to require any patches. At least not yet, I have not tried to boot from disk, still installing gentoo and etc.

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