That's the process that I tried and it does not work..  I guess at this
point I'm just looking for a RAID
controller that is natively supported by the 2.6 kernel..  Any suggestions?

-----Original Message-----
From: Josh Paetzel [mailto:josh at tcbug.org]
Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 10:25 AM
To: pjcrump at bitstream.net; tclug-list at mn-linux.org
Subject: Re: [tclug-list] Drives Not Recognized on Dell Poweredge 1550
CentOs install


On Saturday 11 November 2006 10:15, Phillip Crump wrote:
> The raid card is an Adaptec 2100S.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Josh Paetzel [mailto:josh at tcbug.org]
> Sent: Saturday, November 11, 2006 9:35 AM
> To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org; pjcrump at bitstream.net
> Subject: Re: [tclug-list] Drives Not Recognized on Dell Poweredge
> 1550 CentOs install
>
> On Saturday 11 November 2006 01:20, Phillip Crump wrote:
> > I have a new (used)Dell Poweredge 1550 server with 2 scsi drives
> > (dual 1ghz w/ 2048MB) that I'm attempting to install CentOs 4
> > onto and am having problems getting the darn thing to recognize
> > the hard drives. (it's worth noting that it's running RAID 0 and
> > the RAID bios recognizes both drives as being in "optimal"
> > state).  I start the
> > installation process and all is going well until it autoprobes.
> > All other hardware is found
> > except for the hard drives. The install subsequently fails
> > because there the drives can't be found.
> >
> > I have been googling my brain out over the last week and this
> > seems to be an issue with installing linux
> > on this particular server model. (surrounding the megaraid driver
> > and have tried many of the
> > things out there to no avail.
> >
> > To see what I have been trying checkout this mailing list entry:
> > http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2005-August/010021.html
> >
> > Any advice that anyone can give is appreciated!
> >
> > P.S. I have tried to install Debian, Mandrake and FC6 to no
> > avail.
> >
> >
> > PJ
>
> If memory serves there were a few different RAID controllers
> available for the 1550.  Since you don't mention which controller
> yours has it's only possible to offer suggestions.
>
> One possibility is that there simply isn't a linux driver for it,
> in which case it isn't going to matter which distro you try to
> install on it.  It's just not going to work.
>
> Another option that you may have is that some of the RAID
> controllers that Dell used (the PERC/3's come to mind) had the
> ability to emulate a plain SCSI controller.  This was generally
> togglable in the BIOS. If yours has this option it's possible that
> it will emulate something that there is a driver for.  I have
> actually run into this before with the PE2450s.  In SCSI mode the
> controller appeared as an adaptec 78xx which had a driver, in RAID
> mode it was something completely different (what exactly it was
> escapes me at the moment).

There are no drivers for this controller in the kernel.  There are
linux drivers provided by adaptec on their website.  If you are going
to use it as a boot device you will have to get the drivers onto a
floppy or CD and then load them during the install. (the procedure
for which will be distro-specific) Once you get installed you'll
either have to compile the drivers into the kernel or load them as a
module in order to be able to boot from the RAID array.

--
Thanks,

Josh Paetzel