Re: Red Hat Linux Install Failure with Promise FastTrak TX Onboard SATA150 RAID Chipset

Problem title: Red Hat Linux Install Failure with Promise FastTrak TX Onboard SATA150 RAID Chipset Problem reported: January 26, 2004 Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, Red Hat Fedora Red Hat installer (anaconda) reports "no hard drives have been found." Problem occurs when installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (Kernel 2.4.21) or Red Hat Fedora on machines using ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe (BIOS revision 1011) motherboards. The boards have Promise Technologies FastTrak TX 378/TX2plus SATA150 onboard RAID controllers (BIOS revision 1.00.0.37). The RAID drivers are not loaded correctly by the Red Hat installer after following expert steps necessary to load disk drivers from a diskette prior to installation. After inserting the driver disk and selecting the appropriate driver, the Red Hat installer reports "no hard drives have been found" although the machine's hard drives have been properly installed and configured. RAID 1 configurations with 2 ATA/EIDE and also with 2 SATA150 drives have been tested. The initial release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 3 and Fedora supported Intel ICH5 and Silicon Image SATA chipsets but did not support the Promise SATA chipset, although support has been planned for later releases. In the interim, both ASUS and Promise distributed drivers for Red Hat Linux 9 and later. The drivers available from ASUS and Promise only work when compiled/installed/configured on a running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 or Fedora system. This is only applicable when the OS has already been installed onto a non-RAID/non-mirrored boot disk, i.e., the drivers only allow the user to add a SATA or IDE RAID array to a previously installed/configured machine. To provide for mirrored (RAID 1) boot disks it is necessary to install the OS directly onto a (RAID 1) array, not after the OS has been installed. For new installations, where there is no OS on the machine, is not possible for the user to first compile the driver and then install the OS for the first time. The following drivers from the ASUS and Promise web sites were tested: 1. [ASUS] FastTrak TX4000/376/S150 TX Series Linux Driver Version 1.00.0.13 SMP 2. [ASUS] FastTrak TX4000/376/S150 TX Series Linux Driver Version 1.00.0.13 3. [Promise] FastTrak TX4000/376/378/S150 TX Series Linux Driver Version 1.00.0.18 4. [Promise] FastTrak TX4000/376/378/S150 TX Series Linux Driver Version 1.00.0.19 5. [Promise] SATA150 Series Linux Driver Version 1.00.0.11 for Red Hat Linux 8.0/9 None of the drivers listed worked during installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 or Fedora. The solution required for mirrored RAID 1 boot disks is a driver that correctly supports the Promise Technologies FastTrak TX 378/TX2plus SATA150 onboard RAID controller at install time so that the Red Hat installer can access the RAID array. This issue has been reported to ASUS, Promise Technologies, and Red Hat.