Install problem w. RocketRaid 1720.

[Erik P. Olsen]

Richard Creighton wrote:
> Erik P. Olsen wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have installed two sata II disks via a RocketRaid 1720 controller. 
>> They run Fedora 7 in a hardware raid1 configuration. I have 
>> experienced certain problems wich seems to be related to kernel 
>> 2.6.21-1.3194.fc7, see bugzilla issue 240982.
>>
>> The driver from hightech only works with this kernel and the socalled 
>> open source driver compiles with errors. This is too much of a pita so 
>> I would prefer to skip the proprietary driver and run software raid1 
>> instead.
>>
>> First of all I would like to know if linux supports drivers for 
>> RocketRaid 1720? Secondly, is it possible to convert the hardware 
>> raid1 to software raid1 (dmraid) without touching the already running 
>> OS? Or do I have to create a new system from scratch?
>>
> I had the same problem with a RR1740x controller with that kernel.   I 
> was able to successfully compile the driver when I upgraded the kernel 
> to 2.6.22.... being sure to get the correct syms.   Since then, I've 
> been able to run the controller just fine.   My problems started with 
>  >2.6.18.... until .22+   It is continuing to work with .17 and .25 in 
> the alpha 11 of SuSE.   It is a pita, to be sure, but I am no happily 
> running a 2.5TB raid5 with that controller under SuSE 10.3. 
> As to conversion:   I suspect that it is a real PITA to try.   The 
> formats are entirely different and you have to have a small boot 
> partition in order to load the drivers for the software raid.   I tried 
> and gave up on that idea, at least until RR decides to actually support 
> their controllers under Linux the way they do for Microsloth.
> 
> I suspect the 172x controller will play out the same way as the 174x 
> controller did as I believe they use the same chipset, the main 
> difference being how they handle the physical interface, eg, number of 
> ports, etc.

Well, there are differences but I do believe the basic functions are the same. 
The README file in the source directory talks about running "make oldconfig" and 
"make dep" under the kernel source directory. I am compiling the driver against 
kernel 2.6.23.15-80.fc7 and "make oldconfig" went OK but "make dep" did not 
saying: *** Warning: make dep is unnecessary now. Further I should check 
modversions.h for a certain line. However, this file is not found in the kernel 
source.

Nevertheless I ran make under the driver source and got:

[root at epohost linux]# make KERNELDIR=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.23.15-80.fc7-i686 
ARCH=i386
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.23.15-80.fc7-i686'
   CC [M] 
/downloads/RocketRaid/source/rr172x-linux-src-v1.0/product/rr1720/linux/.build/os_linux.o
/downloads/RocketRaid/source/rr172x-linux-src-v1.0/product/rr1720/linux/.build/os_linux.c: 
In function ‘os_sd_changed’:
/downloads/RocketRaid/source/rr172x-linux-src-v1.0/product/rr1720/linux/.build/os_linux.c:315: 
error: implicit declaration of function ‘scsi_device_cancel’
make[2]: *** 
[/downloads/RocketRaid/source/rr172x-linux-src-v1.0/product/rr1720/linux/.build/os_linux.o] 
Error 1
make[1]: *** 
[_module_/downloads/RocketRaid/source/rr172x-linux-src-v1.0/product/rr1720/linux/.build] 
Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.23.15-80.fc7-i686'
make: *** [rr172x.ko] Error 2

So clearly the compile procedure does not work. Have you had the same bad 
experience and been clever enough to overcome the problem? I'll be happy to hear 
if you have a way out otherwise I'll have to work with highpoint to get the 
problem resolved.

> 
> Once I got the RR1740x to compile under Linux with a less buggy kernel, 
> I have had zero problems with the card other than lack of any real 
> support, though the driver source did not need modifications once the 
> kernel issues were resolved.
> 

-- 
Erik.