Promise SATA controller almost working... Solved!

[Jean-Rene Cormier]

On Tue, 2004-02-10 at 09:52, Alexander Dalloz wrote:
> Am Di, den 10.02.2004 schrieb Jean-Rene Cormier um 13:26:
> > On Tue, 2004-02-10 at 04:55, Alexander Dalloz wrote:
> > > Am Di, den 10.02.2004 schrieb Jean-Rene Cormier um 02:36:
> > > > I'm currently working on a boot.iso for FC1 with Promise SATA support
> > > > with the ft3xx driver. So far it finds the controller but when it tries
> > > > to load the driver it fails and I get some unresolved symbol error such
> > > > as: scsi_unregister, fasync_helper, kill_fasync, register_chrdev and
> > > > scsi_register then I get the message "Hint: You are trying to load a
> > > > modules without a GPL compatible license and it has unresolved
> > > > symbols....."
> > > 
> > > How did you compile the driver: with module versions or without? Try it
> > > the different way (I am sure you know where and how to modify the
> > > Makefile of the driver package).
> > 
> > I compiled it without module versions, I'll give it a try with it
> > tonight.
> > 
> > > > In the modules.dep files I added ft3xx: sd_mod scsi_mod but it still
> > > > doesn't work... anybody could help me with this?
> 
> "Doesn't work" is not adequate describtion, but just a state. I
> interpret it here as "does not load properly but gives unresolved
> symbols error message".
> 
> > > "depmod -ae -F /boot/System.map" after you added a kernel module and
> > > want to rebuild the modules.dep file.
> > 
> > Doing so still gives me some unresolved symbols but only 2,
> > scsi_unregister_Rd039d977 and scsi_register_Rc1833384 and the
> > modules.dep only lists scsi_mod for the ft3xx driver, I thought it
> > needed the sd_mod too.
> 
> Might come from building without module versions. The .config file for
> my stock Fedora kernel .2149 has "CONFIG_MODVERSIONS=y" set.
> 
> > > > Also I've read on this list that the newer kernel released for FC1 had
> > > > support for this card, is that true? If so is there a boot.iso somewhere
> > > > with a newer kernel? Or at least anybody could tell me how I can create
> > > > a new boot.iso with a newer kernel?
> > > 
> > > Do you really want to use the RAID driver? I tested my onboard Promise
> > > PATA controller 20265 with both the kernel driver pdcraid.o as well with
> > > the Promise driver FastTrak.o. With both drivers the performance was
> > > really poor, although it was better with the Promise driver.
> > 
> > Well so far I want to use whatever works because I have a computer I
> > really want to use that's pretty much useless until I can install FC1 on
> > it. If I can get it to install, I could always change the driver
> > afterwards and see which one works better.
> 
> How to build a driver disk, which you need at install time, is described
> here:
> 
> http://www.linuxsa.org.au/mailing-list/2001-06/439.html
> 
> You need a proper working module first.
> 
> > > I decided to use the controller just for plugging the harddrives to it
> > > and then use software raid function of Linux. Those controller chips are
> > > no real hardware raid controller, they just have BIOS supported software
> > > raid implementations.
> > 
> > I only have 1 drive connected to it so I won't be using RAID at all.
> > 

I finally got it to load fine, I re-compiled it with module versions and
it worked. Though when I copied the same modules on the new system and
created an initrd it wouldn't boot because the modules had unresolved
symbols so I booted with my bootdisk and tried to re-compiled the module
on it but for some reason I haven't been able to compile it. So I update
the kernel to 2.4.22-1.2149.nptl and used the sata_promise driver
instead and it boots fine.

If anybody wants my bootdisk I could put my iso online and maybe write a
small HOWTO.

Jean-Rene Cormier