[K12OSN] Kernel Panic with SATA RAID

Les Mikesell les at futuresource.com
Mon Aug 30 18:30:52 UTC 2004


On Mon, 2004-08-30 at 12:45, Jim Kronebusch wrote:
> > You load the kernel with bios calls, but when the 
> > kernel detects devices it has to be able to connect up the 
> > disk driver before it can do much else, so if the driver 
> > isn't built into the kernel the module has to be on the 
> > ramdisk.
> 
> This sounds like what is happening to me.  I assumed that for some
> reason the kernel saw the SATA as a SCSI controller and the reason for
> the crash is the driver or something isn't right and since it can't
> access the data correctly the kernel panics and I am done.  
> 
> Any ideas on how to fix this or should I look at purchasing a new
> controller that is known to work?

If you had a working machine to verify the module that needs
to be present, you might be able to fix it up by booting
the install CD with 'linux rescue', doing a chroot to 
/mnt/sysinstall where your drives are mounted, fixing up
the modules.conf file, then doing a mkinitrd with your kernel
version numbers in the right places on the command line.
You might be wasting your time if the driver isn't actually
working, though.

> If a new controller is the only way
> does anyone know of a SATA controller known to work?

The 3ware IDE version works great and I'd expect the
driver side of the SATA version to be the same but
haven't used it myself.

> At this point I
> would rather eat a few hundred bucks than delay the server too long.

An intermediate fix might be to install the base system on
a different controller (single drives or mirrored IDE or
SCSI would work), then mount /var and /home partitions from
your raid controller if the only problem is booting from
it. 

---
  Les Mikesell
   les at futuresource.com






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