NASLite Network Attached Storage

How do I install using the Promise PCI Raid card? I removed the "Boot from Promise" and set the system to boot from CD in the BIOS. The SX6000 is supposed to be supported. The computer STILL boots the Promise before starting NASLite-2....so when I do the install it can not find a drive to install. (I have 6 drives, OS was on C:\, files on D:\) Raid 5.
How do I get NASLite-2 to use the "pdc202xx_new" Promise drivers? (As shown in the appendix)

Tnx from a NASLite-2 NOOOOOOB - Tom

Somewhere in your BIOS you should be able to select the order that HDDs are booted from. Put the other HDD first.

The box was originally set up for me as a file server using Windows 2003 Server. I think I need to clarify my setup: I have 6 HDD in Raid 5 config. I have 2 partitions in the raid config. The C:\ partition held the OS, the D:\ the data. On power-up the machine booted the Promise Raid (first choice in Bios). The first thing I did when trying to install NASLite was to change Bios to boot from CD (and deleted the Promise boot line). The machine STILL found the Promise Card before loading the initial set-up screen. The install could not find a drive to install on. Should I have a separate HDD, (not part of the current Raid configuration) on which NASLite-2 will install?

Thanks for the reply Nick!

With NL you can simply create a logical drive in the RAID card and then let NL do the partitioning and formatting. NL will set up a very small partition and then allow you to use the balance as data.

You will need to make sure that the BIOS boot order is set properly and that the CDROM is even bootable. I have run into this in the past and it turned out that the drive was bad.

My preferred boot device is a CF card in an PATA adapter. Since most machines have a PATA more as an after thought it is a good use of it. It makes upgrades easy and since the OS doesn't write the CF it is practically fool proof. It also has the advantage of simply having a second card and being able to save the old OS/Config during upgrades.

Your first issue is in the BIOS. Try resetting it to the factory defaults and then setup the boot order.

Mike

Mike,
Thanks for the reply. I just powered down the system, took out the battery, let it sit, re-inserted battery, powered up and went directly to AMIBios Setup, set Defaults F7, checked and set boot sequence to CD, none, none, (One of the options still showed as BBS0:Supertrak SX6 Controller.) Saved and let the boot continue. The first thing that happened after I did save was the Promise Controller was initialized!!!!!! The NASLite-2 main screen then came up and I selected i-install. Everything went fine until the end. I got the following:

INITIALIZING

Starting environment configuration:

[ Done ] - Filesystem configuration complete.
[ Done ] - CD-ROM mounted.
[ Fail ] - Target device not found.

cannot run ram '/bin/unmountall': No such file or directory
umount : can't remount /dev/root read-only
umount : can't remount rootfs read-only
The system is going down NOW!
Sending SIGTERM to all processes
Sending SIGKILL to all processes
Requesting system poweroff

Any suggestions????????

Many thanks.........Tom

are you sure the card is supported - you make comment it is but looking here

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2390&p=12060&hilit=sx6000#p12060

it would seem it is not - its an oldish thread so things may have changed but that would certainly explain your problem i think

Tony - thanks for the post. The currently posted "NASLite-2 v2.6X and NASLite-M2 v1.6X Storage Hardware Referenfce Guide" has a Comprehensive list of storage controllers supported by NASlite-2 and NASLite-M2 Network Attached Storage server operating systems based on CORE3 technology. The Promise SuperTrak SX6000 IDE card is listed with "pdc202xx_new" as the drivers. As such I am assuming it is supported. I reviewed your reference and it is dated March 2006.....it appeares to have been upgraded to include the SX6000. I am hoping that I read it right...........and assumed it was supported!
Thanks for taking the time to do that research. Any and all ideas are greatly appreciated.

Tom

Tom

If you have a USB Pen drive try and install to that and then see if the raid is visible I suspect that you will have to re-initialise it and then format it within NL. Re-Initialising using the Raid controller Bios may also get it visible to the install.

Any which way you go I suspect that the data will be lost unless you can back it all up.

I may of course be totally wrong (I am assuming that the raid was formatted with NTFS or FAT if it is an EXT2 or 3 then it may well export to NL Natively if you can get it to install)

I think that mike suggested going for a CF card on an IDE Adapter and that is indeed how I have my 2 boxes setup although one is a transend module that plugs straight into the IDE socket on the MB.

Hope any of this helps you out.

Doug and all,
Being a NooooooB to all of this, and in view of all the previous posts and expertise, I post the following:
1. I have ASSUMED that by removing the Promise controller from the boot sequence, that it (Promise) would not boot.
2. Now when I boot the machine, the first thing it does is boot the Promise Card, then goes to the NL main screen.
3. I was again ASSUMING that during this process (#2) booting the Promise Card was a leftover from the previous OS.
4. I have been ASSUMING that the Promise SX6000 is supported by NL.
5. Could it be that the boot process (#2) is starting the promise from NL? Not being familiar with Linux. I do not know where in the boot process the "pdc202xx_new" drivers (listed as supported hardware) are loaded.

I have grandkids soccer games coming up shortly, and I will look at any replies when I return, then try something different! (Also, I have backed up all Data from the old FS Raid 5)

I am also going to look for reference material on Linux, to help me understand the processes.\

Many thanks again for all of your responses......and my apologies for not clearly stating my situation.

Should I be listing in my Profile my NAS (hopefully) hardware config?

i certainly am no expert but it occurs to me that the promise controller is bypassing the bios or over-riding it - i assume it has its own bios - is that what is causing it to continue wanting to boot

if so get into its bios and turn off the boot

but that will stop you using any of the drives on it to boot naslite

mike said earlier i think to go another route and its by far the easiest - get a ide/cf adaptor - plug it into the 1st ide line - plug in a cf card - 64meg will be big enough and use that to boot naslite - its easy - foolproof and instantly updatable - then use the raid for data

Actually I suspect that the promise controller is'nt in fact booting but is initialising itself at boot (All raid cards or addin controllers that i have come accross do this)

What I have been able to find does imply that the card is a hardware raid card so it should work Ralph/Tony may have to confirm this. Just because it is supported as a drive controller may not meen that it is supported as a Raid Controller.

In its previous use did you have to load any drivers to make it work or was the raid array fully managed from the Card's Bios (this is what is initialising at boot time).

Mike may well be able to answer more fully as I am no Linux Guru by any stretch of the imagination.

Hope this helps a little.

Doug

Doug,
I believe you are right about intializing. And yes, I did have to load drivers for WinServ 2003- if I remember correctly I had to insert the floppy disk while installing WS2003.. The NL hardware compatability lists the SX6000 using the "pdc202xx_new." I have not found how to load those drivers - or where to find them. I have left a message at the "Off-Line Support" on the main Server Elements Home page...no reply as of yet.
I went to "Diagnostics" at the NL main page and at the PCI devices it shows the Supertrak SX6000 I20 CPU.
When I try the "Install" from NL main page, it dies after the following:

INITIALIZING
Starting environment configuration:
[ Done ] - Filesystem configuration complete.
[ Done ] - CD-ROM mounted.
[ Fail ] - Target device not found.

Do you know if anyone from Server Elements monitors here? My frustration is mounting...only wish the server was!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tom

Unfortunately we still dont know wether the sx6000 is supported as a raid card or just as a controller card (the SIL3114 is a card that is just like that).

Try installing NL to a usb PEN Drive (Assuming that you MB will boot from USB) and set that to be your second boot device in bios. If this works you should then be able to format the array from within NL (If the card is supported) The driver will be loaded automatically by NL and is done at boot.

The Fail message you are getting just meens that NL cant find a suitable device to install to.

Another possibility is if you have an old IDE Hard Drive lying arround put that in the machine and install to that.

You will need a boot device of at least 32 Mb but I have succsessfully installed to a 512 Mb CF Card and a 128 mB Transend module.

Again hope this helps you allong the way. Doug

P>S> Tony and Ralph do monitor the forums but I know they are extremely busy

PPS. just googled the driver and came up with this link http://www.redhat.com/archives/ataraid-list/2003-June/msg00027.html

reading this suggests that the PDC driver is just that and that the card is not a real hardware raid card if this is the case you can prove it by simply deleting the raid information in the cards bios at boot up and then see if the install then allows you to install to one of the drives attached. If it does then that will prove it to be so and you will be looking at either waiting for the guys to release the next version (Which hopefully will have have software raid in it we know they are working on this). If you do a search of the forums you will find plenty of people that have raid up and working.

The 3WARE cards are pretty good and are available on fleabay for not a lot of money (depending on the spec of the card that is the ATA ones are quite cheep nowadays)

the driver that is referred to is within naslite - you do not have to load it - i dont think its possible to load any drivers - the reference is just that - its simply telling you which driver is used

and as said the error is that as far as naslite install is concerned you have no drives to install to
put a usb drive in and it should install to that - it will take you to the next stage and you should then see what the drive management makes of your raid card