Poweredge 6400 / AMI Megatrends RAID [Solved]

root_cause · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Posts: 8

I have been struggling over this issue for the last several days - and admittedly I also suspect the answer is so simple that I have been staring directly through it.
Something that anyone of you here can point out in less time than it takes to hit Reply.

I have a Dell Poweredge 6400 with built in hardware RAID. (This model is circa 1999-2000 so it's not in the realm of bleeding edge.)

The Gentoo 2008 install CD boots fine and detects all devices on the system - including the 2 logical drives (boot device is 2 striped drives, 2nd drive is Raid 5 set).
I can follow the installation process to the end with no problem - until I reboot the system to initialize the new OS.
This is when the Kernel Panic hits (VFS panic Kernel error unknown device ...).

Obviously I have encountered this error before. And in in every case, either I had a missing driver or a typo in Grub. But in this case I can't lock it down.

In contrast FreeBSD boots fine - both from install CD and from the installed OS.

Many of the Gentoo forum requests for help are for software raid cards. This server being a full RAID system, is there a special step I need to take to take advantage of Gentoo? Or is it something more mundane?

BTW - Thanks in advance to anyone who posts a reply - whether it solves this or not...

cyrillic · Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 4:35 am Post subject:

Can you post the output of "lspci" ?

I suspect you are right, probably a missing driver.

root_cause · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Posts: 8

Thanks for looking into it. Hopefully it's not too difficult or time consuming for you to lock down.

lspci reports:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Broadcom CNB20HE Host Bridge (rev 21)
00:00.1 Host bridge: Broadcom CNB20HE Host Bridge (rev 01)
00:00.2 Host bridge: Broadcom CNB20HE Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: Broadcom CNB20HE Host Bridge
00:04.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage IIC (rev 7a)
00:05.0 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7899P U160/m (rev 01)
00:05.1 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7899P U160/m (rev 01)
00:06.0 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7880U (rev 02)
00:07.0 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AHA-2940U/UW / AHA-39xx / AIC-7895 (rev 04)
00:07.1 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AHA-2940U/UW / AHA-39xx / AIC-7895 (rev 04)
00:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 0

00:0f.0 ISA bridge: Broadcom OSB4 South Bridge (rev 50)
03:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 0

03:09.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 80960RP (i960RP) Microprocessor/Bridge (rev 02)
03:09.1 I2O: Intel Corporation 80960RP (i960RP) Microprocessor (rev 02)
03:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 0

arterius · n00b Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 39

Your probably only missing the kernel modules for your card.

Go to Device Driver --> SCSI device support ---> SCSI low-level drivers and enable

<*> ACARD SCSI support
<*> Adaptec AACRAID support
<*> Adaptec AIC7xxx Fast -> U160 support (New Driver)

For my newer adaptec card I have only built the first two modules into the kernel.
I guess you need to try the old/new kernel module for your card.

root_cause · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2005 Posts: 8

Thank you! This is now solved.

Once I had 2 distinct replies suggesting the same cause, I looked into the driver in more depth.
And it turns out:

- The AIC cards in this system are separate to the AMI Megaraid. (I had assumed that 1 was just an extension of the other). So the AIC drivers won't work for this card.
- lspci does not list the AMI card by name but in fact as an Intel mircoprocessor - which appears to point to another device on the system. So your first instinct is to ignore that listing and instead focus on the AIC listings - which as discovered are separate devices.....
- The AMI company was bought by LSI at some point, which means the drivers in the 2.6 kernel are now called LSI Megaraid.
- Most important, you have to use the Megaraid Legacy driver. This code has been separated from the newer LSI drivers to maintain specific support for cards like this one.

I probably need to change the title to focus on the 6400 system & RAID card in place of a generic RAID question. This will better help the next person with the same question.

Thanks again for your help! Another Gentoo question solved. I'll add this to the title also.