Promise PDC20267 - ide raid controller

[tgnb]

I am trying to install gentoo on a computer with a Promise PDC20267 ide raid controller.
During the boot from the CD I notice that the PDC20267 is correctly detected, and it also finds the individual hard drives as hdg and hde.
From that point however I am unsure how to proceed. I don't know how to partition the array. I dont even know where the array is. I have been wading through the newsgroups.
One newsgroups message suggested to do:

insmod /lib/modules/<kernel version>/kernel/drivers/ide/ataraid.o
insmod /lib/modules/<kernel version>/kernel/drivers/ide/pdcraid.o

It claimed that my raid array would then be available as /dev/ataraid/d0

However, i get an error during:
insmod /lib/modules/2.4.19/kernel/drivers/ide/pdcraid.o

the error is:
/lib/modules/2.4.19/kernel/drivers/ide/pdcraid.o: init_module: No such device

What am i doing wrong? maybe i dont need to do the indmod? maybe the array is already available elsewhere, but i dont know where?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[tgnb]

on Intel.com are drivers posted for redhat. a txt file in the driver disk tells me:
1.3 Linux kernel 2.4.x ATA issue on FastTrak Series PDC20262/PDC20265/PDC20270
Linux Kernels 2.4.x misidentifies PDC20262/PDC20265 (FastTrak 66/
FastTrak 100 Lite motherboard-embedded solution/FastTrak100TX2) cards
and/or chips as simple IDE controllers. This results in the built-in Linux
IDE driver trying to handle the controller and can prevent the proper
FastTrak ATA RAID driver to be loaded. Follow the installation instructions
AND the parameter commands referred to in the Notes section.
The instructions will refer to you as "RHF upgrader."
----

also intel's installation instructions say to pass the following parameter to the kernel:

ide0=0x1f0,0x3f6,14 ide1=0x170,0x376,15 ide2=0 ide3=0 ide4=0 ide5=0 ide6=0 ide7=0 ide8=0 ide9=0

from what i have read on newsgroups, this is becasuse:

Since linux detects the promise fastTrack raid controller, it tries to configure it like a normal ide controller. this is bad. ide0 and ide1 are the two other on board ide controllers, using a value of 0 for ide2 to ide9 prevents them from being used.

====
if i pass this parameter to my the gento0 boot kernel i can see, using dmesg that what i have read holds water.

i feel as though i have come a step closer , or have found out that it simply might not work under any linux other than redhat

my motherboard is a Intel SCB2 server board by the way.

[tgnb]

at the following URL i found some more interesting info:

http://people.redhat.com/arjanv/pdcraid/ataraidhowto.html

How to use: ataraid.tar.gz source file
1. Make sure you create the /dev/ataraid devices using the MAKEDEV shellscript
that is in the .tar.gz file
2. Make sure that you have installed the kernel-source RPM if you are
using a kernel from a distribution such as Red Hat, Mandrake, Conectiva etc.
3. run "make"
4. load the modules by typing
insmod ataraid.o
insmod pdcraid.o <--- for Promise Fasttrak raid, or
insmod hptraid.o <--- for Highpoint HPT370 raid.
5. Compile and reboot.... your RAID array can be found as
/dev/ataraid/d0
and the partitions inside it (if you already had paritions)
/dev/ataraid/d0p1
/dev/ataraid/d0p2
...
/dev/ataraid/d0p15

when booting into the gento system i get an error when attempting to insmod pdcraid as described before. however according to these instructions i have to make the ataraid devices first

---

i have downloaded the shell script and made the device nodes with it.
however, insmod pdcraid still gives me the same error : no such device

[tgnb]

finally, after lots and lots of struggling i got it to work

here is how i did it, for those interested:

I booted from the Gentoo CD -without- any extra kernel parameters.
I set up my net configuration
I used wget to download the ataraid.tar.gz mentioned at (http://people.redhat.com/arjanv/pdcraid/ataraidhowto.html)
I extracted the file and ran the MAKEDEV shell script
after doing this I could successfully insmod both ataraid and pdcraid
I used fdisk to create the partitions on /dev/ataraid/d0

working on installing the rest of the system now. hopefully this will turn into a quick-n-dirty howto afterwards for others who are struggling.

[fghellar]

[mikie]

a second request on the quick and dirty FAQ as I am running a Fasttrack100 and am pretty noobish at this so please procede.