It appears that CentOS is having problems with my hard disks, which I have off of an HPT 374 Raid controller but with no Raid stripes created, ie. I am just using it as an IDE controller. There is the latest Linux open source for the HPT 374 on Highpoint's web site, which I have downladed. While I understand 'make' and am a programmer myself, I understand nothing about the Linux kernel or device drivers. My questions are:
1) How can I tell if and what support CentOS 4.1 and the 2.6 kernel has for the HPT 374 ?
2) How do I install the kernel source package and building tools as the instructions tell me to do ?
3) Anybody know what "cross-controller RAID" means ? There is a Make option for turning it on.
4) Once the driver is loaded by using 'insmod', is it automatically loaded each time I boot the system ?
5) Is there a good source, Internet or books, for these questions ?
I do not feel great about fiddling with the kernel and drivers but CentOS 4.1 does not work well with my hard disks and I am hoping by updating the system it will again.