[CentOS] Help with megaraid_mbox driver

Mon Feb 20 15:07:29 UTC 2006
Scott Sharkey <ssharkey at linuxunlimited.com>

Steve Bergman wrote:
> I'm going to say at the start that I might be completely wrong about 
> this.  (And I may be confusing FC4 with CentOS.) But are you sure you 
> aren't needing the megaraid.ko driver rather than the megaraid_mbox?

Unfortunately, I'm sure.

> Not sure about install time, but for boot time, mkinitrd gets this wrong 
> and I have to go in and copy the proper module (which is not in 
> kernel/drivers/scsi/megaraid, but in kernel/drivers/scsi) into the lib 
> dir of the initrd and then add:
> 
> insmod /lib/megaraid.ko
> 
> to the init script in the initrd.

The problem I'm seeing is at install.

> Anyway this link *might* be of help:
> 
> http://www.tuxyturvy.com/blog/index.php?/archives/4-Installing-RHEL4-on-Systems-with-Legacy-Megaraid-Drivers.html 

Yeah, I've seen that page already, but thanks.

> But have you considered the possiblility of using software RAID?  After 
> all the problems (along these very lines) that the legacy PERC cards 
> have caused me, I'm moving my servers to software RAID.
> 
> It depends upon your specific situation, of course, but it makes sense 
> to consider the possibility.  For example, hardware RAID5 might be 
> better if disk performance is critical, as RAID5 has a lot of processor 
> overhead.  But for, say, RAID1, software RAID has some advantages.

Unfortunately, this Distro is intended to work with specific hardware, 
and that hardware includes the raid controller, so I've gotta make it 
work.  I don't disagree that software raid is useful, but I can't do it 
in this case.

Thanks!

-Scott