Strange ATARAID format?

[Martin Sandaas]

Thank you!

That did the trick...
I used "dmraid -f via -rE" to remove the via meta-data completely (as it
must be from my previous motherboard).

But another question popped up as a result of this:
Does this mean that hardware is irrelevant?  That I could use the VIA setup
on any of the supported controllers?

Cheers,
Martin

On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 1:58 PM, Heinz Mauelshagen <heinzm at redhat.com> wrote:

> Am Montag, den 05.01.2009, 07:47 +0000 schrieb Martin Sandaas:
> > Hi all!
>
> A happy new year.
>
> >
> > Not sure if this is the right place, as it might also just be a
> > hardware issue, an installer issue...or maybe just me ;)
> >
> > I've been trying to setup software RAID on this mother board: Asus
> > P5Q.  It has (according to lspci) an Intel 82801 SATA RAID controller.
> > This controller has 3 settings in the BIOS:
> > 1. Use as RAID
> > 2. Use as IDE
> > 3. Use as AHCI
> >
> > I already had a working WinXP install on a RAID0 setup.  But I wanted
> > linux, so I went into the BOOT ROM screen (<CTL> + <I> during boot)
> > and reset the RAID settings (to single disks).
> > Then I went into the BIOS and changed the controller setup to AHCI, as
> > I understood it had a performance advantage over IDE mode.
> >
> > When I booted Sabayon 4.0 x86_64 LiveDVD, the disks came up normallyI
> > (I thought), but although I was able to change the pratition table,
> > nothing got "stuck" after a reboot.
> > I then noticed that my previous RAID setup was detected, and activated
> > as a VIA "FAKERAID" setup.  And whatever I did, this setup was
> > detected and activated.
>
> Because dmraid is being used on it and it relies on ATARAID/DDF1 RAID
> metadata signatures and not on any particular transport (eg. IDE, ...)
> or mode.
>
> You'd have to run "dmraid -f via -rD" to get rid of them.
>
> Because you mention your Intel chipset and it's isw support, I assume
> the disks have been used and set up with a VIA adapter bios before and
> now are being reused without ever removing the VIA metadata.
>
> >
> > So I eventually gave up on the AHCI approach, but then I read
> > somewhere that the Intel RAID setup was infact using AHCI too.
> > I changed the settings back to RAID, and created a striped set on my
> > 2x Raptor disks.  And what do you know, this was also detected at
> > boot.
> > But this time the format was detected as both VIA and ISW, but the
> > device-mapper chose ISW (which I think is the right one).
>
> It's not device-mapper per se, it's the mentioned dmraid tool which
> discovers it.
>
> With an Intel chipset and Matrix RAID bios, it's going to be isw when
> you set up RAID sets via the bios.
>
> You can either "dmraid -f isw -ay" (of course, when not activated as
> VIA!) on it to select the isw metadata for activation, or remove the via
> metadata as mentioned above ("dmraid -f via -rE") and stay with the
> standard "dmraid -ay" in your initrd/initrc.
>
> >
> > So here's my questions:
> > 1. Why are both VIA and ISW detected on this chipset (ICH10R), but
> > only VIA when setup as AHCI (shouldn't it be ISW if any)?
>
> If there's multiple distinct ATARAID/DDF1 RAID metadata signatures on
> the devices, dmraid automatically selects one, unless you use the "-f"
> switch.
>
> > 2. And can I somehow force the format to be set as ISW (and suppress
> > the VIA format completely)?  (Recompile kernel module without VIA
> > support?)
>
> See above: "dmraid -f isw -ay"
>
> > 3. Is the AHCI setup in BIOS supposed to be forced as RAID, or are you
> > supposed to be able to use the disks as single disks?  (I can't setup
> > any RAID in BIOS when using AHCI)
>
> It's merely the discovery of the metadata signatures independent of any
> such mode. If there's accessible signatures and "dmraid -ay" is being
> run, it'll discover those and activate mappings.
>
> >
> > As it is now, I'm completely unable to address my disks as /dev/sda
> > and /dev/sdb, and have to use /dev/mapper/isw_cbbdijaach_Sabayon (when
> > RAID is setup in the BIOS) or /dev/mapper/via_<something> when RAID is
> > disabled in BIOS.
>
> If you want to access as single drives:
> "dmraid -f isw -rE ; dmraid -f via -rE"
>
>
> > There's no problems using the current setup (ISW RAID), and I guess I
> > could disable the device-mapper completely in order to access the
> > single disks.
>
> Sure, initrd hack.
>
> > 4. But is there a way to enable dmraid, but force no auto detection of
> > previous setup?  Even if I choose "Setup as IDE" in compatible mode,
> > the previous RAID setup is detected and setup as VIA RAID.
>
> Remove the metadata.
>
> >
> > It seems like a short time since I was unable to use the "FAKE" RAID
> > setup of my motherboard, but now I seem to be unable to stop it ;)
>
> Ain't that safe ? ;-)
>
> Regards,
> Heinz
>
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Martin
> >
> > PS! Sorry if this is a noob question in the wrong maling list :)
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