[SOLVED] Slackware 12.2 & LSI SAS 8208ELP - no drives found

[skitrees]

I've been running Slackware off-and-on for a couple years now, but I'm still a noob for the most part. I recently tried to install Slackware 12.2 on a new machine with all new drives. The drives are connected to an LSI SAS 9208ELP card and configured into RAID1 (first two drives) and RAID5 (next three drives) - with one extra drive as a hot spare.

When attempting to boot Slackware from the install CD, everything goes fine, I use the hugesmp.s kernel, but after the initial boot - when I first arrive at the command prompt - I can only see the virtual partition created during boot. fdisk -l shows empty - no devices connected. dmesg doesn't offer me much help either - I can see where the CD-ROM is assigned dev status, but this never happens to the raid, though there are several lines towards the end of dmesg showing "raid6" and then various transfer speeds.

If I try to run "setup" - it expectedly states that there are no linux partitions.

I'm sure the info I need is around somewhere, but this has been a difficult issue for me to find answers for via the search engines - I'm probably using poor keywords in the search.

I've read a lot of HOW TOs, but most of them assume fdisk -l or dmesg will show hdx or sdx assignments.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[dijetlo]

Can you run an lspci (the LSI SAS 9208ELP is a PCI card..right?)
The other question is when you boot are you still using the huge.smp kernel.
From what your describing their have to be drivers or a module missing from the new kernel

[skitrees]

dijetlo -

Thanks for the response! I ran lspci, and it DOES see the card - correctly identified...

Here's the snippet (all the stuff above this in the output file pertains to the Intel Chipset):

************************************************** **************************
01:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6311ESB/6321ESB PCI Express Upstream Port (rev 01)
01:00.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6311ESB/6321ESB PCI Express to PCI-X Bridge (rev 01)
02:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6311ESB/6321ESB PCI Express Downstream Port E1 (rev 01)
02:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6311ESB/6321ESB PCI Express Downstream Port E2 (rev 01)
02:02.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6311ESB/6321ESB PCI Express Downstream Port E3 (rev 01)
04:00.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic MegaRAID SAS 8208ELP/8208ELP (rev 04)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 80003ES2LAN Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) (rev 01)
05:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 80003ES2LAN Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) (rev 01)
09:0c.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc ES1000 (rev 02)
************************************************** **************************

I've attached my dmesg output as well (in case it is of any help)

Thanks!

[dijetlo]

From Dmesg

pci 0000:04:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
DC390: clustering now enabled by default. If you get problems load
	with "disable_clustering=1" and report to maintainers
megaraid cmm: 2.20.2.7 (Release Date: Sun Jul 16 00:01:03 EST 2006)
megaraid: 2.20.5.1 (Release Date: Thu Nov 16 15:32:35 EST 2006)
megasas: 00.00.04.01 Thu July 24 11:41:51 PST 2008
GDT-HA: Storage RAID Controller Driver. Version: 3.05
3ware Storage Controller device driver for Linux v1.26.02.002.
3ware 9000 Storage Controller device driver for Linux v2.26.02.011.
nsp32: loading...
ipr: IBM Power RAID SCSI Device Driver version: 2.4.1 (April 24, 2007)
RocketRAID 3xxx/4xxx Controller driver v1.3 (071203)

How much of that is on your system?
It seems to load all the modules, I'd try what it suggests and turn disable clustering on.

[skitrees]

dijetlo,

I tried going down the avenue you suggested, but I ran out of time with the machine - it was allocated to a different location.

I appreciate the time and effort you provided me though, and wish I could have delivered happier news.

I'll go ahead and mark this thread as SOLVED (if I can figure out how to do that).

Thanks again!