I see a lot of them posted questions reporting problems installing RH 7.3 w/ Promise Fasttrak. I just finished installing RH 7.3 on Dual processor box. Please read my tips and add your tips. (I have to update my howto) INSTALLING RH 7.3 Promise RAID 1. Get driver from http://www.promise.com/support/file/T-FTS-02-RHD73.zip This has two zip files one for multiprocessor and other for single processor. Pick the right one and extract in a dos formatted floppy 2. Install RH 7.3 with CD by typing "linux noprobe" at the boot: prompt. Press F2 and insert your driver floppy 3. Install RH 7.3 on /dev/sda, install lilo on MBR of /dev/sda. Reboot and login INSTALLING Linux ATA RAID 4. Get latest kernel 2.4.19 from www.kernel.org 5. Enable ATARAID support, Promise RAID, FastTrack feature, Promise software raid, DMA feature for Promise all built into kernel, not modules 6. Uninstall lilo and install latest lilo 22.x. If install fails because there is no nasm-x.xx. Install nasm first. Otherwise ignore errors with lilo new version install as long as /sbin/lilo is created 7. Change root=/dev/sda1 to root=/dev/ataraid/d0p1, linear to lba32 in /etc/lilo.conf. Dont change boot=/dev/sda. Run lilo and reboot 8. You may or may not be able to boot!!. If you get kernel panic: (a) It says: please give correct root= parameter Wrong entry in /etc/lilo.conf or you didnt enable raid support at all (b) kmod: cannot load block-major-xx-xx You enabled but you accepted default option while building (build as modules). You have to build into the kernel, not modules (c) cannot mount root fs from device 72:01 or something like that. If you get this and/or notice that it never identified individual disks before kernel trying to mount root, then you also need append line Boot into promise fake raid box with sda, edit lilo.conf to include append line and reboot. Did somebody report nodma also needed? I didnt need it 9. hdc: lost interrupt (complains if you want to use cdrom). Somebody on this list reported changing irq to solve this, I gnore this error. hdc connected to ide0 or ide1 (of motherboard). Any more tips on fixing this? I tried nousb at boot time which minimized this a bit 10. APIC error on CPU. This is very common with dual cpu motherboards. Not a good thing. Bad motherboard with bad apic lines. Never sees full mips of your cpu. Other than throwing the motherboard (or running Windows that hides the error), anyone has tips on this?
