RE: 2410SA controller in non-intel system?

The aacraid driver in the 2.6 Kernel is being brought up-to-date. It is
stable (IMHO), as the changes are mainly centered around feature
enhancements. There are some corner case instabilities that have been
addressed.

The driver has, in the distant past, been tested on Alpha machines running
Linux. I have the DS10 I believe it was tested on in my Cube, handed down
through the ages, but it is collecting dust and I have never turned it on
myself. I do not believe the testing was done with any business case in
mind. I am afraid to turn it on, only because my plate is full and I need
not add one more to it ... Someone here at Dell may be able to give a more
definitive history.

The driver can benefit by the native management applications, but I fear
that the only means you will have to communicate will be the BIOS. Yes, the
BIOS (under Intel, and hopefully under the ARC x86 emulation) can configure
arrays. Array failures may require you to take the system down to take
action since the native management applications may not be available. 

I was the BIOS author for the 2400A, and had to go through hoops do deal
with the protected memory (32 bit) access required by the BIOS when in the
ARC environment. There were enhancements made (specifically in the int 15
protected mode functions) in the ARC BIOS made just for the I2O based
adapters such as the 2400A. The 2410S uses a totally different BIOS and
interface, but still has the protected memory access issues. I had talked
with the author of that BIOS at length about what had to be done (nearly 4
years ago), and accesses were done with similar intents, but have no idea if
it was ever tested. No doubt it was done on the DS10 in my cube if it was. I
would be interested in your overall success.

I hope this helps.

Sincerely -- Mark Salyzyn

-----Original Message-----
From: Måns Rullgård [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 9:38 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: 2410SA controller in non-intel system?



I am currently looking for an SATA RAID controller that works well in
Linux, and came across the Adaptec 2410SA.  I see there is a driver
for it in the 2.6 kernel, but I don't know how stable it is.  I would
also like to know whether it can be used in an Alpha system, since I
have a some Alpha machines with 64-bit PCI.  To rephrase the question,
does the 2410SA require any software other than the kernel driver to
work, and can the RAID be configured from the BIOS?

-- 
Måns Rullgård
[email protected]

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