Promise TX4310 FakeRaid Controller without raid 5 functionality

[kevin]

This fake-raid controller (software raid with HW XOR-engine) is recognized and its disks are listed as /dev/sda to /dev/sdd. Raid 0 and raid 1 setups are functional, but it's not possible to run a raid 5 array. The official drivers by Promise don't work, the program "dmraid" cannot activate the array, altough it finds the controller and the disks:

$ sudo dmraid -r
ERROR: pdc: identifying /dev/sda, magic_0: 0x52b33485/0x410522, magic_1: 0x52b33485/0x10680522, total_disks: 4
ERROR: pdc: identifying /dev/sdb, magic_0: 0x52b33485/0x400522, magic_1: 0x52b33485/0x10680522, total_disks: 4
ERROR: pdc: identifying /dev/sdc, magic_0: 0x52b33485/0x420522, magic_1: 0x52b33485/0x10680522, total_disks: 4
ERROR: pdc: identifying /dev/sdd, magic_0: 0x52b33485/0x64d0522, magic_1: 0x52b33485/0x10680522, total_disks: 4

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

The kernel does not currently support the raid5 target with device-mapper. I believe there is an experimental patch somewhere, but it has not been merged into Linus's tree.

[Andrew Ash (ash211)]

Is this still an issue for you, Kevin? I'm having trouble myself using raid5 in Gutsy (motherboard's nvraid though), and was wondering if the new Hardy release had fixed things for you.

[Sergio Zanchetta (primes2h)]

The 18 month support period for Edgy Eft 6.10 has reached it's end of life. As a result, we are closing the linux-source-2.6.17 Edgy Eft kernel task.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

[Ralph Janke (txwikinger)]

Unfortunately this bug report is being closed because we received no response to the last inquiry for information. However, the Intrepid Ibex 8.10 Beta release was most recently announced - http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/intrepid/beta . If you are able to confirm this is still an issue with this most recent release please feel free to reopen this report. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks.

[Paul R (joe-palfreystreet)]

I am running Ubuntu 8.10 with kernel 2.6.27-11 and the promise TX4310 controller. I get the same error messages from dmraid:
# dmraid -tay
ERROR: pdc: identifying /dev/sde, magic_0: 0x2380414/0xab0409, magic_1: 0x2380414/0x0, total_disks: 0
ERROR: pdc: identifying /dev/sdd, magic_0: 0x2380414/0xaa0409, magic_1: 0x2380414/0x0, total_disks: 0
ERROR: pdc: identifying /dev/sdc, magic_0: 0x2370414/0xa90409, magic_1: 0x2370414/0x0, total_disks: 0
ERROR: pdc: identifying /dev/sdb, magic_0: 0x2370414/0xa80409, magic_1: 0x2370414/0x0, total_disks: 0
No RAID disks

I started going down the path of the dm-raid45_2.6.27_20081027.patch from Heinz Mauelshagen, but after patching, I could no longer run "modprobe dm-raid4-5" - it would say "dm-raid4-5: disagrees about version of symbol...", then it would say "unknown symbol..." (same one), for several dm_* functions. So I went back to the original kernel to see if I could just get the disks recognized.

[Paul R (joe-palfreystreet)]

Ok, so I figured out that dm-raid4-5 is now in Intrepid, which would explain why patching with older code would produce those errors. But I still have this error identifying /dev/sdb-e (sda is a separate 40GB boot drive that works just fine).

I thought maybe there is a newer dmraid than in the current Intrepid 8.10, which is 1.0.0-rc14. On the debian distribution site, there is dmraid 1.0.0-rc15, which I installed, but still no improvement.

[Paul R (joe-palfreystreet)]

I submitted this as a bug report to debian for module dmraid.

[Paul R (joe-palfreystreet)]

Bug was closed in debian - I opened a bug report for Ubuntu 8.10. Bug #367665.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dmraid/+bug/367665