Adaptec WinRAID (was RE: [wplug] GRUB won't update MBR)

[Vanco, Donald]

Alexandros Papadopoulos wrote:
> On Tuesday 05 August 2003 21:08, Alexandros Papadopoulos wrote:
> <snip>
>> It seems that the Adaptec controller I got is working on a Winmodem
>> principal, replying on software to make it work... software that is
>> only available for M$ products.
>> 
>> I shouldn't even be seeing /dev/hde and /dev/hdg after "creating the
>> array" in the controller's BIOS utility, but I am still seeing two
>> separate disks. The quotes are there because obviously the hardware
>> can do nothing on its own, and it relies on a M$-Win driver to
>> mirror the data. After win-modems and win-printers, we're getting
>> win-@&%#%@!!&-controllers... 
>> 
>> For the record, the controller is an Adaptec ATA RAID 1200A - two
>> channels, RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and hot-spare capabilities. I'll officially
>> ask Adaptec support tomorrow from work, and will let you know what
>> happens.
> 
> It's official. This controller is not "supported under Linux", and
> Adaptec support have to say that "It's not a matter of
> software/hardware controller,
> it's just that this controller doesn't have drivers for Linux."
> 
> Am I wrong in feeling tricked here? 
	Disappointed certainly - but "ticked" - well, to play devils'
advocate investigation before purchase would have saved you this grief.
Like you, I personally was not aware of the increasing prevalence of
"WinPuter" style chipsets (not really clear from the above statement as to
whether or not this thing _is_ software driven) until I started looking at
laptops and asking what worked under Linux and what did not.  There are
entire laptops that are XP only (thank you SiS).  
	It kind of makes sense that with CPUs becoming so powerful that
things get off-loaded to the OS to save on silicon real-estate - but there's
the inevitable fact that to support an OS takes a team of programmers, and
companies are likely to go where the money is initially in terms of
supporting an OS - and it cannot be argued that MS has a fair dominance in
the consumer PC space....

> Aren't hardware RAID controllers
> supposed to completely hide the array from the OS?
	Yeah - but we're talking hybrid technology here (again, if it's a
WinDevice) so there might be some MBR magic or something to get it running
for Windoze.  But yeah - it's a bit surprising to say the least.  One would
think (actually hope) that it's firmware doing the RAID stuff and rising
above the OS - but certainly a driver of some kind, no matter how minimal,
is going to be required to see the card under Linux.
	Sadly - this trend is certainly going to continue.
	It would be great to get a few folks to send comments to Adaptec -
their history with Linux is at least long term if not always stellar.
Voices make a difference.

	If you can return / exchange it that would be great - and certainly
let Adaptec know that you did it for another brand that supported Linux...

Don