on the Promise U100 controller without blowing the system - terminally.
I give up.
According to what I can figure-out from the programmers' comments, it
/isn't possible/ to correct that with the Promise chip, because of some
peculiarity they engineered-in,... BUT...
When the motherboard's BIOS initializes the chip I /can/ enable SMART,
but then...
I can't boot without having my boot-system on /dev/hde, rather than
/dev/hda...
Fuck it.
I /think/ that if the BIOS can initialize the Promise chip, that it is
(theoretically) possible for the kernel to initialize the chip to
function correctly, but if Promise /won't allow/ paid-for chips to
function in a way that gives us the reliability-system we paid-for, then
the simplest solution is:
1. note it in the config helpfile ( Promise-controller-section ) to NEVER
cat /proc/ide/hde/identify
smartctl -e
smartctl -a
hdparm -I ( capital i )
&c.
unless the Promise-BIOS is enabled in the motherboard's BIOS settings (
this will reduce systems trashed due-to-ignorance in linux )
2. cease buying Promise chip-based systems for reliable-systems running
linux, until they decide that customers are good, IF they decide
customers are good...
3. maybe see what the mobos BIOS does and see if the kernel-driver could
do that to get SMART to be useable on these chips irregardless (
love-that-word ) of the BIOS's settings
Thanks for helping me understand, and as Jeff Dunteman says...
Keep on hacking
-me
--
http://www.drawright.com/
- "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" ( Betty Edwards,
check "Theory", "Gallery", and "Exercises" )
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/seven_habits.html
- "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" ( this site is same
principles as Covey's book )
http://www.eiconsortium.org/research/ei_theory_performance.htm
- "Working With Emotional Intelligence" ( Goleman: this link is
/revised/ theory, "Working. . . " is practical )
http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershop/1978-5.html
- Corps Business: The 30 /Management Principles/ of the U.S. Marines (
David Freedman )
> I can't boot without having my boot-system on /dev/hde, rather than
> /dev/hda...
rm /dev/hda
rm /dev/hde
mknod hda b 33 0
mknod hde b 3 0
John.
> I /think/ that if the BIOS can initialize the Promise chip, that it is
> (theoretically) possible for the kernel to initialize the chip to
> function correctly, but if Promise /won't allow/ paid-for chips to
> function in a way that gives us the reliability-system we paid-for, then
> the simplest solution is:
To do what I did with my Promise card - use the IDE ribbon cable that
came with it, and leave the card in the box on the shelf :-).
John.