RHEL5 Install Issues

redeye · 24 Oct 2007 at 22:09

So my boss wanted a new server in the office..and has bought RHEL5 for it. I've never touched Linux before

eek

and am having some issues getting RAID up and running.

Basically we've got a Rocket Raid 2310 adapter running 3 x 500GB drives in RAID5. I've set up the RAID array in the adapter bios and started installing Red Hat. Problem is I can't get the drivers for the Raid adapter on a working floppy. I've downloaded the latest drivers (rr231x_0x-rhel-5.img file from Highpoint) and using rawrite have tried to write them to a floppy (horrible things).

So I put the first install CD in and type "Linux dd".. select the floppy drive to get drivers off and I get "failed to mount driver disc". I've tried loads of different programs to write the .img file to a floppy, tried loads of different floppys and nothing seems to work. I've tried just using the CD that came with the Raid adapter but that doesn't work.

Is there not a simpler way than having to write the .img to a floppy? It's a stupid thing to have to do in this day and age. Can you not somehow decompile the .img and just get Linux to get the drivers directly from the file (like a windows .inf file??)

Any advice welcome!

Cheers

sidethink · 25 Oct 2007 at 11:42

RHEL comes with free support from Redhat - you'd be best phoning them and making use of their help; otherwise it might have been more cost effective to just get CentOS 5 instead.

redeye · 25 Oct 2007 at 12:23

Yeah I'll give them a call since I've pretty much exhausted all other ideas! Unfortunately it wasn't my idea to get RHEL so we're stuck with it! Fingers crossed we get it up and running!

Cheers

AndrewP · 25 Oct 2007 at 13:10

You might be able to get more information about why the floppy isn't mounting by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1 (try F2,3,4 aswell) when it fails, like problems with the disk itself, the drive etc.

.img files are easy to write if you have a Linux system handy (just dd if=/path/to/img.img of=/dev/fd0), but rawrite sounds like it does something similar anyway. You could try using the software RAID instead, it's pretty straightforward if you follow the guide

redeye · 25 Oct 2007 at 20:13

AndrewP said:
You might be able to get more information about why the floppy isn't mounting by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1 (try F2,3,4 aswell) when it fails, like problems with the disk itself, the drive etc.

.img files are easy to write if you have a Linux system handy (just dd if=/path/to/img.img of=/dev/fd0), but rawrite sounds like it does something similar anyway. You could try using the software RAID instead, it's pretty straightforward if you follow the guide

I've tried getting extra info with Ctrl-Alt-f4 and it's not giving much extra info. After talking to the guys at Red Hat I think I've managed to get the drivers installed from our ftp. It turns out the motherboard bios isn't updated to support RHEL5 either so I've got to boot off a cd and update that. Hopefully then we can get this installed!

AndrewP · 25 Oct 2007 at 22:09

I had a right mare trying to get either CentOS 4 or 5 to recognise the hardware RAID on a new nForce 650 a few weeks ago, though CentOS 5 could at least see the drives that were attached! 5.1 can't be too far away though, it's been about 6 months since the original release.

sidethink · 26 Oct 2007 at 09:07

redeye said:
Yeah I'll give them a call since I've pretty much exhausted all other ideas! Unfortunately it wasn't my idea to get RHEL so we're stuck with it! Fingers crossed we get it up and running!

Cheers

Glad your getting sorted - and I wasn't having a jab at your decision to go with RHEL - its a fine operating system.

Just pointing out that the only real difference between RHEL and CentOS is the support and the update/patching. If I was lucky enough to have RHEL, I'd be on the phone all day long with those dudes dicussing the weather and Liverpool's prospects for the Premiership this season.

I just meant that you were lucky to have the support available...

redeye · 26 Oct 2007 at 12:45

sidethink said:
Glad your getting sorted - and I wasn't having a jab at your decision to go with RHEL - its a fine operating system.

Just pointing out that the only real difference between RHEL and CentOS is the support and the update/patching. If I was lucky enough to have RHEL, I'd be on the phone all day long with those dudes dicussing the weather and Liverpool's prospects for the Premiership this season.

I just meant that you were lucky to have the support available...

Sorry mate I think my reply came out a bit strongly

The support guys certainly know their stuff and have been very helpful... probably the best support staff I've ever spoken to anywhere. Hopefully today I can get things moving and actually get it up and running!