Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 19:00:09 +0200 From: Patrick Hurrelmann <outi@bytephobia.de> To: adam@otterycomputers.com, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: RAID 5 Adapters and FreeBSD 5.2.1 Message-ID: <20040522190009.33d110a5@duality.bytephobia.de> In-Reply-To: <1085158935.40ae36176ba6c@oocltd.gotdns.org> References: <003301c43f36$a78c7340$0b02a8c0@justin> <40AE18E8.90302@outi.echsi.de> <40AE1A29.8080300@outi.echsi.de> <1085153225.40ae1fc973ff9@192.168.0.253> <40AE2906.20304@bytephobia.de> <1085158935.40ae36176ba6c@oocltd.gotdns.org>
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hi again, thats quite funny :) i spoke to mr. zegers at cebit and had some mail-exchange afterwards. i tho= ught i did explain him, taht freebsd is no linux and that is wont run any l= inux-kerneldrivers. and that i don't thinbks its true that some linux-guy p= orted this to freebsd. hm ;) as already said, we'll have to wait till ataraid handles raid 5 or promise = builds freebsd-drivers what never will happen (in my opinion)... promise europe says: take linux-drivers, port them because efforts for free= bsd drivers have been stoppen, because some developper quit... promise usa says: we're working on it... hehe since almost one year? very funny is that they still do advertising with freebsd-drivers :) if you have a close look at promise' marketing presentations, especially at= comparision to other raid-controller, you will notice that they use some v= ery recent firmware revision (2.07 or something like that) while the most a= ctual firmware is 2.04. same thing with windows drivers used in benchmark ;= ) and that presentation are out some month now. i own several promise controllers now, but support is getting worse... mayb= e these were my last. On Fri, 21 May 2004 18:02:15 +0100 adam@otterycomputers.com wrote: >=20 >=20 > Interestingly I emailed Promise's Europe and US Support departments and t= hey > both gave me different and conflicting answers. >=20 > Rather stupidly the european department seem to think that FreeBSD is som= e sort > of linux distribution. Also the European department say that planned supp= ort > for FreeBSD has been dropped by management whereas the US department say = that > development for FreeBSD is currently under way!!! Crazy? >=20 > Here is what the European department said - > =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D > Hello mister Retter, >=20 > Honestly, we took FreeBSD in the shedule to get drivers developed for thi= s, > and created a manual, however management decided later that this linux > distribution would not be supported. Thus we did not develop specific dri= ver > for this model. >=20 > We know that some linux enthousiast have developed drivers for this model= in > Free BSD, but you have to check this in newsgroups. >=20 > With kind regards, Mit freundlichen grussen, Met vriendelijke groet, >=20 > Stefan Zegers > Technical Support Engineer > =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D >=20 > The US Support department said this - > =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D > Hi > FreeBSD driver for both controllers are still being developed > and tested at this point. I don't have a date as of yet when driver will > be out. >=20 > I would recommend you not to purchase the controller until Promise have > FreeBSD driver posted on our website. >=20 >=20 >=20 > Thank you >=20 > Promise Technology Inc > 1745 McCandless Drives > Milpitas CA, 95035 > 408-228-6400 > =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D >=20 >=20 > So anyone know whats happening? Not me! >=20 > Cheers Adam. >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 > > adam@otterycomputers.com wrote: > > > Hmm well the cheepest 3ware RAID 5 SATA card is about =A3240 which is= like > > =A3100 > > > more than my budget would strecth too, shame those 3ware cards look r= eal > > nice. > > > Also I think they are 64bit pci, i only have 32bit pci :-( > > > > > > Im guessing that mmy best bet then is to get some sort of supported S= ATA > > > controller and then to use Vinum on top to do the RAID stuff. Can any= one > > make a > > > well supported but under =A3140 recommendation. > > > > > > Shame coz those promise ones look wicked and fit my budget. > > > Can anyone tell me how difficult it would be to develop a driver for = the > > promise > > > card, I have experience of C and C++ amongst others and am fairly > > knowledgable > > > about PC's and Hardware but have never had to look so low-level as wr= itting > > a > > > driver. > > > > > > Thanks Adam. > > > > > > > I forgot to mention, that Promise FastTrak S150 SX4 (and SX4000) are > > supported in 5.x CURRENT, but they use the ata-framework and no scsi. > > Radi 5support will hit 5.x in future. Soeren Schmitt is working hard on > > it. But it may take some time till this happens. I own a Promise > > FastTrak S150 SX4 myself and i have killed my old raid5 array some days > > ago. i now use 4x 120gb as raid 0+1 with ataraid. > > > > It's sad, that Promise still advertises his FastTrak SX4 with future > > FreeBSD support. I spoke with an technician of Promise on Cebit 04. It's > > highly unlikely that Promise itself will release any bsd drivers. They > > have a linux-driver. I received a copy of it, too. Regrettably the > > Promise driver is only partly open-source. I provided Soeren with one > > copy, but he said it doesn't help him, as the relevant parts of the code > > are closed... > > > > > > so, at the moment i'm running CURRENT with raid 0+1 on my Promise SX4 > > till ataraid will handle raid5. Looking forward to that. > > > > Patrick > > >=20 >=20 >=20 >=20 > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. >=20
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