Promise ultra100TX2 ide controller

[The PIT]

Has anyone got this working in either RH 7.1 or Mandrake 8.0.
Promise do a none working bootdisk for fastrack100 which isn't quite the same. I've had a hunt around the internet but I haven't found any info as such.

[leech]

Are you having problems installing it on that, or is it simply that you don't have a driver to use the extra abilities of the card/chipset? IF you have Mandrake or RH installed, I'd recommend trying to re-compile the driver yourself. Good luck.

Leech

[The PIT]

I can't install the darn thing as it can't see any off the drives.

[leech]

My suggestion then would be to connect your IDE drives to your standard IDE controller (at least we can hope you have one and the Promise controller isn't built onto your motherboard with no alternate.) Then install RedHat or Mandrake onto that. Or if that doesn't fit your fancy to try it that way, then you could try to ask on www.mandrakeforum.com if they have a boot disk that will install the drivers etc for the Promise controller so that Mandrake 8 will install. Good luck.

Leech

[zaphod38]

UDMA blooz....

Hiya !

I had a similar problem with my ABIT BE6 mobo, in which the Promise HPT (Hiighpoint) UDMA 66 'bios' kick in after the bios for the regular UDMA 33 IDE ports.

I ended up doing as leech suggested, running my dual boot (L-M 7.2 / m$98se) from the UDMA 33 port.
Later, I upgraded my Promise controller bios but never got around to trying out the system again.
A recent crash I had provoked gave me a reason to retry my drive arrangements which are now:

UDMA 33 Primary (port 0) Master -> Pioneer DVD-ROM

UDMA 33 Secondary (port 1) Master -> Diamond Data 4x 4x 30x CD Writer/Re-Writer

UDMA 66 Primary (port 0) Master -> 15 Gb ST317221A ( I forget the brand at the mo' ) mounted in a removable drive tray.

I deleted L-M 7.2 before the drive relocation and it has been successfully reinstalled (from boot CD) and running since then.
(Mind you , I somehow upset the 98se partition - it wouldn't boot but I could read it from Linux and manged to burn backups of my important data... phew!).

I have also performed a full install of Mandrake 8 (from boot CD) to a different HDD (also mounted in a drive tray) connected as a master to the Primary UDMA 66 port and have had no problems with it booting up.

There is also either a How-To or Mini-How-To availlable (free!) from the Linux Documentation Project, although when I last downloaded it, it was relating to the Promise UDMA 66 controller.

(erm... I hate to admit this but I have never had a problem installing wind0z3 98se to a drive on this port)

Hope this gives you some ideas...

zaphod

[The PIT]

Thanks for your replys. I've heard Suse 7.2 is susposed to work and I can downlown for nothing anyway. It's just a pity they don't do ISO images.
Re-enabling the Via controller will probably lead to my kt7 133a having a fit it's fairly stable so therefore I'd like to leave it that way.

[failure]

Running great

Hi all...
Im running Linux 2.4.7 and i have a promise ultra100 and that just working fine!
what is your problem, im just compiled the kernel with the promise support.

[The PIT]

My problem is that I can't install either mandrake 8.0 or RH 7.1 because they can't see the harddrives.

[2Whyzzi]

I just dealt with this yesterday

and hopefullly my experience will help (although my hardware is not exactly the same as yours). I have an Asus A7V with an Ultra 100 (not fasttrack) built on the mainboard, and I am just now dual booting W2K and Mandrake 8. Anyway, it goes something like this:

You need to find out 4 address ranges supplied by the Promise Controller. Since I was dual booting, I found these address ranges in the resources tab in Device Manager in W2K. These address ranges will look like this (you'll want a pen and paper handy to write down your own ranges):

8400(-8407)
8000(-8003)
7800(-7807)
7400(-7403)
7000(-703F)

The short address ranges are the locations of your hard drives in HEX. And I think it is safe to say that the first address in the list is the primary ide controller & the master drive, the second is primary slave, third is secondary controller and master drive, fourth is secondary controller slave drive, and lastly 7000-703F is likely the controller BIOS.

The PDC20265 driver under linux uses slightly different offsets than Windows one from the documentation that I've referenced. That offset is 0x0002. And in order to get Linux/Mandrake to "see" the hard drives, you need to add an ide command at the boot prompt (I currently use the command below):

(Press CTRL-ESC in mandrake 8 to get the boot prompt)
boot: linux ide2=0x8400,8402 ide3=0x8000,0x8002

Now, depending on your configuration, your ide(x) may be different.

And the site I referenced this information from is here:

http://www.geocities.com/ender7007/

I hope this helps.
Whyzzi

[kewlcat]

not supported completely...

Here's a link to a linux-kernel post talking about how he got it working.

http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0107.2/0139.html

You will have to compile the (modified) kernel on your machine using the VIA controller or whatever else you have available (another machine for example). Then you can use that kernel with your controller. Seemed to work for that guy.

If you need a compiled kernel image, I could probably send you one with the right stuff in it, just need any special config stuff you want.

HTH,
Rahul

[kewlcat]

BTW, 2Whyzzi has a different controller. His is a 20265, while I think you have a 20268.

-Rahul

[2Whyzzi]

Originally posted by kewlcat
BTW, 2Whyzzi has a different controller. His is a 20265, while I think you have a 20268.

Nope. I've got the case off and I'm looking at the chip right now. Definately says PDC20265 (I've had this mainboard for about 8 months).

Booth SuSE 7.1 and Mandrake 8 download have a driver/module? for this chip (I know becuase I've tried them both), and upon booting both distro's loaded the driver/module?. And then the installation quit, stopping at "ide2=8400,8407 - 8002" (or something like it).

Think I could find a hacked BIOS that would enable Raid?

Whyzzi

[kewlcat]

Read carefully

2Whyzzi => PDC20265
The PIT => PDC20268

The PIT, can you confirm this? Kernels greater than 2.4.7 seem to support your chip too, at least it is mentioned in "make xconfig".

-Rahul

[The PIT]

Well I've got Mandrake beta 8.1 working sortoff it's rather flaky I'm afraid. Bit of a piss around getting the internet to work and I have to boot off a floppy as Lilo hangs striaght away of the harddisk. However theres more than one way to skin a cat and I haven't given up yet.

Oh I forgot to mention I had to install in expert mode otherwise it was no go I'm afraid. Not good news for anyone just trying lunix out.

[TnT]

A little bit more info about this at Mandrake's forums (http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article...d=2262&lang=en)

<quote>
One more thing: As we have some Promise 100 controlers around here (which work fine), problem is obviously localised to special drive/controller combination, and it would be interesting to know WHICH combinations are causing the malfunction, and if the kernel update solves the problem for all of them or not.
</quote>

Hopefully my stuff will work

The Pit, have you gotten yours to work smoothly yet?