Is it possible to run the Intel ICH7R SATA RAID on Linux?

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Mon, Jun 05, 2006 at 01:49:13PM -0400, Stephen W. Clarke wrote:
> I'm trying to install Whitebox EL4 on a brand new server we just got.
> 
> It came with the Intel ICH7R SATA RAID. (I'm pretty sure its a software
> RAID and is designed to work only with Windows.) My question is, does
> anyone out there know how I can go about making it work with Linux. My
> Linux install disk does recognize the HDD even with the RAID turned off.

Which kernel version does your install disk have?

In my experience (with in ICH5R) the bios had to be set to native sata
mode (the default was combined mode, which emulates ide for dos and
windows installer).

I believe the ICH7R if set to native mode should work with the AHCI
driver in newer 2.6 kernels (probably about 2.6.12 or higher if I
remember correctly).

The fakeraid will not work, unless your distribution does dmraid, and
even then I wouldn't recomend it.  Linux software raid as at least as
fast, and is portable between machines, and you can check the status
under linux.

Well looking around, whitebox el4 uses 2.6.9, which is too old for AHCI,
and too old for the ICH7R in general as far as I can tell.  You will
have to find an installer with a newer kernel with AHCI sata controller
support, and turn of the raid in the bios and make sure it's set to ahci
mode.

If you are lucky it might work in a compatibility mode if set to native
or something, if the sata_piix driver recognizes it as compatible with
older ich chips, although with a different PCI id, that isn't likely.

Len Sorensen
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