Sata Raid not recognized at install

[teacherbill]

I have attempted to install several linux distributions but none of them recognize my sata raid setup. The raid is real, i.e. set at the bios level. I have tried to load some drivers at install but that does not work either.

I already have XP64 loaded and want to dual boot linux.

Any suggestions?

[conky]

Setting it at the bios level does not mean it's real raid. Most onboard RAID controllers, such as Intel's Matrix Raid, and NVRAID are actually software raid. The BIOS stores metadata to describe the RAID configuration on the drives and boot from them, but the drivers actually manage the array, not the controller. Linux can manage these arrays with devicemapper and a tool called dmraid which reads the metadata and sets up the raid. Do a search for how to setup dmraid on your distro of choice. What RAID level are you using?

[teacherbill]

0+1

This is the board
http://www.tyan.com/product_board_spec.aspx?pid=541

So NVRaid is software. Ok. Thanks.
Dmraid then becomes an install option so it does the mapping before the distribution is actually loaded?

[conky]

Dmraid is a userspace program that detects the nvraid configuration and sets up devicemapper for you. You will need to have it in an initrd to do this on boot. I'm sure of the status of this program in most distros, as I haven't used it in a while. It may require some manual setup of an initrd.