nvraid in linux?

[WillisDM]

Is it possible?

All I have been able to find is sata_nv which is not the raid driver.

The reason for asking is something with cross-platform support (IE, dualbooting Windows and Linux on the same raid array)

[wizdom]

Yes, this is probably possible. Crappy software RAID solutions like "NVRAID" are supported by the "dmraid" utility which handles proprietary partition standards.

http://people.redhat.com/~heinzm/sw/dmraid/

You will need to have IDE/SATA support for all the controller you wish to include in the array, however, so you'll still need sata_nv.

These products do NOT implement hardware RAID, and as such there is no requirement for a driver with "hardware" support for RAID. dmraid works in userspace and provides a neat software solution.

[WillisDM]

How would one go about using this during install? I tried putting the rpm (got the x86_64 version off of suse's pub) on a floppy and also tried extracting it, but it will not find additional drivers to support dmraid.

[Lauwenmark78]

Have a look at http://tienstra4.flatnet.tudelft.nl/~gerte/gen2dmraid/

It offers a Gentoo-based live cd with dmraid support (even if you don't actually plan to install Gentoo, you can use that livecd to get access of your raid space from the other distro installer).

Hope this helps !

[Thoreau]

3ware good. Software bad.

[Lauwenmark78]

Originally Posted by Thoreau

3ware good. Software bad.

Software cheap. 3ware costly.

Learn the differences between the desktop/SOHO and the enterprise markets before hammering such blindly manicheist lines.

[Thoreau]

It's 100 bucks. How much does your motherboard cost? How many of your desktops have hard drives and run linux? I'm not blindly hammering anyone. It's the right choice.

Until NVRAID is part of the linux kernel(GPL), it's not bootable and is the wrong choice. Desktop or Enterprise, it doesn't matter. If it worked, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Look at the reality before you embrace delusions of adequacy. That's the truth of it.

Nvidia could change all that by having hardware RAID chipsets on their motherboards, with GPL'd drivers in the kernel. So until then, you get to talk about how it doesn't work.

[john_doe252]

Originally Posted by Thoreau

It's 100 bucks. How much does your motherboard cost? How many of your desktops have hard drives and run linux? I'm not blindly hammering anyone. It's the right choice.

Until NVRAID is part of the linux kernel(GPL), it's not bootable and is the wrong choice. Desktop or Enterprise, it doesn't matter. If it worked, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Look at the reality before you embrace delusions of adequacy. That's the truth of it.

Nvidia could change all that by having hardware RAID chipsets on their motherboards, with GPL'd drivers in the kernel. So until then, you get to talk about how it doesn't work.

I'm not happy but i have to agree with you.. It seems that Nvidia forgot Linux users when added raid to their chipsets. And related to 3Ware i think they are great controllers. They deserve their money.