fc2 on PowerEdge 1850 with PERC 4e/Si

[lawson@dayton.net]

> I'm trying to install Fedora Core 2 on a Power 1850 with a PERC 4e/Si
> controller.  The installer, however, fails to recognize a "disk" (the
> PERC) and prompts for manual selection of drivers.  The "MegaRAID 418,
> 428, 438, 466, 763 (megaraid)" driver is an option but, when loaded, fails
> to regonize the "disk" as well.
>
> Apparently I need the megaraid2 driver.
>
> As far as I can tell, my option is to manually create the megaraid2.ko
> file and create a driver disk (Dell offers a dd for RH9 and RHEL3 but
> these don't use the same kernel).  I found a HOWTO for createing a dd
> (http://faq.linux.cz/pracovni/driver-disk-howto) but am unsure as to the
> appropriate driver source code to dl or the appropriate way to insert it
> into the kernel for module compile.  I've dl'd the
> megaraid-b2-lk2.6.5.patch
> (ftp://ftp.lsil.com/pub/linux-megaraid/drivers/version-unified-2.20.0.B2.04.14.2004/megaraid-b2-lk2.6.5.patch.gz)
> but this doesn't seem to be the megaraid2.
>
> I know this subject came up last month (yes, I checked the archives first.
>  :-) and have spoken with the poster but he still does not have a
> resolution.
>
> So, what comes next?  What is my option here?

OK, so I created the driver disk (dd) according to the above instructions
(fc2 boot kernel "linux-2.6.5-1.358BOOT" compiled from the kernel-source
package w/ megaraid-b2-lk2.6.5.patch patched in) and using the
modules.dep, pcitable, modinfo, and rhdd-6.1 files provided in the Dell dd
for non-fedora RH releases, which should be identical information since
the only thing that changes is the module itself (and it's compile kernel
attributes) in the modules.cgz file.

Now I know that you can't "linux dd" from the boot: prompt since there's
apparently a bug there
(http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=122952) but I thought
I'd gotten around it by booting through to the "no Hard drives have been
found" prompt.  But this is what happens:

Boot through to prompt:
"No Hard drives have been found.  You probably need to manually choose
device drivers for teh installation to succeed.  Would you like to select
drivers now?"

-> YES
-> Add Device

This boots to the device driver list.  Following the top message which
reads, "...If it does not appear and you have a driver disk press F2."

-> F2
-> fd0
-> OK

This pops up the info-window "Reading Driver Disk" and then returns to the
device driver list.  Now the appropriate device appears in the list:
"LSI MegaRAID Driver v2.10.7 (megaraid2)"

I cursor down to the "LSI MegaRAID..." entry and hit RETURN

No info-window "loading driver" pops up (not a good sign).  Now I'm at the
"Following Devices have been found" window again and *NO* "LSI
MegaRAID..." entry in the list.

Natrually, it does not load.

:P

Where can I go from here?

-Kirk Lawson