Cannot install Red Hat EL 4 on DL 320 G4

[Travis Caldwell]

I am trying to install Red Hat EL 4 on a DL 320 G4 with SATA controller and drives. When I let the installation go, I get the following error:
No hard drives have been found. You probably need to manually select drivers for installation to succeed.

I found the following driver image for the G4 SATA controller: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/23565.html

I followed all instructions and downloaded this image. I used the exact command for the linux based creation of the floppy driver disk. The contents of this disk are: modinfo, modules.cgz, modules.dep, pcitable, rhdd. The modules.dep is empty, the modules.cgz file looks like a good bin file, and the other files have text in them that appear appropriate.

I followed the installation instructions on the above link and used the linux updates dd to attempt to install the drivers. It asks me for the driver disk and states that it is reading the disk. I then get the message:

No devices of the appropriate type were found on this driver disk.

It states that I can try to manually select a driver. I attempt this and select the Adaptec SATA RAID driver (adaphci). It then states that it is loading the driver and offers to load more. I decline and then the install fails again with the message:

No hard drives have been found.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

I just installed one of those buggers with SCSI.

It comes with a CD.

You should be able to boot off it and set up the drives into a RAID array.

Then you boot off of the RH CD.

SEP

[Travis Caldwell]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, the ACU (array configuration utility) says it does not find any supported controllers. I might take a look at an updated version of this, but it appears that the SATA controllers are causing some real issues here.

[Vitaly Karasik_1 · Accepted solution]

did you create logical disks using build-in RAID management tool or from CDROM?

[Travis Caldwell]

All-

Thx for having a gander. Apparently, a critical step was missed in enabling the embedded SATA and then, as Vitaly mentioned, building the array (either as a RAID array or JBOD). This then seems to initialize the devices so that the driver is actually needed and used.

This solved my problem - using the BIOS / POST based RAID setup.

[Travis Caldwell]

As I posted in a reply, my problem is solved. The embedded SATA RAID needs to be enabled in the BIOS. Then, at POST time, you can create arrays or JBOD. Then you still need the driver for the controller when installing RH EL 4.