Very Computer

by **Sean Marshal** » Fri, 15 Jun 2001 04:17:05

After upgrading from the standard redhat 7.0 kernel to kernel 2.2.19 I
find I cannot access rawdevices such as hard drives. When I run the raw

-qa command I get the following error message Cannot open master raw
device '/dev/rawctl' (No such device)

I need to be able to access raw SCSI devices because I'm running
sanergy, can anyone help me fix this problem?

Thanks,

Sean Marshall

by **Robert Davie** » Fri, 15 Jun 2001 19:13:53

> After upgrading from the standard redhat 7.0 kernel to kernel 2.2.19 I
> find I cannot access rawdevices such as hard drives. When I run the raw

> -qa command I get the following error message Cannot open master raw
> device '/dev/rawctl' (No such device)

> I need to be able to access raw SCSI devices because I'm running
> sanergy, can anyone help me fix this problem?

RedHat patch their sources heavily, did you download a source RPM from
them, or an rpm binary? If you built from source, perhaps you forgot a
configuration option you need, for raw I/O.

I think you would be wiser to stick with distribution source or binary
kernels, rather than download 'Linux' standard, as they have added support
for distribution features, things like Large Files (>2GB), LVM, and
improved NFS, long before they make it into Linus standard.

Rob

by **Sean Marshal** » Fri, 15 Jun 2001 23:53:46

I grabbed the latest source off of kernel.org. I've tripple checked the
config and haven't missed anything. It runs beautifully for everything but
sanergy, which manipulates raw devices where my problem lies, their support
isn't much help either unfortuneately.

Sean

> > After upgrading from the standard redhat 7.0 kernel to kernel 2.2.19 I
> > find I cannot access rawdevices such as hard drives. When I run the raw

> > -qa command I get the following error message Cannot open master raw
> > device '/dev/rawctl' (No such device)

> > I need to be able to access raw SCSI devices because I'm running
> > sanergy, can anyone help me fix this problem?

> RedHat patch their sources heavily, did you download a source RPM from
> them, or an rpm binary? If you built from source, perhaps you forgot a
> configuration option you need, for raw I/O.

> I think you would be wiser to stick with distribution source or binary
> kernels, rather than download 'Linux' standard, as they have added support
> for distribution features, things like Large Files (>2GB), LVM, and
> improved NFS, long before they make it into Linus standard.

> Rob

by **Robert Davie** » Sat, 16 Jun 2001 00:45:19

> I grabbed the latest source off of kernel.org. I've tripple checked the
> config and haven't missed anything. It runs beautifully for everything
> but sanergy, which manipulates raw devices where my problem lies, their
> support isn't much help either unfortuneately.

>> RedHat patch their sources heavily, did you download a source RPM from
>> them, or an rpm binary? If you built from source, perhaps you forgot a
>> configuration option you need, for raw I/O.

>> I think you would be wiser to stick with distribution source or binary
>> kernels, rather than download 'Linux' standard, as they have added
>> support for distribution features, things like Large Files (>2GB), LVM,
>> and improved NFS, long before they make it into Linus standard.

So I was right, now go and get a RH 2.2.19 kernel rather than a Linus one.
Unless sanargy needs patches applied that come with the software (unlikely)
then it should work.

If you previously used a RH binary generic kernel, stick to it, you'll not
get much from compiling your own kernel, and it'll save you lots of time.
5 minute upgrade to new version, with rpm, and running lilo.

Rob

by **Sean Marshal** » Sat, 16 Jun 2001 07:05:39

Quote:> So I was right, now go and get a RH 2.2.19 kernel rather than a Linus one.
> Unless sanargy needs patches applied that come with the software (unlikely)
> then it should work.

> If you previously used a RH binary generic kernel, stick to it, you'll not
> get much from compiling your own kernel, and it'll save you lots of time.
> 5 minute upgrade to new version, with rpm, and running lilo.

The precompiled kernel isn't very efficient nor does it see all my RAM either.
I need a custom kernel I'm afraid.

by **Robert Davie** » Sat, 16 Jun 2001 20:19:03

>> So I was right, now go and get a RH 2.2.19 kernel rather than a Linus
>> one. Unless sanargy needs patches applied that come with the software
>> (unlikely) then it should work.

>> If you previously used a RH binary generic kernel, stick to it, you'll
>> not get much from compiling your own kernel, and it'll save you lots of
>> time. 5 minute upgrade to new version, with rpm, and running lilo.

> The precompiled kernel isn't very efficient nor does it see all my RAM
> either. I need a custom kernel I'm afraid.

My tests showed minimal differences, to compiling in drivers, I did use a
binary kernel of right CPU architecture however.

For RAM, you can set it in append lines, newer kernel versions are much
better at recognising correct amount correctly however.

Is it because you have really shed loads of RAM, and need the large memory
models, >1GB?

Rob

by **Sean Marshal** » Sun, 17 Jun 2001 00:06:03

Quote:
> For RAM, you can set it in append lines, newer kernel versions are much
> better at recognising correct amount correctly however.

> Is it because you have really shed loads of RAM, and need the large memory
> models, >1GB?

Do you append this into the lilo.conf file? How would I go about doing this?
Is there a white paper that describes how?

Thanks,

Sean

by **Robert Davie** » Sun, 17 Jun 2001 21:16:59

>> For RAM, you can set it in append lines, newer kernel versions are much
>> better at recognising correct amount correctly however.

>> Is it because you have really shed loads of RAM, and need the large
>> memory models, >1GB?

> Do you append this into the lilo.conf file? How would I go about doing
> this? Is there a white paper that describes how?

The mem parameter only applies if you BIOS does not pass the correct RAM
size, in a way the kernel can recognise. I had this, but flashing a BIOS
upgrade fixed it.

You need append="mem=128M", or whatever your RAM size is, it's in the linux
FAQ. If you get it slightly wrong it is ignored, try it on booting first,
before tinkering with lilo (remember to run lilo, after altering lilo.conf).

LDP (linuxdoc.org), lilo HOWTO

There is also docs for kernel parameters, in /usr/src/linux/Documentation

boot = /dev/hda
vga = normal
read-only
menu-scheme = Wg:kw:Wg:Wg
prompt
timeout = 80
message = /boot/message

image = /boot/vmlinuz
label = linux
root = /dev/hda6
initrd = /boot/initrd
append = "noapic hdb=ide-scsi hdc=ide-scsi apm=poweroff reboot=warm"

You can also have append in global section to apply to all linux kernels.

If you are using 4GB extensions because you have lots of RAM, then you
probably do need to compile and configure the kernel for that, though most
distro's do support 2GB, and with 2.4 the limit is 64GB of RAM!

If you ahve this much I am jealous

Rob

Very Computer

Cannot open master raw device '/dev/rawctl' (No such device)