<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Disabling RAID feature on Promise FastTrack</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+ "><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="Linux ATA RAID HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Upgrading Kernel" HREF="upgrading.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Tips and Important Notes" HREF="tips.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >Linux ATA RAID HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="upgrading.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="tips.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="DISABLE">9. Disabling RAID feature on Promise FastTrack</H1 ><P >If you are reading this section, then you may be sick and tired of the fake RAID feature (formally known as quasi-hardware RAID) provided by Promise Technology FastTrack card or onboard chip on your motherboard.</P ><DIV CLASS="SECT2" ><H2 CLASS="SECT2" ><A NAME="DISCASE1">9.1. Case 1: OS not using RAID</H2 ><P >It is possible to disable the RAID feature and use the Promise FastTrack as a plain vanilla IDE card. It is very simple. Follow the below steps:</P ><P ><P ></P ><OL TYPE="1" ><LI ><P >Determine your <EM >Append Line</EM >. See <A HREF="existing.html#DETERMINE" >Section 7.2</A > for help with this</P ></LI ><LI ><P >Modify <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/etc/lilo.conf</TT > to include <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >append="</TT ><EM >Append Line</EM ><TT CLASS="FILENAME" >"</TT > in your current kernel boot section. Again see <A HREF="existing.html#DETERMINE" >Section 7.2</A > for details.</P ></LI ><LI ><P >Type <B CLASS="COMMAND" >/sbin/lilo</B > and reboot</P ></LI ></OL ></P ><P >Now you should see your hard disks seperately and you can use them. If you previously had partitions on the RAID mirror, you will see partitions accordingly on each of the two member disks. You will also see the data that you previously stored on the RAID mirror.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT2" ><H2 CLASS="SECT2" ><A NAME="DISCASE2">9.2. Case 2: OS is using RAID</H2 ><P >If you want to disable RAID on a Linux computer that is using RAID mirror partitions for <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/</TT >, <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/boot</TT >, <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/usr</TT > <EM >etc</EM >., then first backup your data including <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/usr/src/linux/.config</TT >, <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/etc/fstab</TT >, <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/boot/vmlinux</TT >. Power off your computer. Then turn it on. At the <TT CLASS="PROMPT" >boot:</TT > prompt, type <B CLASS="COMMAND" >linux</B > followed by <EM >Append Line</EM >. If your system does not boot successfully, then insert your emergency rescue/boot floppy disk, boot off of that floppy disk and type at the <TT CLASS="PROMPT" >boot:</TT > prompt <B CLASS="COMMAND" >linux</B > followed by <EM >Append Line</EM >. If you still cannot boot, then you cannot disable RAID non-destructively, which means you have to boot off of the RedHat CDROM #1 and re-install Linux, again by typing <B CLASS="COMMAND" >linux</B > followed by <EM >Append Line</EM > at the <TT CLASS="PROMPT" >boot:</TT > prompt.</P ><P >If your Linux machine boots successfully, then first make sure that all data is available and clean. Make sure that files in <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/boot</TT > are not corrupt. In some cases, the ASCII configuration files in <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/boot</TT > and LILO binary files may be corrupt. If that happens, you have to restore them from backup or reconfigure <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/etc/lilo.conf</TT >, run <B CLASS="COMMAND" >/sbin/lilo</B > and recompile and reinstall the kernel (recompile with unmodified .config, <EM >i.e.</EM >, without Promise RAID support).</P ><P >If your Linux machine boots up and all files are safe, then add <EM >Append Line</EM > to <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/etc/lilo.conf</TT >, run <B CLASS="COMMAND" >/sbin/lilo</B > and reboot.</P ><P >If you disabled RAID on OS disks and then later changed your mind, then you have to back up data and reinstall Linux. If you change mind this way and want your RAID back on your Linux OS disks, you may have to sacrifice your current data.</P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="upgrading.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="tips.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Upgrading Kernel</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Tips and Important Notes</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >
