Installer does not detect 3ware Escalade 9550SX SATA II RAID Controller

Problem:

Installer does not detect the 3Ware Escalade 9550SX SATA II RAID controller.

Details:

The 3w-9xxx driver in the stock SuSE 10.0 install kernel does not support this controller.

Solution:

ASL provides a driver disk and source rpm for the 3Ware Escalade 9550SX RAID controller. To re-install the system, please follow these instructions:

  1. Create the 3Ware 9550SX driver floppy if necessary from the ASL Driver CD. A driver disk is included on systems purchased with SuSE Linux 10.0. 
          mount /media/cdrecorder
      dd if=/media/cdrecorder/SuSE/10.0/x86_64/3w-9xxx-9.3.0.1-2.6.13-15.img of=/dev/fd0
      umount /media/cdrecorder
  2. Boot the system from the SuSE 10.0 installation DVD
  3. At the installation menu, press F5 to use a driver disk
  4. Select installation from the menu
  5. When prompted, insert the driver floppy
  6. When asked to select the driver update medium, choose "fd0: floppy"
  7. There installer should print "Driver Update OK"
  8. Select back to continue the installation Create

If an online update is performed, the kernel will be upgraded by default. Before rebooting into the new kernel, the 3Ware 3w-9xxx RAID driver must be rebuilt with the steps below. Failure to perform this step will result in an unbootable system:

  1. Insert the ASL Driver CD into the DVD drive
  2. mount /dev/cdrecorder /media/cdrecorder
  3. rpm -ivh /media/cdrecorder/SuSE/10.0/3w-9xxx2.6-9.3.0.1-2.6.13-15.src.rpm
  4. cd /usr/src/packages/SPECS
  5. /media/cdrecorder/SuSE/10.0/suse10driver.sh 3w-9xxx2.6
  6. umount /media/cdrecorder
  7. Reboot the system to use the new kernel

If the system no longer boots because these steps above are not performed, use the following procedure to correct the problem.

  1. Boot the system from the SuSE 10.0 DVD media.
  2. Insert the 3Ware Escalade 9550SX driver floppy
  3. Hit F5 to enable device driver disk
  4. Select Rescue System
  5. Select Back
  6. Select OK to use English as the default language
  7. Determine the root filesystem. The remaining steps assume the root filesystem is /dev/sda2. If necessary, replace /dev/sda2 with the appropriate entry
  8. mkdir /mnt/suse
  9. mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/suse
  10. chroot /mnt/suse
  11. Eject the SUSE 10.0 DVD media
  12. Insert the ASL Driver CD
  13. mount /dev/cdrecorder /media/cdrecorder
  14. rpm -ivh /media/cdrecorder/SuSE/10.0/3w-9xxx2.6-9.3.0.1-2.6.13-15.src.rpm
  15. cd /usr/src/packages/SPECS
  16. /media/cdrecorder/SuSE/10.0/suse10driver.sh 3w-9xxx2.6
  17. umount /media/cdrecorder
  18. Eject the ASL Driver CD
  19. exit
  20. umount /mnt/suse
  21. reboot

Note: For systems with a DVD recorder, replace 'cdrecorder' with 'dvdrecorder'