[ILUG] Open Source driver doesn't work

[Niall O Broin]

On 20 Sep 2004, at 10:59, Hamilton, David (HPS) wrote:

> I went out and bought a Highpoint 454 RAID controller because it said 
> it
> worked under linux, and am now feeling more than just a little bit
> miffed. (I know it was only EUR100, but still...)
> Has anyone else bought one of these and got it working?
> There is an open source driver package on highpoint's site
> (http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/brr454.htm) which claims to support
> kernel 2.6, but when I try and compile it under Fedora Core 2, it just
> barfs in a rather spectacular manner.
> I will be emailing the manufacturer, but thought I'd ask here in case
> anyone else had any experience with them.
> I know there was a conversation a few months back resulting in one
> person buying a 3ware card instead, but I am hoping that someone might
> have had some more positive experience since.

Highpoint RAID controllers (at least any I've encountered so far, and 
the price point of that one doesn't make me believe it's any different) 
are not real RAID controllers as they do not have their own CPUs so the 
RAID work is actually done on the host CPU. Given that, you might as 
well use Linux MD RAID which has been more thoroughly used and debugged 
under Linux than Highpoint's software.

The person who bought the 3ware card did so on the recommendation of 
several people here (myself included) who find the 3ware controllers to 
be very solid, and supported by a Linux open source driver which is 
tried and tested.


Niall