I found this card for less than 20 euro.

It even has RAID (I don't care) and NCQ etc.

 

http://www.sunix.com.tw/it/en/Product_Detail.php?cate=2&class_a_id=34&sid=447

 

The thing is: Will it work?

 

It says it has linux drivers for 2.6x kernel, but for some reasons not Fedora 6 (?)...

 

http://www.sunix.com.tw/it/en/DRIVER.php?cate=3&classnumber=2&usid2=125&usid1=34&Psid=447#top

 

If my unRAID will not directly support it, will I be able to "semi easily" compile it and install it myself? (or Tom and have it in next release?)

 

 

further investigation shows that this is the controller in the card:

 

http://www.initio.com/support/index-download.htm

(INIC-162x mentioned on top of page)

 

in the link there is ALSO a linux driver (newer too, without fedora version "limitation")... so possibly ok?

 

 

Brief review around the net shows that people are compiling the driver themselves into the kernel.

I.E. no default kernel support.

Unless you are getting this "free" I might look elsewhere.

 

rcotrone@slacky:/tmp$ tar -xvzf Linux2.6X.tar.gz        
initio162x_release0809/
initio162x_release0809/FC5/
initio162x_release0809/FC5/driver/
initio162x_release0809/FC5/driver/sata_initio162x.c
initio162x_release0809/FC5/readme.txt
initio162x_release0809/FC5/sample/
initio162x_release0809/FC5/sample/pci_ids.h
initio162x_release0809/FC5/sample/Makefile
initio162x_release0809/FC5/sample/Kconfig

 

The promise TX4 works great and supports SATAII with 4 SATA ports.

 

yes but TX4 is 70 euro here

 

(3+ times the cost of card I mentioned - of course the FOUR ports make this a closer match)

 

 

As long as you have the time, knowledge and resources I bet you could make it work.

It will require a bit of work.

 

1. the kernel source extracted in a development environment.

2. bringing in the md driver from unraid.

3. Extract the drivers from the vendors website.

4. compile kernel.

5. uncompress bzroot to a work area.

6. install kernel and modules into bzroot work area.

7. rebuild bzroot

8. bring new bzroot and bzimage over to the unraid flash as bzrootd and bzimaged.

9. make a new section in syslinux.cfg to reference the new bzimaged and bzrootd.

10. reboot and select new config.

 

I have shell scripts to make the decompress, install and recompress easier.

Still, you need the starting environment to begin with.

and some time. I would say approx 1-2 hours starting from scratch.

If you already have the dev environment, 10-20 minutes or so.

 

There's no gurantee the driver will compile right away.

It seems to be made for Fedora Core 5. Not sure if it has been brought into the mainline yet.

At least I didn't find it in the mainline.

 

rcotrone@slacky:/tmp$ tar -xvzf Linux2.6X.tar.gz        
initio162x_release0809/
initio162x_release0809/FC5/
initio162x_release0809/FC5/driver/
initio162x_release0809/FC5/driver/sata_initio162x.c
initio162x_release0809/FC5/readme.txt
initio162x_release0809/FC5/sample/
initio162x_release0809/FC5/sample/pci_ids.h
initio162x_release0809/FC5/sample/Makefile
initio162x_release0809/FC5/sample/Kconfig

rcotrone@slacky:/usr/src/linux$ find /usr/src/linux-2.6.24.4 -name '*initio162*'    
rcotrone@slacky:/usr/src/linux$ find /usr/src/linux-2.6.24.4 -name 'sata_*initio*'    

 

See attached readme.txt for the driver installation instructions.

 

 

thanks for all the help

 

maybe some help also here?

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1395.30

(with this topic here, Tom might be able to help by just adding this little driver in the generic kernel - but for that topic there, I don't expect help - other than from an expert user like you I mean)

 

 

Almost after a year after the thread and while I was planning on getting a 4 port PCI SATA card... THE CARD MENTIONED ABOVE, happened to "drop" on my hands. (read: for free)

 

So... any chance it will work?

 

The IC is Initio inic-1622ta2.

 

I've emailed Tom too, but I'd love extra feedback.

 

I would really want to be able to utilize this in my unRAID machine.

 

Did you try it?  It is very easy to do, and then you'll know for sure.

I know - no I didn't try yet (in fact the card is not yet even on the same place as my unRAID).

 

Would be nice to know beforehand.

 

 

Well since I usually whine about various things, I have to give credit where is due too.

 

I emailed Tom about this and very quickly answered the driver will be in the next beta.

 

Great.

 

Now need to find a way that this works and bubbaraid keeps working (probably impossible without bubba's help).