Hello all,

 

Thanks for taking the time to look at my question and for any advice. I have a system with Slackware 13.1 installed. I own this 4 bay enclosure:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817576001

 

and this E-Sata port multiplier:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816710001

 

I have read enough to know that there is some trick to getting a Silicone Images 3132 card to do port multiplication properly. However, I'm too much of a noob to figure it out on my own, and haven't been able to find anything walking me through this in baby steps.

 

This is my first linux install ever, but I have years of experience building home pc's, and am willing to learn. 

 

Can I do something the equivalent of updating/adding a driver as I would in Windows? If so, how do I do this? 

 

Thanks again for people's time/expertise on my question.

Haven't you installed the full Slackware 13.1 on a laptop.

 

Then you will need something like this in order to use the enclosure:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Syba-SD-PCBX-ESA2-ExpressCard-SIL3132-Chipset/dp/B000JWONA2

 

An I am not sure if this is going to work...

Please don't ask the same question in three different places, it makes if difficult for anyone trying to follow your questions looking for a solution to the same problem.

 

I don't know off-hand how to solve this.  My guess is that you will have to compile your own kernel that includes drivers for this Mediasonic box, but this is reportedly difficult to do.  This type of this is definitely over my head.

 

I use several SIL3132 cards, but I use them for simple SATA expansion, not as port multipliers.  In my application they are plug and play, so unRAID must already have drivers for them.  So perhaps it just needs an updated version of the driver that also supports port multiplication.

I think the issue is more likely to be the mediasonic chipset, JMicron JMB321 than the SIL3132. I've used sil3132 with SIL PM successfully.

 

There seems to be some indications that the box firmware is not very bright.

First make sure only esata cable is plugged in. If both are plugged in the box will use USB.

 

Return it to newegg and get one using a SIL3726 chipset. 

The SIL3132 card is compatible with Linux and Silicon Image PMP hardware.

 

I know PMP support works for the JBM363 hardware but I do not know about JMB321 hardware.

 

I believe that is where the problem is. Linux support for that may not be available.

If it does not work in slackware 13 or the latest Fedora, then chances are it's not going to work at all.

 

I did not find anything specific in the kernel source referencing JMB321.

Make sure the Sil3132 is set for AHCI. You may have to adjust the bios for raid/nonraid/ide. to see how it shows up.

Does the controller's bios see each drive independently?