RHEL4 / CentOS 4.x does not detect the Adaptec I2O RAID controller during installation

Problem:

RHEL4 / CentOS 4.x does not detect the Adaptec I2O RAID controller during installation. Affected controllers including the Adaptec 200S, 2005S, 2010S and 2015S Zero Channel SCSI RAID.

Details:

There are actually two problems with the installation

The installer does not recognize the adapter and therefore does not load the appropriate device driver. The bootloader is not installed properly so the system will not boot after installation. This symptom also occurs under Fedora Core 3.

Solution:

Since the installer does not recognize the Adaptec I2O RAID controller, the driver must be loaded manually as following:

  1. Boot RHEL4 / CentOS 4.x CD #1. Press Enter key to start the installation
  2. When prompt for the driver selection, select Yes
  3. Select Add Device
  4. From the driver list, select I2O Block Driver
  5. Select Done

At the end of the installation, do not select Reboot. Since the installer does not create the boot loader correctly, it is necessary to perform the following steps:

  1. Press Ctrl-Alt-F2 to switch to a console
  2. Run the command commands:
    # chroot /mnt/sysimage
    # /sbin/grub-install /dev/i2o/hda
    # exit
    
  3. Press Ctrl-Alt-F7 to switch back to the main screen
  4. Select Reboot to restart the system

If these steps are not performed, the system will not boot. Fortunately, there is a simple procedure to fix the boot sector as described below:

  1. Boot RHEL4 / CentOS 4.x / Fedora Core 3 CD #1. At the prompt, enter 'linux rescue'
  2. Select English for the Language
  3. Select US for the keyboard
  4. When prompt for the driver selection, select Yes
  5. Select Add Device
  6. From the driver list, select I2O Block Driver
  7. Select Done
  8. Select No when prompt to start the network
  9. Select Continue
  10. Select OK
  11. At the shell prompt, run the following commands
  12. # chroot /mnt/sysimage
    # /sbin/grub-install /dev/i2o/hda
    # exit
    # exit