1. nVidia_SATARAID_MPC55_v9.56_Linux_64.zip Driver
2. Readme.txt File Contents

Readme.txt Driver File Contents (nVidia_SATARAID_MPC55_v9.56_Linux_64.zip)

                    NVIDIA Linux SATA RAID Driver Package Readme
			      [Apr. 27th, 2007]
			=============================


INTRODUCTION
============
This archive provides drivers and RAID management tools for SATA RAID controllers on 
NVIDIA nForce 550/570/590, NVIDIA nForce professional 3600/3400/3050 chipsets.

For driver installation, we provide two ways to install: an rpm driver package and a floppy driver
disk. For MediaShield tool, a RAID management tool from NVIDIA, the rpm package is required. 
All rpm packages are located in the .\RPM folder, and the floppy driver disk files are located 
in .\DriverDisk

Section 1 lists the file structure of this package.

If a SATA RAID disk is needed for installation (for example, if the OS is to reside 
on a RAID array), the drivers need to be loaded during the OS installation process via the
provided driver disks. Refer to section 2 for how to create a driver diskette.

Refer to section 3 for how to run the MediaShield tool.

Section 4 lists miscellaneous problems and information when running the RAID driver and MediaShield
tool on an NVIDIA platform. 

1) File structure
==================
.\RPM
Contains driver and MediaShield tool rpm packages for various Linux distributions. Please choose one 
corresponding driver rpm package for installation. The MediaShield tool rpm package is suitable 
for different flavors of Linux - you only need to distinguish between 32bit and 64bit platforms and
select the right one.
Install the rpm packages as follows: rpm -ivh NvRaid-XXX.rpm

.\DriverDisk
Contains the driver disk files for OS installation. Please select the files from corresponding folders
for different flavors of Linux. The folder named 'i686' represents a 32bit platform, and 'x86_64' 
represents a 64bit platform.

note: Because kernel of SLED is identical to SLES, so please use the rpm package of SLES on SLED
system.

2) INSTALL Linux to a SATA RAID drive
======================================
Prepare a SATA RAID driver diskette and load the driver during OS installation:

2.1) Copy the files located in the DriverDisk folder (e.g. .\DriverDisk\i686\driverdisk-RHEL4U4-2.6.9-42.EL) to 
     a formatted diskette.

2.2) Insert the Linux OS install disc into the CD/DVD ROM drive then start the installation.

2.3)
For SLES and SuSE Linux:
     Press F5 then select 'Yes' at the first installation screen. 
     Go to step 2.7)

For RHEL and Fedora Linux:
     At the first installation screen, please append the parameters "linux dd" 
     ("linux dd askmethod" for network installation) at the "boot:" prompt then
     press the Enter key.

2.4) At the "Driver disk" dialog box, press "Yes".

2.5) Next, if a "Driver Disk Source" dialog box appears, select "fd0" and press "OK".
  
2.6) At the "Insert Driver disk" dialog box, insert your SATA driver diskette into the
     floppy drive and press "OK" to continue.

2.7) Continue with the installation as normal.

3) Run the MediaShield tool
===========================
After installing the MediaShield tool rpm package, a shortcut to the management tool (named 
'nvraid') will show on the desktop - double click it to use NVIDIA's MediaShield utility.

note:
For a new installed system, please make sure ever enter X-Window once, because Under some distributions, the 
directory '/root/Destop' doesn't exist if you never login the X-Window, which will cause the MediaShield tool 
rpm installer can't find that directory and failed to create the shortcut.


4) Miscellaneous
===============================
4.1) The NVIDIA MediaShield tool requires Firefox version 1.5 or later.
     Previous versions of Firefox have a memory leak bug when executing CGI programs, which will cause MediaShield 
     to hang when left open for several hours. The latest Firefox can be found at http://www.mozilla.com

4.2) Please uninstall any older version of the NVIDIA RAID driver and MediaShield tool 
     before installing the new version:
     Run "rpm -ivh NvRaid-XXX.rpm" to install
     Run "rpm -e NvRaid-XXX" to uninstall
     After install or uninstall you should always reboot the system.

4.3) In general, fdisk only supports up to 2TB because it uses MS-DOS partition table format. A partition tool that 
     supports GPT format (e.g. parted) should be used for arrays with 2TB size or above.

4.4) Boot arrays must be 2TB or less. RHEL4 release notes mention this is a limitation for the RedHat installer. For
     SLES10|SuSE10.2|SLES10SP1, boot arrays must be 1TB or less.

4.5) Under RHEL4 Update 4 32 bit platform, sometimes X-Window is terminated by system after a long time operation
     if system RAM size is 4G or above. Update the correct X-Window graphics driver can solve this problem.

4.6) The Anaconda of FC6 sometimes will install the i586 kernel for the i686 system, the bug have been post on https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=211941,
      to solve this bug, you need to start Fedora Core 6 installation with this command: linux i686

4.7) In RHEL5 32bit XEN system, fdisk can't create the partition if use 4G or above memory. It's a known compatible issue
      and will be fixed in next version. Currently, please ship with 3G or less memory when create the partition.

4.8) After migration/rebuild, please reboot the system to make sure the capacity of raid array is correct.

4.9) For RHEL5/RHEL5.1, sometimes sata_nv will be loaded before RAID driver when OS boot, so that the RAID array may 
      be regarded as separated HDs. Please apply the workaround after installing the OS as following.
      1> After installing the OS successfully and before OS reboot, please press 'Ctl+Alt+F2' to switch to tty2 console.
      2> sh /tmp/ramfs/DD-0/workaround/workround.sh

4.10) This driver supports two SGPIO LED blink mode. One is the SuperMicro spec, the other is the standard SGPIO spec. 
     The mode selection can be changed by two methods. The first method needs to reboot the system and the selected mode 
     is effective until it is changed. The second method doesn't need system reboot, but the new change is no more 
     effective after the system reboot. The default mode in driver package is SuperMicro spec.
     
     
     The first method :
     ------------------
     
     I. Linux system is installed on pata.
     1> For RHEL4|FC6|RHEL5: 
        In file /etc/modprobe.conf, add a line 
        "options nvraid-mod sgpio_mode=0" to select SuperMicro mode or 
        "options nvraid-mod sgpio_mode=1" to select standard SGPIO mode after the line
        "alias scsi_hostadapter sata_nv|nvraid-mod". 
        
        For SLES10|SuSE10.2|SLES10SP1:
        In file /etc/modprobe.conf.local, add a line 
        "options nvraid-mod sgpio_mode=0" to select SuperMicro mode or 
        "options nvraid-mod sgpio_mode=1" to select standard SGPIO mode.
        
       
     2> If the rpm package has been installed, uninstall the rpm package.
     3> Install the rpm package.
     4> Afer reboot, the new sgpio setting is effective.

     II. Linux system is installed on sata.
     1> For RHEL4|FC6|RHEL5: 
        In file /etc/modprobe.conf, add a line 
        "options nvraid-mod sgpio_mode=0" to select SuperMicro mode or 
        "options nvraid-mod sgpio_mode=1" to select standard SGPIO mode after the line
        "alias scsi_hostadapter sata_nv|nvraid-mod".
        
        For SLES10|SuSE10.2|SLES10SP1:
        In file /etc/modprobe.conf.local, add a line 
        "options nvraid-mod sgpio_mode=0" to select SuperMicro mode or
        "options nvraid-mod sgpio_mode=1" to select standard SGPIO mode.
      
     2> For RHEL4|FC6|RHEL5:
        mv /boot/initrd-$(uname -r).img /boot/initrd-$(uname -r).img-bake
        mkinitrd -f /boot/initrd-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)
        For SLES10|SuSE10.2|SLES10SP1:
        mv /boot/initrd-$(uname -r) /boot/initrd-$(uname -r)-bake
        mkinitrd -k /boot/vmlinuz-$(uname -r) -i /boot/initrd-$(uname-r)
     3> Afer reboot, the new sgpio setting is effective.
      
     The second method: 
     ------------------
     
     Note: The below operations can only change the "rebuild blink mode" before doing a rebuild operation.
     
     For Linux system is installed on pata with driver rpm installed or Linux system is installed on sata:
        For RHEL4: 
        Issue command 
        "echo 0 > /sys/module/nvraid_mod/sgpio_mode" to select SuperMicro mode or
        "echo 1 > /sys/module/nvraid_mod/sgpio_mode" to select standard SGPIO mode.
        For SLES10|SuSE10.2|FC6|RHEL5|SLES10SP1: 
        Issue command
        "echo 0 > /sys/module/nvraid_mod/parameters/sgpio_mode" to select SuperMicro mode or      
        "echo 1 > /sys/module/nvraid_mod/parameters/sgpio_mode" to select standard SGPIO mode.