Dell Raid Controller Help

[James Gray]

Wade Smart wrote:
> 04252008 1720 GMT-6
> 
> On the Ubuntu Release notes page there is:
> 
> DELL RAID firmware compatibility
> 
>        Ubuntu 8.04 LTS fails to run on some DELL PowerEdge servers with RAID 
> controllers, such as the 3/Di controller in the DELL PowerEdge 1650, due to a 
> bug in the RAID firmware. To install or upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS on a system 
> with the affected RAID controller, you will first need to upgrade your RAID 
> firmware.
> 
> Im working with a guy with a PowerEdge built in 05/09/2003 in Ireland. He is 
> having trouble with his upgrade. Can the firmware be upgrade from within Ubuntu 
> or only from in Windows?

I believe you can update the firmware from Linux if you install the Dell 
Megaraid utilities.  However, these are only provided for RHEL and SuSE 
distributions.  You might be able to install the RPM for RHEL5 as long 
as you convert the RPM to deb using "alien".

I've successfully updated the firmware on our work PE1850's and PE2850's 
under CentOS4 but never tried it with Ubuntu.  Given that a bad firmware 
flash can brick your controller, if you go the "alien" route, you're on 
your own (Dell might fix it as long as you plead ignorance).

The other alternative is to flash it from ye olde DOS; however I believe 
the only way to create the boot disks from the files provided by Dell, 
is to have a windows machine handy (Grrrr).  You may be able to use 
"unzip" to extract the files from a self-extracting zip from Dell, but 
if it's an "msi" installation package etc, that approach wont work 
either.  If you simply need a DOS boot disk, then try 
http://www.bootdisk.com

Sorry I can't offer you any specific advice :(

HTH,

James