[NTLUG:Discuss] Discovering new device names

[Leroy Tennison]

Chris Cox wrote:
> Leroy Tennison wrote:
>   
>> Richard Witt wrote:
>>     
>>> * Leroy Tennison <leroy_tennison at prodigy.net> [2007-03-02 00:09]:
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> I have a machine (Compaq/HP DL380 G3 probably - forgot to check) with a 
>>>> RAID controller (SmartArray 6400, six disks, RAID 5, no spare, one 
>>>> logical drive) which contains two NTFS partitions.  Booting Knoppix from 
>>>> CD, cciss module is loaded but no partitions are mounted.  From Googling 
>>>> it appears that this is the driver for the controller.
>>>>
>>>> Question:
>>>>
>>>> How do I determine which device names might be assigned to these two 
>>>> partitions (assuming the cciss module is correct and able to see the 
>>>> partitions on the RAID controller) so that I can mount them?  Any other 
>>>> troubleshooting steps would be appreciated.
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> They should be /dev/cciss/c0d0pX where X is the partition number. Thats
>>> what all our hp servers here at work show. 
>>>
>>>   
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>   
>>>       
>> Thanks for the reply.  Unfortunately, there's no /dev/cciss period.  
>> Looks like I'm going to have to make nodes.  As I've done my research 
>> this has become a "peel the onion" exercise.  I've got some other things 
>> to try at this point.  If they work out I'll post my "findings" should 
>> anyone else have a use for them.  Otherwise I may be back with "confused 
>> at a higher level" questions.
>>     
>
> Anything recent (and I mean ANYTHING) should create the devices
> automatically if the module has been loaded.
>
> A G3, is an old device that should have a SmartArray 5i controller,
> so it should just work.  Try using a SUSE or openSUSE CD and go
> into rescue mode and see if it finds the device (in case Knoppix
> did mess up the cciss module or their hal implementation somehow).
>
>
>   
I now have my answers and learned a lot in the process.  First, it is an 
old version of Knoppix.  However, it did load cciss and I was able to 
learn from /proc/driver/cciss/cciss0 that it did detect the RAID 
controller.  What was missing was the nodes.  Using

MAKEDEV cciss

created them.  Knowing that the only controller I had was c0do (from 
'cat cciss0') allowed me to mount /dev/cciss/c0d0p1 easily and do the 
work I wanted to do.

In the process I discovered what the MAJOR and MINOR numbers of devices 
mean (useful for mknod as well as when viewing devices under /dev) and 
that there is a file 
(http://www.lanana.org/docs/device-list/devices.txt) which lists them 
and explains the logic behind them - very interesting.  I had wondered 
where other references "magically" came up with a MAJOR number of 104 
for the RAID controller and this explained it.

I also got 'hits' which showed how to make the nodes by hand if MAKEDEV 
hadn't been available.  Googling for 'cciss mknod' produced a wealth of 
information.