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#         Silicon Image SiI SATA controller                           #
#               SuSE Driver                                           #
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1. OVERVIEW
   This driver disk adds support for SiI SATA controller that is otherwise
   not supported by the installation program.

   Supported versions:

      * SuSE 8.0/8.1/8.2

2. INSTALLATION

2.0 useful links:
       http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/fhassel_bootld_cpt.html
       http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/fhassel_grub_overview.html
 
2.1 Preparing the floppy diskette 
    
    A floppy disk is required to install into a brand new (or blank) disk drive. 
    
 Several Options:
 
  . Extract the contents of the suse_sii6512_8.2.tgz file on to a formatted floppy disk.

    (e.g. use tar xzf  suse_sii6512_8.2.tgz)  OR
    
  . If running windows: use "rawrite.exe suse_sii6512_8.2.img A:" 

  . If running linux:  "dd if=suse_sii6512_8.2.img of=/dev/fd0"
  
  Actual file names may vary slightly depending on version number 
  (e.g. 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, ..)


2.2 Steps for first-time installation 
   
     Normally follow the Quick Driver installation steps. You may encounter 
     several problems depending on your system. See next section:

     
     GRUB does NOT work reliably with RAID. The reason for the extra steps
     while installing 8.1 and 8.2 is to change from GRUB to LILO. 

     SuSE 8.1

       . Some systems require to add 'noapic' at boot time. If your system
         does not need this parameter then also modified /etc/lilo.conf
         and delete the "append=noapic" line. Then type 'lilo' to update.

     SuSE 8.2 

       . If you go up and down the menu. The options you input will get erased.
         So, It is possible that you start the installation without inputting
         the proper parameters. 


3.0 TROUBLESHOOTING

    a) If you see something like "grub>" in your console that means your are
       still using grub. Reboot (ctl-alt-del) and repeat the last steps as
       enumerated on the Quick Installation Guide.


    b) The following steps should be taken if you are having problems formatting the disks:

       Depending on the Disks Metadata it is possible that the initial disk
       formatting may fail. Type CTL-ALT-F4/F5 in there is no response from
       the system and you want to see if the driver hanged. 

       Typically just a reboot will fix the problem. If you are having more
       serious problems then you may have to reboot and before you start the
       installation:

	. get a console window (CTL-ALT-F2)
        . mke2fs /dev/sda to create a temporary filesystem
        . fdisk /dev/sda. select '2' and then 'w' to rewrite the partition 
          tables.


     c) Do NOT enable the CMD RAID code unless you want to use the Open Source
        Driver. The Open Source Driver CMD is the same as the Silicon Image
        Open Source Driver. This will happen if you do a default installation
        using 8.2 


4.0  Adding a Data Drive 
    
     If your system is already up and running then you can use execute shell scripts to modify
      the kernel or add loadable modules to access the SATA drives as follows:

     The simplest way is to 'insmod the module 'sii6512___.o' boot time 	

     As an example see:
         # 'sh load_8.0.sh'  (DATA DRIVES)  

     One of the rc.init scripts must be modified for automatic loading.    

                             
5.0  Special Cases:

