Datasheet
“main” (Installation and Administration) — 2004/6/25 — 13:29 — page 165 — #191
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5
Updating the System and Package Management
PostgreSQL
Before updating PostgreSQL (postgres), dump the databases. See the
manual page of pg_dump. This is, of course, only necessary if you actually
used PostgreSQL prior to your update.
x86: Promise Controller
The hard disk controller manufactured by Promise is currently found on
high-end motherboards in numerous computer models, either as a pure
IDE controller (for UDMA 100) or as an IDE-RAID controller. As of SUSE
LINUX 8.0, these controllers are directly supported by the kernel and
treated as a standard controller for IDE hard disks. The additional kernel
module pdcraid is required for RAID functionality.
For some updates, hard disks on the Promise controller may be de-
tected before disks on the standard IDE controller. If so, the system
no longer boots following a kernel update and usually exits with
Kernel panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs. In this case, the
kernel parameter ide=reverse must be passed when booting to reverse
this disk detection process. To apply this parameter permanently when us-
ing YaST, enter it in the boot configuration.
Caution
Only the controllers activated in the BIOS are detectable. In par-
ticular, subsequently activating or deactivating the controllers in
the BIOS has a direct effect on the device names. Use caution or
risk being unable to boot the system.
Caution
Technical Explanation
The controller sequence depends on the motherboard. Each manufacturer
wires its supplementary controllers differently. The lspci shows this se-
quence. If the Promise controller is listed before the standard IDE con-
troller, the kernel parameter ide=reverse is required after updating.
With the previous kernel (without direct Promise support), the controller
was ignored so the standard IDE controller was detected first. The first disk
was then /dev/hda. With the new kernel, the Promise controller is de-
tected immediately and its (up to four) disks are registered as /dev/hda,
/dev/hdb, /dev/hdc, and /dev/hdd. The previous /dev/hda disk be-
comes /dev/hde so is no longer detectable in the boot process.
165SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server