Jump to content

Integration of NVIDIA's nForce RAID and AHCI drivers


Fernando 1

Recommended Posts

I too, like many of you, have an ASUS a8n-sli deluxe motherboard (version 1.02) on which I am attempting to run raid using the Nvidia contoller (not the Silicon Image controller).  I have been enduring problems up the wahzoo trying to get this motherboard to work with either nvidia reference drivers 6.66, asus drivers 6.65 for winXP 32 bit or BIOS version 1013 (version 6.53 works so so, but more on that in a minute).  After about one week and a hundred permutations later, here are the results:

The creation of an $OEM$ file system is not enough to override the generic IDE drivers that XP normally uses.

Fernandos Driver Removal Method DOES work with BIOS 1008, 1009 and 1011 (sorry, not enough time to test all earlier versions) but YOU MUST ALSO enable the txtsetup.oem tweak mentioned in the OemInfFiles method. The irritation with this method is that you will be warned during setup and everytime in the future that you install drivers that XP has found a problem with incompatable drivers (the sataraid crap)  that could damage your system.  You will also find an annoying icon in the taskbar that continually asks you to uninstall your RAID system.  I have also found other small problems (such as ASUS update 6.07 does not recognize my motherboard BIOS and device manager problems) and I am still testing.  Basically, it works but I am a perfectionist so that crap drives me batty.

Long story short, the OemInfFiles method  DOES works and so does the Driver Removal Method (both using nLite).  You still will have all the minor irritations I mentioned above though.

Thank you very much for the perfect description of your nVRaid problems and your thoughts about their reasons, but I see causes to point out the following:

The experiences of Jayhall0315 were done with an ASUS A8N-SLI and cannot be automaticly transferred to users with other mainboards.

Attention to all thread users:  The "unknown device" that is appearing for many of you in device manager (especially for those of you who have nforce 4 boards) is the ATK0110 APCI Util that is used to change the FSB with software like ASUS's AI Booster.

Same thing: This is only a problem for users with an ASUS mainboard and has nothing to do with the integration of the nForce SataRaid drivers into a bootable Windows XP CD.

I am attempting to get the source code from a contact in China at ASUS.  I contacted Nvidia and they do not seem to give much of a **** wether the nForce community hangs in limbo (that is about 2,100, 000 nforce 4 motherboard purchases and counting).  If my contact comes thru (a big "if"), I will attempt to rewrite the sataraid drivers and test them on my own systems.  If I am successful and my coding works well, then I will release the new drivers here in the forums as a Beta release to test out.  In the meantime, I encourage those who are still having problems to try the 6.67 drivers at www.guru3d.com.  Stay tuned.......................

That would be great! All users with an nForce SataRaid system wish you good luck!

CU

Fernando

Edited by Fernando 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites


Hi all,

I was finally able to create a working boot cd including sata raid drivers based on the following config:

- Official NVIDIA nForce4 6.66 drivers

- nLite 1.0 beta 6

- XP Pro cd with SP2 and latest hotfixes already slipstreamed

- Motherboard MSI K8N Neo4-F with bios 1.6

- Raid 4.84

- 1 single Hitashi Deskstar 7K250 160Gb SATA disk on Channel 3 SATA

- Raid enabled for Channel 3 in Spanning mode (JBOD)

I started by applying the exact steps of post #1 by Fernando 1 using the OEM method. My installation always crashed right after loading the drivers, even before partionning the disk.

I found post #133 by mjswooosh to be very helpful. Here are the exact steps that I used to build a working cd:

1.- Started from original XP Pro cd

2.- Slipstreamed (integrate) SP1

3.- Slipstreamed (integrate) SP2 + latest hotfixes

4.- Downloaded 6.66 nForce4 drivers from NVIDIA: here

5.- Renamed .exe to .zip and extracted all files using 7-zip (like WinZip)

6.- Started nLite, selecting "Integrate Drivers" + "Unattended Setup" (nothing else)

[EDIT]

7.- When nLite asked me to choose the driver to integrate, I browsed my unzipped 6.66 driver directory structure and selected the IDE\WinXP\sataraid\nvraid.inf file. Then in the textmode driver select box, I picked up both drivers listed.

[/EDIT]

8.- Finished nLite integration (without creating iso at this point, no parameter changed)

9.- In bootable cd root, created the $OEM$/$$/OEMDIR directories

10.- Copied "nvatabus.sys" and "idecoi.dll" from original IDE\WinXP\sataraid\ directory into $OEM$/$$/OEMDIR directory

11.- Copied "nvatabus.inf" from original IDE\WinXP\pataraid\ into $OEM$/$$/OEMDIR directory (I didn't modify the file)

12.- In I386/WINNT.SIF, changed OemInfName = "nvraid.inf" to OemInfName = "nvatabus.inf" (yes, no nvraid.inf here)

13.- In I386/WINNT.SIF, changed OemDriverPathName = "%SystemRoot%\nldrv" to OemDriverPathName = "%SystemRoot%\OemDir"

14.- Restarted nLite, selected only "Create a Bootable ISO"

15.- ISO created by nLite

16.- Burnt ISO with Nero

17.- Installed XP successfully

18.- NVIDIA nForce™ RAID Class Controller visible in Device Manager

19.- Disks Manager now reports a 153Gb JBOD (raid spanning) device

This was my 8th cd, after 7 failed attempts... :) Thanks a lot to Fernando 1 and mjswooosh for their detailed posts.

Next step (9th!) will be a bootable dvd, not-so-fully-unattended-setup and slipstreamed with all the remaining drivers (SMBus, Ethernet, Audio, ...). I'll post the details if it works.

Cheers,

- Stéphane

Edited by Stephane
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi all,

I was finally able to create a working boot cd including sata raid drivers based on the following config:

- Official NVIDIA nForce4 6.66 drivers

- nLite 1.0 beta 6

- XP Pro cd with SP2 and latest hotfixes already slipstreamed

- Motherboard MSI K8N Neo4-F with bios 1.6

- Raid 4.84

- 1 single Hitashi Deskstar 7K250 160Gb SATA disk on Channel 3 SATA

- Raid enabled for Channel 3 in Spanning mode (JBOD)

I started by applying the exact steps of post #1 by Fernando 1 using the OEM method. My installation always crashed right after loading the drivers, even before partionning the disk.

I found post #133 by mjswooosh to be very helpful. Here are the exact steps that I used to build a working cd:

1.- Started from original XP Pro cd

2.- Slipstreamed (integrate) SP1

3.- Slipstreamed (integrate) SP2 + latest hotfixes

4.- Downloaded 6.66 nForce4 drivers from NVIDIA: here

5.- Renamed .exe to .zip and extracted all files using 7-zip (like WinZip)

6.- Started nLite, selecting "Integrate Drivers" + "Unattended Setup" (nothing else)

7.- Selected the original (unzipped) IDE\WinXP\sataraid\nvraid.inf driver to integrate in nLite

8.- Finished nLite integration (without creating iso at this point, no parameter changed)

9.- In bootable cd root, created the $OEM$/$$/OEMDIR directories

10.- Copied "nvatabus.sys" and "idecoi.dll" from original IDE\WinXP\sataraid\ directory into $OEM$/$$/OEMDIR directory

11.- Copied "nvatabus.inf" from original IDE\WinXP\pataraid\ into $OEM$/$$/OEMDIR directory (I didn't modify the file)

12.- In I386/WINNT.SIF, changed OemInfName = "nvraid.inf" to OemInfName = "nvatabus.inf" (yes, no nvraid.inf here)

13.- In I386/WINNT.SIF, changed OemDriverPathName = "%SystemRoot%\nldrv" to OemDriverPathName = "%SystemRoot%\OemDir"

14.- Restarted nLite, selected only "Create a Bootable ISO"

15.- ISO created by nLite

16.- Burnt ISO with Nero

17.- Installed XP successfully

18.- NVIDIA nForce™ RAID Class Controller visible in Device Manager

19.- Disks Manager now reports a 153Gb JBOD (raid spanning) device

This was my 8th cd, after 7 failed attempts... :)   Thanks a lot to Fernando 1 and mjswooosh for their detailed posts.

Next step (9th!) will be a bootable dvd, not-so-fully-unattended-setup and slipstreamed with all the remaining drivers (SMBus, Ethernet, Audio, ...). I'll post the details if it works.

Cheers,

- Stéphane

Brilliant. Will try later.

Has anyone dared to try this:

1. Using HFSlip, integrate all XPSP2 hotfixes.

2. Using Nlite, add the references to the nForce4 raid drivers.

3. Integrate all of BTS's driver packs, including mass storage, using method 1.

Edited by nite0859
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I started by applying the exact steps of post #1 by Fernando 1 using the OEM method. My installation always crashed right after loading the drivers, even before partionning the disk.

Here are the exact steps that I used to build a working cd:

.

7.- Selected the original (unzipped) IDE\WinXP\sataraid\nvraid.inf driver to integrate in nLite

.

10.- Copied "nvatabus.sys" and "idecoi.dll" from original IDE\WinXP\sataraid\ directory into $OEM$/$$/OEMDIR directory

11.- Copied "nvatabus.inf" from original IDE\WinXP\pataraid\ into $OEM$/$$/OEMDIR directory (I didn't modify the file)

12.- In I386/WINNT.SIF, changed OemInfName = "nvraid.inf" to OemInfName = "nvatabus.inf" (yes, no nvraid.inf here)

.

Hi Stephane,

it is very interesting, what you have written.

As far as I can see, you have modified the OemInfFiles method (that I described within post No 1 of this thread) only by these 2 points:

1. instead of copying the whole SATARAID subfolder content into the OEMDIR directory you took only the files NVATABUS.SYS and IDECOI.DLL and

2. you removed the "NVRAID.INF" from the OemInfName line within the WINNT.SIF.

It is hard for me to unterstand, that these small changes, which only can have an effect within the GUIMODE part of the installation, have prevented the crashes of your system within the first (TEXTMODE) part of the installation.

The only explanation for me is what you have written within point No 7. Is that true, that you did not take both mass controller drivers nLite proposed to integrate, but only the NVRAID.INF?

Please give us an exact answer, because this might be important for other users witth similar systems as yours.

CU

Fernando

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Fernando,

Well, not exactly. I selected only the nvraid.inf in the directory browsing window in nLite, but I actually selected both textmode drivers in the textmode selection box. I've edited my previous post to make it perfectly clear.

That being said, I'm now burning my 14th dvd (it now includes all splipstreamed drivers + additionnal apps for quicker/easier setup) and I've identified a mistake I made during some of my early slipstreaming tests: I've sometimes tried to use the DefaultHide or ProvideDefault unattented mode in WINNT.SIF, which leads to the same exact BSOD failure right before the partionning textmode part.

I now want to be 100% sure that the multiple BSOD I experienced were also due to the OEMDIR containing the nvraid.inf (and related) files, and not only to the wrong unattended mode.

More news on this in a couple of hours :)

Cheers,

- Stéphane

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I now want to be 100% sure that the multiple BSOD I experienced were also due to the OEMDIR containing the nvraid.inf (and related) files, and not only to the wrong unattended mode.

I am really all on edge about your results....

By the way I have 2 questions:

1. Have you ever tried the "Drivers Removal Method" that I described in post 1? If yes, how were the results with your system?

2. Why did you build a Raid array, although you have only 1 hard disk drive?

CU

Fernando

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fernando,

Here are the results of my latest tests. I've burnt 2 CDs, 1 using the method described in my previous post (copying only 3 files to OEMDIR and having only nvatabus.inf in WINNT.SIF) and 1 using the oem method of post #1 (full sataraid + nvatabus.inf from pataraid in OEMDIR and nvatabus.inf + nvraid.inf in WINNT.SIF).

Well... Both installations actually succeeded :rolleyes: . It seems that my BSODs were only the consequence of the unattended mode changed from FullUnattended to either DefaultHide or ProvideDefault. My bad :blushing:

Now there was in fact one difference during the installation. With oem method from post #1, I got a window from the new hardware wizard just before the locale settings (graphical mode already). It said that a new device was found (disk drive), and that it would be ready to use after the next reboot. And the installation continued normally. I didn't get this message at all using the "light" OEMDIR method. What's different? No idea...

Now concerning your last questions:

1.- I've never used the Driver Removal method, because I read several posts in other forums saying that you might have problems the next time you try update the nForce drivers.

2.- Why only 1 disk? I've also used 2 stripped disks, but I begun my tests with only 1, which is actually enough to get a fully functionnal stripped raid array. That was really just for initial testing.

Cheers,

- Stéphane

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's now time for conclusion. After burning 15 cds and dvds, here is what I found:

1.- Post #1 oem method works great.

2.- You may actually copy only 3 files in OEMDIR (pataraid/nvatabus.inf, sataraid/nvatabus.sys and sataraid/idecoi.dll) and set [OemInfFiles]->OemInfName to "nvatabus.inf", it works too.

3.- Don't even think about changing the [unattended]->UnattendMode setting to anything else than FullUnattended, the installation will BSOD in the textmode part of the installation.

4.- During the nLite drivers integration process, you must choose IDE\WinXP\sataraid\nvraid.inf and then select both textmode entries displayed by nLite. You may also pick up the other nForce4 drivers:

Network support: pick up Ethernet\nvenetfd.inf

Audio support: pick up AudioDrv\nvmcp.inf

SMBus support: pick up SMBus\nvsmbus.inf

You do not need to add any other file in the OEMDIR for Network, Audio or SMBus support.

5.- It's perfectly safe, once the Windows XP installation is complete, to reinstall the 6.66 drivers from the original NVIDIA package (system reboot required at the end). It will install the audio systray apps that is not included in the drivers for example.

6.- As a reference, here is the I386\WINNT.SIF file I used:

---------- file begins on next line

; Generated by nLite 1.0 beta 6

[Data]

Autopartition = 0

MsDosInitiated = 0

UnattendedInstall = Yes

OemDrivers = OemInfFiles

[unattended]

UnattendMode = FullUnattended

UnattendSwitch = No

OemPreinstall = Yes

OemSkipEula = Yes

FileSystem = *

WaitForReboot = No

NoWaitAfterTextMode = 1

NoWaitAfterGUIMode = 1

TargetPath = WINDOWS

DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore

NonDriverSigningPolicy = Ignore

[OemInfFiles]

OemDriverFlags = 1

OemDriverPathName = "%SystemRoot%\OemDir"

OemInfName = "nvraid.inf","nvatabus.inf"

[GuiUnattended]

AdminPassword = *

;OEMSkipRegional = 1

OemSkipWelcome = 1

[Components]

msmsgs = Off

Msnexplr = Off

Zonegames = Off

[userData]

ComputerName = *

FullName = *

[Networking]

;InstallDefaultComponents = Yes

---------- file ends on previous line

You may comment the AdminPassword, ComputerName and FullName lines BUT this will display an ugly non-fatal error during the graphical part of the setup that basically tells you: "Error, OEM settings missing, please enter a value now". It works but doesn't look too professional :)

The [Components] section is parsed for a FullUnattended setup, so I decided to remove Windows Messenger (msmsgs), MSN Explorer (Msnexplr) and MSN Gaming Zone (Zonegames).

7.- Using a DVD to add more stuff on it (like applications) is fine. During my tests, however, I didn't create the iso with nLite. I've integrated the drivers and generated the full unattended setup with nLite, then I've added some apps and finally I used Nero to burn a bootable DVD, using a boot image (*.IMA) that I found on the net (but you might also extract it from your Windows XP setup cd).

8.- I'm not too sure about what to do with the raidtool directory. Even reinstalling the 6.66 drivers doesn't seem to help much. A shortcut to the nvraid manager (raidtool\NvRaidMan.exe) still has to be created manually. :huh:

That's all I can think of.

Cheers,

- Stéphane

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well... Both installations actually succeeded  :rolleyes: . It seems that my BSODs were only the consequence of the unattended mode changed from FullUnattended to either DefaultHide or ProvideDefault. My bad  :blushing:

Now there was in fact one difference during the installation. With oem method from post #1, I got a window from the new hardware wizard just before the locale settings (graphical mode already). It said that a new device was found (disk drive), and that it would be ready to use after the next reboot. And the installation continued normally. I didn't get this message at all using the "light" OEMDIR method. What's different? No idea...

Hi Stephane,

thank you very much for having taken the time for several tests and postings within this thread, because it is very important for other users to know the exact reason, why someone succeed with a special method and others have BSOD's or endless reboots.

The short interruption of the hardware installation during Windows Setup showing a popup window "New Disk Drive Detected" is very common for me. It is the moment, when the Windows XP setup routine is going to install the correct NVIDIA driver "NVATABUS.SYS" instead of the (wrong) MS driver for the PCI Standard IDE Controller. I have always seen this popup window, when I used the "fullunattended" method and both INF-files (NVATABUS.INF and NVRAID.INF) were integrated into the OemInfFiles section of the WINNT.SIF. It did not bother me at all, because this event supplied evidence, that the installation will succeed without endless reboots due to wrong Sata/Pata drivers.

4.- During the nLite drivers integration process, you must choose IDE\WinXP\sataraid\nvraid.inf and then select both textmode entries displayed by nLite. You may also pick up the other nForce4 drivers:

  Network support: pick up Ethernet\nvenetfd.inf

  Audio support: pick up AudioDrv\nvmcp.inf

  SMBus support: pick up SMBus\nvsmbus.inf

Just a little correction: It does not matter at all, which INF file you are choosing, when you are going to integrate drivers by nLite, because all files - inclusive all other INF-files - are copied by nLite and the hardware detection of the OS will take the correct INF file during installation. The only important thing is to choose the correct folder (with a suitable INF-file within it).

Your contribution was very helpful for us all!

Thanks!

Fernando

Edited by Fernando 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The RC1 version of nLite 1.0 has brought some important changes, which make it easier than ever to integrate the nVRaid drivers into a bootable Windows XP CD.

That is the reason why I have just edited the new method within post No 1 of this thread.

CU

Fernando

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Please post your experience with this method - successfull or not - into this thread"

Power Management no longer operates correctly 1.0rc1-sytem will not shut off the harddrives, fans, cpu etc. Only the monitor screen will turn off.

The SBA2_PCDrvBeta_LB_2_08_0002 drivers do not integrate correctly-no sound, no working "Sounds and Audio Devices" console. The drivers had to be installed using Creative's setup program after install.

When running 1.0rc1 initially to create a new iso, the winnt.sif must be created at the same time as the driver integration or the [OemInfFiles] section is not created and during install my system hung at file copy-had to abort.

The NVATABUS.INF/SYS for ATAPI shows as WHQL-as do all the drivers- if the nforce4 drivers are installed after setup in safe mode using the main setup program, but show the opposite if integrated using nlite-6.66 or 6.67. The inf references the nvata.cat as its signature found in both SATA-XP-folders.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...