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Issues with Adaptec RAID controllers “i2o” and Debian Etch/Lenny
This guide is made, due to all the issues I had getting debian to work with this Adaptec RAID controller.

Install Debian without a bootloader (GRUB, LILO)
Just an example of how my partition’s look:

#1 Primary B f ext3 / (8 GB) – /dev/i2o/hdaX
#5 Logical f ext3 /usr (10 GB) – /dev/i2o/hdaX
#6 Logical f ext3 /var (10 GB) – /dev/i2o/hdaX
#7 Logical f ext3 swap (4 GB) – /dev/i2o/hdaX
#8 Logical f ext3 /tmp (4.7 GB) – /dev/i2o/hdaX
#9 Logical f ext3 /home (36.7) – /dev/i2o/hdbX

1) Boot the system up with Knoppix, mount /dev/i2o/hdaX to /mnt/hdaX (Remember to create the directory first; sudo mkdir /mnt/hda1)
2) Copy the GRUB bootloader from the Knoppix CD to /mnt/hdaX/boot/grub (sudo cp -R /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/* /mnt/hdaX/boot/grub/)
3) You’ll have to create menu.lst by yourself – So again enter: /mnt/hdaX/boot/grub/ then write: sudo touch menu.lst and start editing. Mine looks something like this:

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-1-amd64
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-amd64 root=/dev/i2o/hda1 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-1-amd64

Boot the system and you should be good to go!
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If you are getting issues with the system not being able to locate the HDD’s /dev/hdaX or /dev/sdaX, you’ll have to do a bit more:

1) On boot failure you’ll be kicked to a limited shell.
2) Reboot into the Knoppix CD again, since you’ll now have to do a bit of editing.
3) Again we’ll have to create the directory where we will mount and of course also mount the drive; sudo mkdir /mnt/hdaX then mount; sudo mount /dev/i2o/hdaX /mnt/hdaX
4) Start with editing the GRUB menu.lst – nano /mnt/hdaX/boot/grub/menu.lst and change /dev/i2o/hdaX to /dev/sdaX and quit
5) You’ll also have to edit your fstab and change everything with /dev/i2o/hdaX and /dev/i2o/hdbX to /dev/sdaX and /dev/sdbX and quit.

Now you should be able to boot into your system again. And no further problems should show up regarding your Adaptec RAID controller.