Driver Installation Guide of ARC-11XX/ARC12XX/ARC16XX/18XX RAID Controller 
         for RHEL 9.4(kernel 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4.x86_64)
=================================================================================
Linux SCSI driver technical support 
mail address: support@areca.com.tw
Web site: www.areca.com.tw
==================================================================================
 
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1. Contents
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readme.txt	- the installation guide of ARC-11XX/12XX/16XX/18XX driver
		  for RHEL 9.4
arcmsr-1.51.0X.16-rhel9.4.zip	- Areca RAID driver for Linux system installation
kmod-arcmsr-1.51.0X.16_rhel9.4-1.x86_64.rpm  - arcmsr driver in rpm format
arcmsr-1.51.0X.16-20231226.zip               - arcmsr driver source code
arcmsr-1.51.00.16-source-only.dkms.tar.gz    - arcmsr DKMS enabled driver source code

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2. First installation
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  A. Before Installation 
  ======================
    Extract arcmsr-1.51.0X.16-rhel9.4.zip to / directory of an USB flash drive.
    Give a label to this USB flash drive, said OEMDRV.

  B. Installation
  ===============
	a. Booting from RHEL 9.4 Installation medium.
	b. When 'WELCOM TO RED HAT ENTERPRISE LINUX 9.4' or 'WELCOM TO ROCKY LINUX 9' or
	  'WELCOM TO ALMALINUX 9.4' was displayed, press CTRL+ALT+F2 to command console.
	c. Insert USB flash drive to target system.
	   # mkdir /arcmsr /tmp/arcmsr
	   # mount /dev/sda1 /arcmsr
	   # cp /arcmsr/* /tmp/arcmsr
	   # umount /arcmsr
	d. Remove the USB flash drive from the USB port and then type:
	   # cd /tmp/arcmsr
	   # chmod +x *.sh
	   # ./pre-install.sh
	e. Press ALT+F6 back to installation GUI.
	f. On 'INSTALLATION DESTINATION' page, if you can not find hard drive(s) to install OS,
	   click the 'Refresh'(blue color), which was located at bottom right corner of page, to rescan hard drive(s).
	g. When system was successfully installed, press CTRL+ALT+F2 to command console before click "Reboot System".
	   # mkdir -p /mnt/sysimage/tmp/arcmsr
	   # cp /tmp/arcmsr/* /mnt/sysimage/tmp/arcmsr
	   # chroot /mnt/sysimage
	   # cd /tmp/arcmsr
	   # ./post-install.sh
	   # exit
	h. Press ALT+F6 to back to system installation GUI and Reboot. 

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3. Installing raid driver on your System.
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   If your Linux system can access Areca Raid volume normally, you need not to install driver package.

	If you have ever installed kmod-arcmsr rpm package, remove the old driver before install new one.
	# sudo rpm -ev kmod-arcmsr

	# sudo rpm -ivh kmod-arcmsr-1.51.0X.16_rhel9.4-1.x86_64.rpm
	# sudo depmod -a
	# sudo modprobe arcmsr

	If your system was booted from Areca volume, you have to rebuild initial ramdisk.
	# sudo dracut --kver $(uname -r)
	# sudo reboot

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4. To compile raid driver on your System.
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   If your Linux system can access Areca Raid volume normally, you need not to compile driver for it.
   If areca pre-build driver(kmod-arcmsr...) can not fit for your kernel, then you need compile
   driver for it by yourself.

	Before you can compile a new driver, you have to install kernel-headers and kernel-devel.
	These two rpm packages are in RHEL 9.4 DVD installation disc /BaseOS/Packages.

        if your target kernel version is not (uname -r), then replace following
	$(uname -r) by target kernel version

	# yum install kernel-headers-$(uname -r) kernel-devel-$(uname -r) gcc make

	To compile arcmsr driver, extract driver source code to a new directory.
	# make KDIR=/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build

	# xz arcmsr.ko
	# mkdir -p /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/arcmsr
	# cp -f arcmsr.ko.xz /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/arcmsr
	# depmod -a $(uname -r)
	# modprobe arcmsr

	If your system was booted from Areca volume, you have to rebuild initial ramdisk.
	# dracut --kver $(uname -r)
	# reboot

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5. To install DKMS enabled tarball of arcmsr driver on your System.
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	In case of updating software packages, the kernel's version could be change.
	If the new kernel built-in driver can not support your Raid controller, then install dkms package
	and install areca dkms-able driver source tarball is a good solution.
	Once kernel was updated, it compiles and installs driver for new kernel automatically.

	Before you can compile a new driver, you have to install kernel-headers and kernel-devel.
	These two rpm packages are in RHEL 9.4 DVD installation disc /BaseOS/Packages.
	# yum install kernel-headers-$(uname -r) kernel-devel-$(uname -r) gcc make elfutils-libelf-devel

	Download DKMS package dkms-<dkmsversion>.noarch.rpm from https://pkgs.org/download/dkms
	Before using DKMS, you must install DKMS package. You can install dkms as following.
	# rpm -ivh dkms-<dkmsversion>.noarch.rpm
	where <moduleversion> is dkms version could be, e.g., 3.0.12-1.el9

	Copy arcmsr DKMS enabled tarball to home directory.
	In order to load tarball into the DKMS tree, you must use the following command:

	# dkms ldtarball --archive=./arcmsr-<moduleversion>-source-only.dkms.tar.gz
	where <moduleversion> is module version could be, e.g., 1.51.00.16
	arcmsr source code will be added to DKMS tree.
	
	To build arcmsr driver module
	# dkms build -m arcmsr -v <moduleversion>
	
	To install arcmsr driver module
	# dkms install -m arcmsr -v <moduleversion>


	If you are upgrading linux kernel, then you have to install the corresponding linux-headers-<kernelver> before
	reboot your system. New kernel image can be find in /boot, corresponding new linux header can be find in /usr/src.
	If you can not find new linux header in /usr/src, you can install it as following.
	# yum install kernel-headers-<kernelver>
	where <kernelver> is kernel version could be, e.g., 5.14.0-427.13.1.el9_4.$(uname -m)
	
	After installed linux header files, DKMS service will build and install arcmsr driver for new kernel automatically.

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6. To support Areca thunderbolt device and cable hotplug
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	RHEL 9.4 has been build-in support thunderbolt 2, 3 devices.
	To support Areca thunderbolt devices, like ARC-8050Tx, 
	arcmsr driver version must be >= v1.40.0X.05-20190309.
	This version's driver was built-in in Linux kernel since v4.17.

	The first time of connection thunderbolt device to system, it may need to authorize the device to system.
	From GNOME Settings->Privacy->Thunderbolt, click the 'connected' but not yet authorized device,
	confirm the 'authorize and connect' to make it 'authorized'.

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7. To set driver parameters value
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    arcmsr provided driver parameters setting since v1.30.0X.25.
    Multiple Driver parameters can be set at a time.
    e.g. # insmod arcmsr.ko.xz host_can_queue=72 cmd_per_lun=16

    Setting parameter value out of range will be ignored, parameter remain default value.

    a. To list what driver parameter can be set, parameter default value and value range.
       # modinfo arcmsr

    b. To set driver parameter when you manually install driver.
       (This method will be infeasible if your system was boot from areca Raid volume.)
       e.g. to set parameter host_can_queue value to 64
       # sudo rmmod arcmsr
       # sudo insmod /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra/arcmsr/arcmsr.ko.xz host_can_queue=64

    c. To set driver parameter during booting from grub menu.
       When grub menu display, use UP and DOWN arrow key to move cursor to booting target.
       Type e to edit, move cursor to end of line that include "linux   /boot/vmlinuz-x.xx.xx ....."
       Append driver parameter to there.(e.g. to set parameter host_can_queue value to 64)

       linux  ($root) /boot/vmlinux-5.14.0-xx..... ... ... rhgb quiet arcmsr.host_can_queue=64

    d. To set driver parameter for every boot up.
       e.g. to set parameter host_can_queue value to 64
       # sudo gedit /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
           or
       # sudo gedit /boot/efi/EFI/centos/grub.cfg
       Append driver parameter setting to end of line that include "linux   /boot/vmlinuz-x.xx.xx ....."

       linux   /boot/vmlinux-5.14.0-xx..... ... ... quiet LANG=en_US.UTF-8 arcmsr.host_can_queue=64

    e. To verify parameter setting is correct.
       1. To locate adapter parameter directory
          Find Areca host number:
          # dmesg | grep 'scsi host'
          # cat /sys/class/scsi_host/hostX/proc_name
                where hostX could be host0, host1, ...
          The correct output should be arcmsr. If output is (null), check host_fw_model and host_driver_version.
          # cat /sys/class/scsi_host/hostX/host_fw_model
          # cat /sys/class/scsi_host/hostX/host_driver_version

       2. List host_can_queue value
          #  cat /sys/class/scsi_host/hostX/can_queue

       3. List cmd_per_lun value
          #  cat /sys/class/scsi_host/hostX/cmd_per_lun

       4. List cmd_timeout value
          #  cat /sys/block/sdX/device/cmd_timeout
             where sdX could be sda, sdb, ...