how to view desktop on core? install Highpoint drivers?

[blacklotus]

i want to install the highpoint raid drivers on my lmce core (never been used/setup) machine. its on the lan but i haven't gotten much further.

first of all, on the core i have no idea how to bring up the kde desktop or a terminal. i'm a n00b!

secondly, i'm so confused. i don't know which driver to use. is it supposed to be debian? they give me the option of red had enterprise, fedora, suse/enterprise, freebsd and open source.

what/how is the easiest way to install these so i can start using the box.

btw, for clarification. i already have the core working off a regular drive the raid is for media.

[agentc0re]

i want to install the highpoint raid drivers on my lmce core (never been used/setup) machine. its on the lan but i haven't gotten much further.

I'm not familiar with that name nor did i look it up, it sounds like an onboard raid for a MB though.  If that's the case, don't even bother with it.  software raid is the way to go.

first of all, on the core i have no idea how to bring up the kde desktop or a terminal. i'm a n00b!

That's easy and just a little bit of exploring should solve that anyways.  Don't be afraid of breaking anything or you'll never learn.  If you think it's a bad idea, ask before you do it.  The secret location of KDE is in the advanced options section though.

secondly, i'm so confused. i don't know which driver to use. is it supposed to be debian? they give me the option of red had enterprise, fedora, suse/enterprise, freebsd and open source.
what/how is the easiest way to install these so i can start using the box.
btw, for clarification. i already have the core working off a regular drive the raid is for media.

Ahh... What are you talking about here?  driver for the raid?   But on the topic of packages, you will always use Debian because K/Ubuntu is debian based.

[blacklotus]

first off, i appreciate your quick reply. perhaps i need to clarify myself on a few things

I'm not familiar with that name nor did i look it up, it sounds like an onboard raid for a MB though.  If that's the case, don't even bother with it.  software raid is the way to go.

highpoint technologies is a manufacturer of raid add-in cards. Mine is the RocketRAID 2320 it's a PCIe 8 port SATAII raid5 card. they're not the BEST, but they're not too much $$$ (instead of $500 for an areca, mine was $250). my biggest reasons for using an add-in card are portability (not tied to os or machine), performance and flexibility, online raid level/size migration is a HUGE plus!

That's easy and just a little bit of exploring should solve that anyways.  Don't be afraid of breaking anything or you'll never learn.  If you think it's a bad idea, ask before you do it.  The secret location of KDE is in the advanced options section though.

ok, all i have up on the screen is the "core" window. the only options i see are the tabs up top which are: Start, Connections, Log Options, View Log, Configuration Files
where are the "advanced" options?
all i want to do is be able to bring up the full kde desktop temporarily so i can add drivers and do a few other things. other than that i plan to leave it in the closet.

Ahh... What are you talking about here?  driver for the raid?   But on the topic of packages, you will always use Debian because K/Ubuntu is debian based.

ok, here's the link to the driver page for my raid card: http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/bios_rr2320.htm

they ONLY give me the options of red had enterprise, fedora, suse/enterprise, freebsd and open source. do i use suse? and if so, which one? since highpoint has open source drivers it would be nice if the Linux MCE or ubuntu team included some of these raid drivers in the installation.

if i have to go with open source, any pointers on best/easiest way to compile them? i'm a *nix n00b, but am not afraid of a terminal or command lines

[Zaerc]

first off, i appreciate your quick reply. perhaps i need to clarify myself on a few things

I'm not familiar with that name nor did i look it up, it sounds like an onboard raid for a MB though.  If that's the case, don't even bother with it.  software raid is the way to go.

highpoint technologies is a manufacturer of raid add-in cards. Mine is the RocketRAID 2320 it's a PCIe 8 port SATAII raid5 card. they're not the BEST, but they're not too much $$$ (instead of $500 for an areca, mine was $250). my biggest reasons for using an add-in card are portability (not tied to os or machine), performance and flexibility, online raid level/size migration is a HUGE plus!

That is a so called fake-raid card: http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#highpoint2240, which means it does software raid in a vendor specific and non-standard proprietary way, not really what I would call a huge plus, instead of tied to OS or machine you are now tied to a specific SATA controller. 

That's easy and just a little bit of exploring should solve that anyways.  Don't be afraid of breaking anything or you'll never learn.  If you think it's a bad idea, ask before you do it.  The secret location of KDE is in the advanced options section though.

ok, all i have up on the screen is the "core" window. the only options i see are the tabs up top which are: Start, Connections, Log Options, View Log, Configuration Files
where are the "advanced" options?
all i want to do is be able to bring up the full kde desktop temporarily so i can add drivers and do a few other things. other than that i plan to leave it in the closet.

Sounds like you have a non-hybrid core, one thing you could try is booting in recovery mode and running "startx" from the command  prompt.

Ahh... What are you talking about here?  driver for the raid?   But on the topic of packages, you will always use Debian because K/Ubuntu is debian based.

ok, here's the link to the driver page for my raid card: http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/bios_rr2320.htm

they ONLY give me the options of red had enterprise, fedora, suse/enterprise, freebsd and open source. do i use suse? and if so, which one? since highpoint has open source drivers it would be nice if the Linux MCE or ubuntu team included some of these raid drivers in the installation.

if i have to go with open source, any pointers on best/easiest way to compile them? i'm a *nix n00b, but am not afraid of a terminal or command lines

I doubt much other people would be interested as this proprietary fake raid has only disadvantages over the readily available software raid.  A good point to start is usually the install docs included with the sources, but I sincerely doubt it's worth the headache.  And you may want to have a look at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto

[agentc0re]

ok, all i have up on the screen is the "core" window. the only options i see are the tabs up top which are: Start, Connections, Log Options, View Log, Configuration Files
where are the "advanced" options?
all i want to do is be able to bring up the full kde desktop temporarily so i can add drivers and do a few other things. other than that i plan to leave it in the closet.

Ah, so your core is not a hybrid so you don't have any of the menu's.  On that box you should have an option to check mark "Auto Start Media Station" on the "Start Tab" Also there should be another button to "Start Media Station".  However you'll still need to check mark the box for the first one.  Reboot and you should get the menu.  Another way is press ctrl+alt+f1, this will drop you to a terminal.  type in, "telinit 5" and it should boot you to a gui.  From there you should see an option for MORE -> Advanced Options -> KDE
 -

Ahh... What are you talking about here?  driver for the raid?   But on the topic of packages, you will always use Debian because K/Ubuntu is debian based.

they ONLY give me the options of red had enterprise, fedora, suse/enterprise, freebsd and open source. do i use suse? and if so, which one? since highpoint has open source drivers it would be nice if the Linux MCE or ubuntu team included some of these raid drivers in the installation.
[/quote]
Please reread what i said about what kind of packages to choose and i think your, "should i use suse" question should be answered

if i have to go with open source, any pointers on best/easiest way to compile them? i'm a *nix n00b, but am not afraid of a terminal or command lines

I looked in the kernel options and it looks like rocketraid 3xxx controllers are built in but not the 2xxx series.  so you will either need to find a debian/ubuntu/kubuntu package for them or build it from source.  Personally i would do some digging around the ubuntu/kubuntu community and see if someone has build a .deb package for it already.  If not, building from source could be a bit of a pain.  You will have to get the kernel source to start off.  you can use apt-get to download it.  if you do a "uname -a" in the CLI you'll find out what kernel version you have then learn how to download that kernel version using apt-get.  once you have the sources you will can download the sources for your raid driver.  you could install them to /tmp/raid or something to that effect.  go to that dir you untared them to and read the README or INSTALL file (or whatever is similar)  it'll tell you what to type in to build the driver.  Usually it's just "make" and "make install" then sudo modprobe <insert driver name here>  (without the < >)

There is lots of documentation out there, find it and read it.  If you do get stuck and not sure how to interpret the documentation post back and we'll work through it.

[agentc0re]

That is a so called fake-raid card: http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html#highpoint2240, which means it does software raid in a vendor specific and non-standard proprietary way, not really what I would call a huge plus, instead of tied to OS or machine you are now tied to a specific SATA controller. 

Ah, i should have looked that up before posting.  Thanks Zaerc.  I just figured the ammount of cash he spent on it, it wasn't a fakeraid card.