Re: Please Help with Serial ATA!

[Erik Steffl <steffl@bigfoot.com>]

Jon Earle wrote:
> I'm having serious trouble getting Debian loaded on my new system.
>
> The specs are:
>
>
> > AMD Athlon XP 2700+ 333FSB
> > MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR NForce 2
> > 512MB Corsair XMS 3200 C2
> > 36GB Western Digital Raptor SATA 10K RPM
> > MSI GFX 5600VTDR 128
> > Antec Performance II SX635BII
> > LG 52x24x52 CDRW
> > LG DVD
> > Panasonic 1.44 Floppy Drive
>
>
> After my initial attempt at installing Debian 3.0r1 failed, I eventually
> found a Promise Fastrack 376 driver that I was able to feed to the debian
> installer so that it saw the drive and allow me to partition and install
> to it.  The problem now is, the first reboot.  Lilo doesn't even begin to
> show itself.  No L, no errors, nothing. The system just sits there
> blinking at me.
>
> There has to be a way to get this going.  I'd hate to have to return the
> system and settle for something that's a few years old, just to get Linux
> to work.  Is it even possible to get Debian installed and running on a
> SATA drive?

  you might need some cutting edge kernel, the first kernel that 
supports my sata (on intel D865PERL motherboard) is 2.4.21-ac4 (SCSI_ATA).

  When I boot kernel that doesn't have CONFIG_SCSI_ATA enabled the 
system only boots up to detection of harddrives, then freezes. Only when 
I use CONFIG_SCSI_ATA (you need at least 2.4.21-ac4) the system boots 
and recognizes drive properly (as scsi drive, /dev/sda or something like 
that)

  you might also be able to make it look like ata ide drive in bios 
(legacy mode or something like that).

	erik