Re: [PARTIALLY SOLVED] SATA drive probs: Knoppix OK, but nothing else

[Hugo Vanwoerkom <hvw59601@care2.com>]

Hugo Vanwoerkom wrote:
> Hi list,
>
>
> I have a new SATA drive (WDC WD800JD-60LUA0) that I have problems with 
> getting recognized by Sarge.
>
> Knoppix finds it OK, I can partition the disk, write to it, no problems.
>
> The Debian3.1r1 Debian Installer, finds it, identifies it, but with 
> installation on another PATA partition the GRUB boot fails with 99999's 
> over the screen.
>
> Same with Debian3.1r1 Debian Installer using expert26 and lilo: that 
> boot also fails with 9999's on the screen.
>
> Booting into my normal Sarge with lilo hangs at the start with the drive 
> connected.
>
> If Knoppix has absolutely no problems, I believe my problems are all 
> software related. Knoppix finds it as /dev/sda. I created ext2 
> partitions 1-7, no problems. I was unable to run lilo from Knoppix: got 
> errors that he could not find the right device mapper.
>
> Anybody have a clue as to what to google for, or what to do next to get 
> a bootloader to run with the drive connected?

The problem is twofold (I think):

1. Booting with any bootloader and the WD disk connected with the 
SII3112 HD SATA controller.
2. The BIOS-check under that condition.

I avoided (1) by using a lilo rescue disk and selecting "hard disk"

I avoid (2) with the "suppress-boot-time-BIOS-data" global option of Lilo.

Then I have a running system with the WD disk mounted as sda1-7.
Nothing wrong with the bootloaders. Something wrong with the BIOS of my 
mobo (EPOX EP-8VTAI), but I didn't see any upgrades mentioning this problem.

H