SATA detection

[Net Llama!]

On Thu, 8 Mar 2007, Tony Alfrey wrote:
> Net Llama! wrote:
>> On Thu, 8 Mar 2007, Tony Alfrey wrote:
>>> OK, I'm trying to install blag linux, which has an installer that
>>> searches for drives.  It does not find my SATA drive controller.  But
>>> the bios sees the controller mounted on the PCI buss and announces the
>>> two drives I installed.  When I set the bios up on this Gigabyte
>>> motherboard to select boot order, it offers me a list of possible boot
>>> devices.  It does not offer a "plug-in controller" like the bios on my
>>> intel MB, but it does offer a SCSI option.  I assume that this must be
>>> the same as a plug-in controller.
>>>
>>> So I cannot tell if this is a problem with the installer not knowing to
>>> look for a SCSI controller or if this is a bios problem.
>>
>> Is the SATA controller not being detected, or is the disk attached to it
>> not being detected?
>>
>
> When the installer looks for hard drives, it cannot find those attached
> to the controller.  It does not separately talk about seeing a
> controller or disks, it just cannot find disks.

Does the controller detect the disk during POST?

>
> I see that this is a common SATA problem.  I have found a list of
> sort-of supported cards and drivers and I'm trying to piece things together.
>
> For example, if I go into expert mode on a SuSE 9.1 disk, I see a list
> of many SCSI drivers and a few SATA drivers (blag linux is all on one CD
> so there is no room for an extensive list of driver modules).  There is
> a SATA driver for a card made by SIIG but it may not be for my card made
> by SIIG.  I see that there are a few such drivers and my 9.1 disk has
> only an older one.  There is the additional problem that this box does
> not have a floppy drive and it seems that this is the way one installs
> said driver if it is not actually on the CD.
>
>
> I will look for a very recent distro that may have the necessary driver
> and then the installation can just go from the CD.  I thought I had
> actually bought a supported card, but I now see that there are several
> drivers for these cards and I may have a very new card for which they
> have changed the driver requirements.

If the controller is detected, then the problem isn't the driver.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lonni J Friedman                        netllama at linux-sxs.org
LlamaLand				http://netllama.linux-sxs.org