I have both my hard drives on a SIS3112a sata controller and I'd like to install debian-sarge. I got to a point in the debian installation, before it begins to even partition where I assume it's probing hardware looking for devices.

It gets almost to the end of this process when the installer says its working on probing SCSI devices (none exist), then the installation freezes.

I've found one page on linux mafia that gives a brief overview of installing linux on a SATA drive (basically saying it's unlikely you can do it).

Has anyone managed to get this to work, and if so what did you do?

Have you given the new Sarge net installer a go ? (www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer) From this it appears that the Sil3112a is now supported. Assuming that this is the controller you're meaning, rather than Sis3112a.

My personal experience with this controller hasn't been all that enjoyable however, particularly in combination with *&^%$ software-assisted modem drivers

Cheers,

mj