Hello everyone,


I want to install Redhat 9.0 on a workstation that uses an Intel D875PBZ motherboard. Chipset Intel 82801EB ICH5. This board also includes built-in serial-ATA (SATA) support. I use a Barracuda Seagate 120 GB.

Early on in the install process it gives an error saying it can not find a hard disk.

No drives found. No valid devices were found on which to create new file systems. Please check your hardware for the cause of the problem.

Media is OK, i have Win XP installed on a partition an boots OK.

With RH 8 sends this message:

--------

hde: ST3120023AS

hde: lost interrupt

--------


Its there a way to patch the kernel and make Linux recognizes the drive?
I have read that some people has installed RH 9 with the Silicon Image SATA controller, anyone with the Intel 82801EB?
Any Linux distro that supports this interface?

I have tried Mandrake 9.1 without success.


Thanks for any help!


--
Nino Pineda

Yep, there's a kernel patch, its included in the alan cox tree with 2.4.21-ac4 and above. I did a Slackware 9.0 install on a machine with this guy. It wasn't pretty.

The easiest way is going to be to slap a regular IDE drive in there and do a piggy-back install.

The device, btw, is emulated to scsi for some bizarre reason (the other SATA controllers, both of them, are under the normal IDE stuff), so when you're compiling you'll find the option under SCSI low-level drivers.

There is no current straightforward distro that supports this interface. Probably the next iteration of everything will as I'm assuming 2.4.22 will have it included.

Cheers,

Finegan

Hi!

I haven't used linux before, so I don't know these things...

I have the Mandrake 9.1 .isos on my drive right now (using w2k for now) and I'd like to make the distribution so, that it'd would be the latest stable kernel with the patch to get my Seagate Barracuda V 80Gb working on D875PBZ - how can this be achieved? I don't have any IDE-drives for this 'piggy-back'-install you mentioned.

EDIT:And don't give me any 'It's too hard for you' -crap - I have three idle days time to figure this out

That's a bit much to accuse me of to start with, and three days is about what it took me... okay one long long night. There are two options, and you'll have to do most of the research yourself as I'm not familiar with Mandrake's install enought to gut it in the manner necessary:

Also, you're going to have to have a working linux machine to start with.

Grab the 2.4.21 source code from kernel.org. Patch that with the -pre6 patch in /testing, then patch that with the Alan Cox -Pre6-ac1 patch.

Compile the kernel with ICH5 support under Scsi low-level drivers, the device will be emulated to scsi and appear as /dev/sda. I also recommend compiling optimized for i486, it'll make the kernel a lot smaller, and you'll probably need to recompile from the ground up later.

Now, you will either have to build your own ISO for the Mandrake install, replacing their stock kernel with yours... or, easier and harder is to make a Mandrake boot floppy and replace their kernel with yours... the first is a headache as building a custom ISO is a bit of an annoyance. The second is a real headache as its what I chose and it took 5 tries before I compiled a kernel small enough to replace the default bzImage on a Slackware boot floppy.

Once you've booted with a kernel that recognizes the drive (and probably with all of the support for other hardware stripped out), you can copy your source tree onto that machine and build a newer, blockier kernel, with all of it built back in.

Cheers,

Finegan

Thanks for your help finegan!

I going to install that Mandrake on my 133Mhz HP Vectra and try to figure the patching from there. The documentations for linux are proving really helpfull, that's something to start with

The Motherboard bios has support for six ATA devices,
two on each channel of PATA-Primary, PATA-Secondary,
and SATA-P0/P1.

The Motherboard bios defaults to supporting all six
ATA devices.. RedHat 9 will notice the ICH5 chip but
will not enumerate drives attached to any channels

In order to install, you first have to go to [Advanced]
and drive support and change from the default
"Enhanced" support.. for three channels (2 ATA devices each)
to "Legacy" support.. for two channels.

The next thing is "Key!"

You have to select a "combination" of the SATA P0/P1
and the "one" PATA channel that has your CDROM
drive attached.. assuming your using a regular Parallel
ATA CDROM drive to install from.

If you just select "Legacy" it will only select the
PATA Primary and PATA Secondary and "no" SATA
channel.. your CDROM will boot and the system
will have "no" available hard drives to install on.

If you select "Legacy" and only SATA P0/P1 you
will have serial drive(s) and the RedHat 9 install
will begin.. but then query for a source for the
install files a little bit into the install... because
the BIOS didn't enumerate the PATA bus(?)
it will suggest "local hard drive?" which of course
makes you scratch your head..

Now.. "Enhanced" support is apparently available,
if you recompile the default kernel and enable
the SCSI.. ect.. ect.. haven't got that far.. but
sounds cool!

later....

BTW.. I've done this three times.. rocks!

- john w.

John,

I am hoping that your solution will work for me, but I am not seeing the [Advanced] section in my BIOS that you refer to. I'm running a Dell Precision Workstation 360 (BIOS version A01) with the Intel 82801EB chipset and the Seagate ST3120023AS 120GB hard drive.

When I go into the BIOS, I select "Drive Configuration" and I see the following options "Diskette Drive A:", "SATA Primary" (set to "Hard Drive"), "SATA Secondary" (set to "Off"), "Primary Master" and "Primary Slave" (set to "Off"), and "Secondary Master" and "Secondary Slave" (set to "CDROM"). The final setting is "IDE Drive UDMA" which is set to "On". I don't seen a place to change from "Enhanced" to "Legacy" support.

By the way, I used Partition Magic to shrink the original Windows XP (NTFS) partition to 60GB and I want to be able to install RedHat 9 in the remaining empty region of the disk.

Jeff

I should have clarified that the board I used was a D875PBZ Intel
boxed retail edition Motherboard... picked some up at Fry's.. these
are what you'd typically buy from any motherboard vendor.

Sorry about the "Dell".. the wobbly E must stand for something.

I've worked with a "lot" of Dell products and the cost savings
usually come out as some "minor" adjustment in the
manufacturing process that makes it just slightly askew and
hobbled such that you have to go to Dell for updates, upgrades,
or any support... don't get me wrong, I buy Dell.. but never
cutting edge.. and never ever SCSI based workstations or
servers..

Your probably correct in that the difference is in the Bios version..
Intel's has an [Advanced] menu and the option to select which
of the six channels to enable in Legacy mode.. I would not be
suprised at all if the Dell version doesn't offer the option at this
time...

Curious historical note however.. its been my experience with
Dell Bioses that they typically release a Bios update.. months
later that slowly percolates out to the mainstream Bios update
releases for customers with enhanced Intel features(?).. you may
just be in for a wait.

As an aside.. don't mean to make the wait worse.. but..

I found a default Redhat 9 update kernel in RPM format that
tossed the throughput put from 586 MB/s[R] 3 Mb/s[W] to 586
MB/s [R] 56 MB/s[W] (it enabled UDMA2) and makes the desktop
soar.. really impresses me how much drive throughput actually
rules the user experience.. and not RAM memory, or CPU GHz
these days.. it was astounding!

Apparently this is Alan Cox's contribution though and not the
2.4.21 SCSI-IDE re-write.. which supports [Enhanced] or "Native"
mode. The kernel update is still 2.4.20-19 so it isn't an official
kernel re-released.. just RedHat patched.

My guess is the Dell Bios was fashioned quickly to get the product
out the door.. so they just adhered to providing chipset "Native"
mode and didn't think anyone would care about installing Win98
or Linux on the system.

If by any chance Dell provided docs or notes about procedures to
put the system into a mode where you "could" install Win98,
that might be the equivalent of setting the Bios up in "Legacy"
mode and work for RedHat 9.. long shot.. but hope it helps.

Another thought is.. if RedHat ever releases 2.4.21 RPM update
with the SCSI-IDE patch.. you might be able to put that on a
server.. and/or use a driver disk with Gigabit Ethernet driver to
boot from the "upped" install sources.. really straining there..
but its barely possible... the real deal here is the SCSI-IDE
patch reportedly recognizes the ICH5 chipset and handles it
in "Native" mode.

Looking at GinGin beta for RedHat X(?) looks like they're still using
a 2.4.20 kernel.. though it will handle ICH5 in Legacy mode
that won't work in Enhanced mode.. unless they somehow patch
in the new SCSI-IDE.. or someone comes up with a driver disk
for the ICH5 chipset.. Intel's Linux support looks 'challenged'
so wouldn't hold out hopes of even a binary driver from there.

For what its worth...

You could also break down and try installing to a PATA IDE,
install a patched 2.4.21 kernel that supports "Native" mode
ICH5.. and boot off that.. do some complex manual setup and
transfer to the ICH5 SATA drives.. and run "Native".. just isn't
my favorite thing of thinking of.. ouch.

- john w.

Hang on guys, the official SATA patch from intel is on the way.

I just got one dell optiplex gx270 with only one SATA 120G seagate harddrive. Its bios setting has no advanced mode. The interesting part is that I could install the redhat9 onto it from CDROM. Using fdisk on /dev/hde during the installation was all right. Then the bootup will hang on forever at hde probing.

This may be waaay off base.

But I also have an Adaptec 1200A (PATA) RAID
controller on another machine.

It works wonderfully under RedHat 9.

But had to figure out that the card is based on
the Highpoint RAID card.. and disable the drives
on "the Adaptec" controller so they would not be
detected as being attached to a "known" RAID controller
built into the RedHat 9 install routine.

That "way" it would allow prompting for a
linux "driver disk" which would be provided
and then detect the drives "after" the correct
"Highpoint RAID controller" driver was loaded.

The reason I hyposthesize this "might" work
here.. is that the Bios Advanced feature is
supposed to (I think) hide or disable the extra
pseudo IDE devices possible in Advanced mode.

I DO NOT have the hardware to try this theory out..
well maybe its more time than anything.. simply
because I'd have to reinstall with the Advanced
mode enabled.. and that wouldn't be a precise
duplicate of the "Dell" Bios problem.

So you guys try and let us know:

So here's the trick -

at the text boot prompt before starting the
anaconda GUI install.. type the following...

linux hde=noprobe hdf=noprobe hdg=noprobe hdh=noprobe

or some variant there of.. maybe..

linux hda=noprobe hdb=noprobe hdc=noprobe hdd=noprobe

(well.... maybe you "do" want hdc as it might be your CDROM
drive)

I'd "guess" the last example would be closer to the
truth, since after installation the driver "seems" to want to
enumerate the SATA drives as starting with drive name
[ /dev/hde ].

I got this from.. "after" successfully enabling Legacy mode
and turning on only PATA-sec and SATA P0/P1.. then installing,
then "after" everything was working fine.. I wanted to "try"
enabling the Bios Advanced mode...

.. on reboot it enumerated [ /dev/hde ] and kernel panic'cked
saying it couldn't find the [ / ] root partition.. which I'd guess
was because in Legacy mode the drive was enumerated as
[ /dev/hda ].. I thought about editing /etc/grub.conf for
about 20 seconds and then didn't.. simply cause I didn't
want to invest the time.. with the kernel update to 2.4.20-19.9
I got back UDMA2 speed anyway.. and Advanced mode was only
important if I really.. really.. really wanted to use PATA
drives on the PATA-Pri and PATA-sec channels.. but once you
try SATA you never want to go back..

fyi.. my fstab after install.. "does" show the /dev/hda drive
is being mounted as the root partition.. so this goes pretty
far to convence me this is what's going on.

now on the Dell systems you may not have Bios control
over enumeration.. but with the linux hda=noprobe.. ect
and subsequent normal first boot.. you "may" avoid the
installer aborting or hanging saying it found "no drives"

at worst it might start enumerating them as [ /dev/hda ]
and write the first /etc/fstab with root partition on [ / ]
but on subsequent "normal" boots the kernel module
may detect the Advanced mode and enable it and thus
start enumerating the SATA drives at [ /dev/hde ]

"be sure" to create a boot floppy.. you might need it..
or tomsrtboot disk.. in order to go in "After" install to
modify the /etc/fstab (and maybe grub.conf) to point
the root partition at the /dev/hde drive once everything
is installed..

.. you could probably get pretty far just using the grub
console tool to "test" booting or at least "seeing" what
the OS thinks are drives with partitions after install.

I wish I could help further.. I don't have a Dell with a
SATA controller.. I absolutely luv these types of puzzles..

but more fortunate people than I get access to lots of
hardware to play with.. and I'm a minor coder when
it comes to kernel modules.. i.e. nothing I've ever
submitted has ever made it into the kernel... ho hum..
makes for a more interesting life.. its nice to have aspirations.

.. kan't shut me up...

.. simpler, if what the last guy said about being able to
"install" but not being able to boot is correct..

all you may have to do is at the boot: prompt
type [linux hda=noprobe hdb=noprobe ] or append
something like this in the grub interactive gui boot
screen.. this "should be" the equivalent of a Bios
"Legacy" mode... because your telling the kernel to
"ignore" all the drives on the first channel.

.. if you can't even install redhat because the message
"no drives found" comes up..

you may want to go ahead and
type [linux hda=noprobe hdb=noprobe ] during the
first text mode prompt.. this too should be the equivalent
of ignoring the drives on the first channel.. only problem
is.. it might "misname" the detected drives as starting
with name [/dev/hda ].. in which case you'd need a tool
disk or rescue boot to 1. enumerate and "show you"
what it thinks are the existing paritions (basically how
its going to address them by name) 2. edit the /etc/fstab
and /etc/grub.conf files so that a normal boot can take
place.

.. goodnight

When???? I want it now.....

Stupid built in SATA RAID.....

I want to thank john.willis for his suggestion...after searching around for two days trying to find a driver and then finding out it was coming, but now out yet, I run across this post. I quickly changed bios settings and voila! Red Hat is now installing...

I have yet to see if it will boot to Windows 2003 yet, but as this server is new and I am experimenting with some of the newer technology (like SATA), I could care less if it does or doesn't boot...I'm sure none of you want to hear that, ha! I am pleased that I got this far.

I will wait until all is said and done and see what effect the new bios settings have on my Windows server install. If anything is out of the ordinary, I will follow up with another post.

Again, many thanks

Just another note.

On a thread of a suggestion in another group article,
a person suggested the Severn beta had the latest
drivers for Adaptec AACRAID 2410SA controller.

It did.. and installed very nicely.

I'd recommend Severn for any SATA support as quite
a bit of debugging has gone on in just the very last
few weeks... and Severn seems to have caught the
beginning of that..

At the very least its worth a shot.

- john w.