installing red hat enterprise linux 4.0 on sata hard disk

sachin_linux · 08-17-2008, 06:21 AM

hi,
I have to install RED HAT enterprise LINUX Server 4.0 on branded Dell
machine;
Dell machine configuration is :
SATA hard disk
intel mbd
2 gb ram
when installation starts, it accepts only keyboard, language and then it is asking for sata driver disk ? now my question is from where could I get the sata hard disk driver for RHEL 4.0 ?

thanks in advance...

b0uncer · 08-17-2008, 08:48 AM

See if the harddisk manufacturer provides Linux drivers. If not, then your next step is probably a wider web search for a site that might provide them.. I've been in the same situation a couple of times, and have never found the appropriate drivers soon enough, so I have simply switched either hardware or operating system, depending on the situation.

pixellany · 08-17-2008, 08:53 AM

If I recall correctly, RHEL4 does not come with SATA drivers. Since this is a paid/supported product, there may be some info available from RedHat.

Almost any current distro will have SATA support, so simply switching to something more current may be the easiest. If you have to have RedHat, then look at CentOS (a free clone). Otherwise anything in the top ten at http://distrowatch.com

/usr/darien · 08-17-2008, 01:26 PM

Go into the system BIOS and set the disk for compatibility mode. In native SATA mode, it may show as AHCI which may prevent some OSes seeing the drive.

lazlow · 08-17-2008, 03:06 PM

RHEL5 will have much better sata support(probably out of the box). You may also want to look at Centos. It is RHEL with the logos removed. Centos is free to download/update and is binary compatible with RHEL. The current versions of RHEL/Centos is 5.2.

sachin_linux · 08-19-2008, 01:57 AM

thanks for the reply...

I had tried centOS 5 & it get install on sata hard disk....
even other os like suse, fedora get installed....

I think only problem with RHEL 4.0

thanks...

r3sistance · 08-19-2008, 02:27 AM

Depends what kind of dell you are using. A dell R200 for example won't let RHEL 4.0 and CentOS 4.0 detect the hard drives properly, since RHEL and CentOS were already at 5.x when the R200s came out. Seems to be something dell does, make their latest servers uncompatible with older versions of linux distros with up to the minute driver requirements that they don't release for older versions of some linux distros... So it might be the type of dell server you are using, outta interest what kind are you using?

lazlow · 08-19-2008, 02:28 AM

It is not really a "problem" with RHEL 4.0. It is just that sata is newer than RHEL 4.0.

/usr/darien · 08-20-2008, 12:07 AM

Interesting. I have loaded RHEL 4.4, 4.6, 5.1 and 5.2 on Dell Precision 690 workstations with SATA drives configured as native SATA and as SAS using the built-in SAS/RAID controller.

However, my experience my not mirror those using other Dell products.

lazlow · 08-20-2008, 12:38 AM

Darien

Notice that he can install with RHEL5.0(post #6). But 4.0 is much older than even 4.4. Just think of the huge changes just between 5.0 and 5.2 (from FF1.5 to FF3.0 if nothing else) and you can see how sata missed (mostly) 4.0.

/usr/darien · 08-21-2008, 12:23 PM

Actually, you are right Lazlow,

Although the OP did mention RHEL4.0, I had 4.4 on the brain. I have counterparts that use 4.4, however, they usually refer to it as "RHEL 4."

I do wonder of the OP could upgrade to the latest 4.7 w/out breaking anything. Although we have a couple of apps that specifically require 4.4, I have been quite lucky to get them to work with 4.6 and 5.2.

Nonetheless, there should be an option w/in the system's BIOS to allow a compatibility mode so that older OS's w/out native SATA/SAS support can load.

Either way, I wish the OP luck in getting his system up and running.