Serial ATA (SATA) Linux Support

The what now? Medley patch?! Please explain.

Yes there's a patch for 2.4.x based kernels which adds only Silicon Image medley software RAID support, but for some reason also corrects support for the SII3112 chipset. A few pages above I even posted the link to the page (I don't have it at the moment) There were comments on a 2.6x series patch also. Please search for medley in this forum, and I'm sure this thread will come up.

Thank you very much. That helped greatly.

For those out there i did the snooping for you, medley is all good for the 2.4.21+ people.

There is currently development for the 2.6 version of the medley patch. which should be showing its head soon.

Anyone who has knowledge on sata, raid and variously advanced aspects of linux should go to www.lkml.org and search for medley and sign up on this guys mailing list. he need some help.

still nothing on ICH5R? i really hope to up my Raptors in RAID 1 on my P4P800 and run Redhat on it.

Hi again

After more than a month I was successful with installation of my 2 SATA hard drives under SuSE 9.0 distro (2.4.22-99 kernel).
I changed kernel to 2.6.4 version and it has helped me very much.It has built-in support for my SIL3112 chip and also for nForce2 ethernet card which support is also quite problematic.

If anyone has following HW/SW combination:
ASUS A7N8X DeLuxe
SuSE 9.0
...I can give him free "installation guide" to bring his SATA drives and nForce2 10/100 card up.Just tell me.

Thanks to LQ and all the people here for sharing their knowledge.

Watch out for kernel 2.6.5. This is taken from the Changelog of 2.6.5rc3

[PATCH] SATA: fix and enable sata-sil
sata_sil: it's a widely deployed chipset. Now that we've fixed it, let
users use it.

sata_via: Disk detection via SATA phy registers appear problematic.
Until that problem is identified and fixed, used the old PATA
detection code -- that was used in 2.6.4 -- instead.

Seems that there are a couple of further fixes sinxce 2.6.4 (see also Changelog prior to rc3).

Hi,

Is 56 MB/s throughput (hdparm -t) good enough for SATA drive ??
Can I improve this somehow?
What speeds do you have?

Just need to know if my configuration is OK.

thanx all,
vosa

Hi,

I have just read through all 202 posts on this thread and I am still a little confused.

I have a Asus P4P800 Mobo that has the Intel ICH5R Chipset for SATA.
I have one 200GB Maxtor disk tha\t I want to install RH7.3 onto.

I have even tried to install RH9 but am getting no sucess. From what I have read I need to upgrade my Kernel to at least 2.4.22 but 2.6.4 would be better.

Can someone please tell me the best way of doing this as at the moment there is no OS on the SATA HDD.

As I see it my options are as follows.

Boot the machine from a Knoppix CD and install that to the HDD as Knoppix 3.3 seems to have SATA support. then upgrade the kernel and install RH (still not sure how to do this)

Install a second EIDE HDD and install RH7.3 onto that and then upgrade te kernel then copy the install (with kernel upgrade) to the SATA HDD and let the machine boot from this.

I have also read about changing my BIOS settings to Compatiable mode and installing RH9 then upgrading the kernel that changing the BIOS setting back.

Can someone please give me their views on the best way to sovle my problem. other wise I think I will be taking my last option which is throw the SATA HDD out of the window and install a EIDE HDD

Thanks In Advance

Barry..

Hello All..

I appear to have the same issue as user 'Debaucher' post No. 119 on this thread.

_________________________________________________________

Hello everyone, I am new to Linux, so please be gently and over-explain everything for me.
I read this entire thread (and others) but am still having trouble.
I am trying to install RedHat 9 on a Supermicro X5DAL-TG2 motherboard with dual SiI3112A SATA controllers.
I followed both the instructions on the Redhat linux drivers located here
ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAT...e/Linux/Redhat/
and tried the drivers from SiI thmselves.
Neither work.
When I install do the
" linux dd hde=noprobe hdg=noprobe hdi=noprobe hdk=noprobe "
as per the instructions, but then once it gets to looking for drivers, it says none found, so I say look on floppy, and it searches it, but then says none found.
So I choose manual, choose the driver, but then it says no driver loaded...
I tried over and over, but the same result every time!!
I must be doing something wrong, just dont know what.

I even tried saying OK.. and going past no driver loaded, but then (of couse) no HD's are found.

Please, if someone could give me detailed (and I mean detailed) instructions on how to install RedHat9, I would be forever in your debt.
The HD's being used are 2SATA Maxtor 120GB, trying for a Striped Raid.

_________________________________________________________

OK I have a Abit NF7-S v2.0 running 2 maxtor 80g drives with Win XP loaded in Raid 0 striped using the Silicon Image SataRaid Sil3112 controller.

I initially left 10 gig free at the start for linux and used P/magic to format it as Linux ext2 - as later I planned to install Linux.

I now have R/Hat enterprise ES/AS v3. which I think is version 9.1 with a kernel on 2.4.21

I have also downloaded the linux driver from the S/Image site. Used the rawwrite on the initial 1st RH boot CD and created a disk via the sil.img.

Now I have read.....and read.... and read for the last 4 days loads of forums on this - and now I dont have a clue what I need to do?

The R/Hat info from S/image says it supports R/Hat 9 and above.

Before I did this it did find drives known as hde and hdg but it states - The partition table on device HDE was unreadable. Do you wanna initialize loosing all data on this drive. I say no and it says the same for hdg and then - An error has occured No valid devices found to create new filesystems.

Regardless of what I do - linux dd hde=no probe etc... it still cannot see the drives (as one...)

I can see what I think is the module as per from the floppy that I created. It shows as SIL IMAGE 6512 Sataraid Controller.....yet no drivers can be found for this.

Again...if I continue I do get the same above msg - but only for hdg? is linux now seeing both drives as one hence hdg and no hde?

If I choose YES - will it wipe the disk and loose my windows XP system?

I have even manged to get to the CLT ALT F2 and mount the floppy and run what its states in the Sil Image Red Hat FULL INSTALL notes 'sh redhat_9.0_update_boot_loaders.sh' etc......

But then it goes on to say that I need a boot disk? or use GRUB?

Gotta say - as a newbie... this stuff appears well complicated.

Can anybody advise on what I need to do. I have read millions of forums regarding Vanilla Kernels and Medley stuff.....but i cannot even get a driver to load let alone build a bloody new kernel! lol

Any advise.... help....instructions would be greatly appeciated. I was so looking forward to learning linux, but at the mo....not having much luck or understanding of this system.

Cheers,

Kingkenny

P.S The controller I have on my B/Board is the 3112. The above shows as
SIL IMAGE 6512 Sataraid Controller. Is that normal?

Okay I am ready to do a fresh install of Redhat 9x, I have the proper drivers for my Promise fasttrak 376/378 raid device. How do I get those drivers installed during the CD boot process so Linux will se my 320 gb raid?

Ready to drool. Dual 2.0 Xeons over clocked to 2.4 and two 160GB Seagate drives Raid 0. Now if I can only get all 4 OS up and running I'll be happy.

KIDSATACRUX
Newbie



Joined: Mar 13, 2004
Posts: 4
Location: in and out of Cowtown

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2004 12:33 pm Post subject: the Serial ATA CRUX tackled
Thank you very much for hosting the Linux install fest.


Cooper,

To review the findings of my system, to the best of my understanding we discovered:

with this motherboard:

http://www.digital-daily.com/motherboard/msi-kt6-delta/

and this hard drive:

Model Number:ST380023AS
Capacity:80 GB
Speed:7200 rpm
Seek time:9 ms avg
Interface:Serial ATA


http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/...er/1,,,00.html

- kernel 2.6.x + is the only kernel that will support that VIA chipset 8237 of mine and the latest distribution package that has this:

is GENTOO? http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=45
w / kernel 2.6.1 - r2

the latest greatest MANDRAKE & FEDORA, & just about every other major free distribution as of 3-13-4 is obsolete

it seems to take a little struggling to get the Gentoo install disk to load 2.6.1 instead of 2.4.x

- the dude with the hat a has the same mother board type & ethernet card as I do and wrote it down:

"Brodcom Gigabit ethernet:

use this - tg2 2.6.5 module - OR - BC 5700 from MSI (broadcom module)

AND a whole bunch of other discoveries advanced Linux user revelations which Cooper is very aware of. At this point I'd like to request that information be posted, reviewed, and described further by all those concerned.

Once again thanks for the support!!

sincerely,
- kidsatacrux

P.S.

An unlabeled disk was left in the CD-ROM with a bunch of files. Is it mine to keep?

Bear in mind there is still much needed work for an install. I had hoped to get a Dual-Boot system (yes, I've still got a Windows XP partition) and there just wasn't quite enough time.

Maybe I'd invite you or some of the other experienced users over for a free dinner sometime next weekend or spring break . . . with you and some other friends to help tweak this p.c. some more.

Until then see you in a month.

Last edited by KIDSATACRUX on Sun Mar 21, 2004 8:42 am; edited 1 time in total
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KIDSATACRUX
Newbie



Joined: Mar 13, 2004
Posts: 4
Location: in and out of Cowtown

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2004 2:23 pm Post subject:
Here's some more information about that Chipset VIA 8237

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=297#ATA

Hi.

I read this thread, but could find a solution to my problem.
I have installed a IDE drive to boot the system, which has root fs on a SCSI drive.
Everything boots up fine, but if I insmod siimage, the driver will install the SATA controller (SIL 3112A) to ide0 and ide1 and thus overriding the IDE drive.
The system doesn't actually crash, but spits out a host of error messages, if /dev/hda is accessed.

Any suggestions?


Jochen

I'm testing kernel 2.6.6-rc1 on my laptop ATM, and under SCSI device support you'll find a Serial ATA (SATA) support option.

Originally posted by Village Idiot Well I have the RAPTOR 37 GB drive set up with the Silicon Images card sent with the drive on an ASUS P4PE using Redhat 9.0. The result is YUCK! hdparm -t yielded 1.63 MB per sec. Will try setting the idebus manually but suspect that is not going to help. The Promise chipset on the P4PE does not play nicely with Redhat Linux. If anyone has an idea on getting the Raptor flying at something other than treetop level I would appreciate the feedback.

# hdparm -tT /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 2624 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1310.89 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 152 MB in 3.02 seconds = 50.32 MB/sec
# hdparm -tT /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 2936 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1471.17 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 164 MB in 3.01 seconds = 54.57 MB/sec

Asus P4P800 Western Digital Raptor 36 Gig SATA.
Fedora core 2 Test 2 kernel 2.6.5-1.322smp
These are not in a RAID, the Asus bios is set to IDE Configuration > "Compatibility" and the SATA works in place of the secondary IDE.
I have not done a Host RAID on the Intel ICH5 chipset under linux, I wish I had the Adaptec 2410SA
I did do a Intel HostRAID under the evil empires Xtra Problem OS, but ......

Originally posted by etegration still nothing on ICH5R? i really hope to up my Raptors in RAID 1 on my P4P800 and run Redhat on it.

Why want a HostRAID (The HostRAID uses your CPU for XOR math)
Just give up and use a Linux software RAID, You will be VERY happy.
I use a boot partition on Cruzer Flash RAM and a RAID 0 with two Raptor 36Gig.
I started using the flash as an trial...... (not died yet)
You must have a boot partition to use software RAID.
Almost all the SATA so called RAID is really HostRAID.
Try this puppy,You wanted real RAID Here is a hardware based RAID

You get SMOR too!