I know this question has been asked alot but I didn't get mutch info on searching the forum.

I wish to buy a SATA disc and I have a built in controller (VIA VT8237 with RAID0 and 1) on my motherboard but how do I make this work?
When I do a fresh install of slackware 9.1 how do I do so Slackware detects my new disc and let's me install on it?
After installing Slack, I wish to upgrade to kernel 2.6.5 is there anything i should compile in to make the SATA disc work and function fully?



Remember I am a newbe at this

Very simple. Well then again not so simple. But anyway, you will need to recompile the kernel to use sata.
(Under Low level SCSI drivers select SATA and then select your Chipset.)
(Also under General SCSI select 'SCSI Hard Drives')

Here is the problem in a nutshell:

You need to recompile the kernel to use SATA, but you can't recompile the kernel if you haven't installed Slackware. See the problem? You will need a special kernel to access your SATA drive. I am finishing up on a kernel to do this for any Sata chipset, and I will let you know when I am done. It is a 2.6.6 kernel as opposed to just a patched 2.4.xx. I just recently got everything working on my system (ICH5 Intel sata - Asus board) with a 2.6.6 kernel. I am using KDE 3.2.2 right now on a Western Digital Sata 80 gb drive. Everything is peachy! But I am lucky and have slack installed on more then one computer around here-hence I was able to compile a kernel on an IDE installed version of Slackware. Hopefully this all makes some sort of sense to you? Anyway I will let you know when I can send you a kernel if you haven't found one by then.

-BC

EDIT:

Oh ya: See my other thread on this subject.. just happens to be right under this one! (Right now anyway.)

Here is the link...

Thanks for your reply, finaly I understood what needs to be done.

Well I have searched for a kernel with sata but I didn't find any. Hopefully yours is ready soon because my disc is right beside me whating to be used


Thanks again

bonecrusher: I have read your other post about this problem and I see that you have solved it. Could you helpe me on what to do?

I sent you an Email through this system. Check your personal msgs.. just basically said that I should have time this weekend to finish that boot disk and post it..


More to follow..................

Bonecrusher: Are you finished yet? Sorry for asking alot but I don't like it when the new harddrive is not in use, if you know what I mean.

Okay, it's compiled and done: 'satabare.i'

Here is what I did:


I took the config from bare.i and ran it as my .config for a new kernel.

To make room the only thing I had to 'do away' with was network support, but considering your trying to desperately get your SATA drive to work, I figured you wouldn't be doing a network install ...
(Here is what is/isn't in it: ( Kept PS/2 Mouse support / No Net / No BSD Partition types / No Code pages for anything but English) <--- These are the only things that differ from the bare.i version - and of course I added the sata support! (Of course once you get you install done you should imediately configure a new virgin kernel for networking etc...)

I added sata support for ALL chipsets including the new Promise one...
(this is a 2.6.6 kernel - Promise SATA SX8 (carmel) support)
I also added RAID 0,1 and 4,5 (6 - nope) support also in the kernel for those that want it.

I ran makedisk on it.

I copied to floppy: satabare.i

(instead of 'cat' ing the image you can also use 'dd' of course...)


When you get it you can use rawrite under windows, though....

Now I need to find out how to get it to you.. I will send you my email...

If anyone else needs it (it covers all sata chipsets) let me know.

*EDIT*
see next post

Here is a link to my compile of slackware installation kernel for sata hard drives (any supported):

See my web site: Four Elements for all Boot Disks and ISO


*** EDIT: I just changed this on 7-12-2004 - I have recompiled and this should now support everything sata. (It is also now a 2.4.26 kernel to match up with slack 10)


This kernel image should work with any chipset supported so far by slackware...

Remember just grab rawrite (get correct version) and install.1 and install.2 disks from slack site, and rawrite all 3 images (sata.i, install.1, install.2) to 3 seperate (*new*) formatted 1.44 floppies. (And of course have your Slackware iso cdrom (#1) for setup source inserted into your cdrom drive


I have tested this on two different chipsets (via and ich5) and both were flawless. If you have a diff chipset and you have a problem or even if you don't, mail me with details.

Good luck!

-bc

I have a sil3112 controller, currently running 2x 120GB Seagate drives with WinXP RAID 0, I have been trying like you wouldn't believe to get Mandrake 10 installed. How would I go about using your drivers for installing MDK 10 along side WinXP in this RAID 0 setup?

*beware I'm a N00B* so be easy on me

Thanks for the help in advance

Well, I have only messed around with MDK limitedly. You may want to check out the forum specific to Mandrake. But the only other advice I can give you is I could send you the bzImage or something (compressed kernel) that I made before it was put into that image file above. You could then throw this on your HDrive somehow and cont the install.. not really sure though. I do know that the kernel I have should support you , though.

Ask around and tell the mandrake forum you have a sata enabled kernel, but don't know how to continue an install from there....?

-bc

You are my hero

I downloaded the satabare.i from your link and I have read your post several times but I am not sure on what to do now. Sorry for my lack of knowledge about this.

If you have the time and wish to do, couldn't you post a step by step for a newbie like me


Thanks again

OK i think I did it right, I grabbed rawwrite and wrote the satabare.i disk along with the install.1 and install.2. I then booted from the boot disk and then it asked for the two other disk's everything seemed to be OK and I got to choose keyboard map and logged in as root. But when I'm running cfdisk it doesn't detect my sata drive and I don't know what to do. I have tried running "cfdisk /dev/sda" but nothing works.
When I booted with the boot disk should I have put in some parameter like "mount /dev/sda"? Or what should I do?

hmmm, remind me what sata chipset do you have?

and NO you shouldn't type anything at all on the boot: prompt.

and YES your disk should be coming up as sdaX --> where can be 1 - X = however many partitions you have on your sata disk.

You should probably only have 1 or 2 partitions if you haven't installed anything else...

CFDISK should be used to create a ext2, ext3, or res. type partition so you can actually install to it. It sounds like you understand this, but I am at a loss as to why your drive isn't found. I wish I could see your boot up messages... does it say something like:

sda <sda1 sda2>

As a side note: You can view your kernel messages when it asks for the first root disk. At this point just hold SHIFT down and use your PAGE-UP / PAGE-DOWN keys to view your boot messages...

(I can't remember what it says exactly when it detects your drive (I am not at my computer...at an XP machine right now)

Well let me know what you find out.

As I mentioned, I have tested this kernel on two systems (a ich5 and a via) and it worked fine for an install... well let me know.

-bc

Thanks, will do

Well I just reminded that I haven't formated och partitionated the drive but how do I do this with an SATA drive?
That must be the problem, right?