Good Grief this is _sooo_ vexing.

I am trying to do a clean install on a Soyo Dragon2 Black Label 1.0 mobo (ICH5R SATA & ALi (or ULi) chipset M5281) with 2 300GB SATA drives.

Naturally, initially, the install could not see a thing. However, having thrashed around long enough, I received a message from deep inside my sub-conscience and upgraded my bios and turned off the on-board RAID. The details of which I will spare you.. did I mention I have no floppy drive.. and low and behold FC4 felt generous.

I could now perform a media test! It asked me to add drivers! I selected the ULi sata_uli driver. Anaconda started! I had a mouse! I shared confidences that I was English and wanted to perform a custom install. I was queried as to how I wanted my Druid to perform the rites.

And then the hardware cops raided the joint and I was summarily rebooted from the establishment! Oprah doesn't know what true humiliation is!

Now I have an old IDE drive, and I ain't afraid to use it, however... the.. the... inelegance of the thing!!

Is there some wisened soul out there that will just, please, in easily followed directions tell me what in the bloody h*ll do I have to do to get FC4 to install on the da*%$ed SATA drives?!?

I've flailed around in BIOS and seen that the SATA "mode"? is set to IDE as opposed to RAID. I cannot set the chipset off of "combined" "compromised" "halfnhalf"? (not sure) mode. (the BIOS is happy to taunt me with it by listing the mode, but I can't affect it) I've spent many days and quite a number of FAQs that claim either it can't be done (back in the FC2 days) or Huzzah! Ain't it great! in the FC3/4 days, but I'm not getting the happy results these other wonderful folk are.

T.I.A.

Hi there,

I have the same problem. I contacted ULi about this and yes there is a driver to the chipset. Mine is Uli 1573 which is integrated into Shuttle xPC ST20G5. I've posted the package online at:

http://kuhazor.idlegames.com/1573_Li...river_1.31.zip

The RAID function is not yet supported, which really doesn't matter as it is software RAID anyways, therefore it is better to use FC4's built in RAID support instead.

Now my problem is to re-compile 2.6.x kernel to include this driver. Has anyone done that? Do I need to modify the distro to get the installer running on the new kernel when installing on empty SATA drive? If anyone had any pointers were to go, that would be great!

Thanks everyone!

Fantastic!

So my question is: can we just unzip the drivers onto a CD and when the installer asks us for drivers, load it?

Otherwise, I'm going to need a Linux install to re-compile.. right?


T.I.A.

For everyone who is trying to install linux on ST20G5 Shuttle xPC SUSE 9.3 installs fairly easy. Here is how:

1) Disable software SATA raid from BIOS
2) Use linux software RAID instead.
3) SATA drivers are detected just fine and the installation will be a snap
4) Now when the computer reboot and the system will hang probing PCI devices
5) Go back to BIOS, disable integrated ATA controlled, sound, USB
6) Reboot, the system will now boot up
7) Restart again, then enable things back on
8) You are done.

If you are using the integrated audio, there is a driver for it, available from ULi. See my other posts for the link.

Awesom! Superfast system!

SUSE Rocks here!

Hi -

I'm in a very similar situation to what you have described - trying to load CentOS 4.0 x86_64 onto
my new ST20G5 Shuttle xPC, same ULi 1573 chipset. Anaconda cannot detect drivers for the
2 SATA drives I have connected, but queries me for optional driver addition. So I've dowloaded
kuhazor's driver package from ULi - thanks!

Question: ala calabash's above - anaconda prompts for additional device drivers through floppy (fd0),
but is there a command line option at the linux boot prompt that would allow one to install additional
drivers from a cd-rom? I am in a similar situation there - no floppy drive handy, but I could probably
borrow one for the purpose if absolutely necessary.

Thanks,

Peter

Update -

Well, the board died. I kid you not. Went to power on with the concept of loading kuhazor's drivers via CD-ROM or USB Floppy and - Zip! Nada! Nothing. Not a peep.

Fourtunatly, while I am learning the whole Linux Network Sys-Admin thing, I do know hardware troubleshooting. So 15 min. and a stripped and isolated mobo later + a 10 min. call to SOYO I have an RMA. <sigh>

Went out an got a MSI 865PE Neo2-V. After tweaking SATA to P-ATA, Fedora sees my SATA drives.

I'll update my post when I get the Dragon Board back (It's personal now...) and let you know how I eventually get the job done.

I'll also add to the HCL listing when I've completed the install on the MSI board.