Install EL4 does not recognize sata disk on Dell Optiplex 390
 

This is a brand new Dell Optiplex 390 with onboard Intel Sata controller with a 250GB drive. It came with Windoze7 pre installed. I am attempting to install a DVD iso image of the very latest EL4 U8.

After booting it detects NO sata drives!

The BIOS only allows me to enable or disable the SATA. No compatibility mode.

I have been searching for a solution for 3 days!

Anyone have a solution other than disabling on-board and putting in a sata controller card that is supported. If thats the solution can someone give me a brand name?

Thanks
JD

Welcome to LQ.

It's still a seven year old obsolete OS. Unsupported for 3 months now.
https://access.redhat.com/support/po...pdates/errata/

How about using RH EL6 ?
Or you can use an old computer for EL4.

I would love to go with EL5 or EL6, BUT..

This new hardware is to replace a webserver was built a few years ago and has OS changes that were never documented to setup sendmail over SSL to dyndns.com MailHop services, among other things, informix database, etc. .etc. I have no idea how to make this work on a new linux OS.

Due to this situation, I have used Clonezilla to clone the OS, and I have successfully redeployed it on an old Dell Optiplex 620. Since this is also an old machine I decided to buy a new Dell thinking that if it worked on the optiplex 620 it should work on the 390.

When I attempt to restore the image it boots from the external USB 320G just but then when I attempt to restore the image it says it cant find any drives?

At this point I am ready to just throw whatever SATA controller in there that will work with EL4 and move on.

Thanks
JD

JD, I work for Dell and wanted to provide some information that may clarify the issue here. The OptiPlex 390 has the Intel H61 Express chipset which was only beginning to be supported in kernel 2.6.33. Recent kernels work with this chipset. RHEL 4 only went up to 2.6.9 so you would not be able to use this chipset without updating the kernel (which may not technically be considered "RHEL 4" at that point and may break other things). I do not know of a specific expansion SATA card to recommend. Let me know what you work out and if I can provide any further information or assistance. Good luck!

Thanks. That was the same conclusion I made. I have returned the Optiplex 390 and obtained an Optiplex 755 only to have same issue. BUT unlike the 390, the 755 did allow me to set the SATA controller to Legacy mode and complete the clone of the system using Strorix SBADMIN tool. Once cloned, I am going to try and see if I can upgrade the RHEL4 to RHEL5 in order to maintain all the current mods to the OS. If that works, then I plan on cloneing again, setting the SATA mode back to AHCI, then see if I can restore the image. Note: the Storix SBADMIN tool allows for substiting drive types..e.g.. hda to sda upon restore. I will let you know what happens.

Regards,
JD

Can I just point out that updating in place across major versions is not supported by RH, for very good reasons.
Major num change means what it says.
http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Re..._Related_Notes
You would have to do a clean install, which would possibly put you back to square one.

While the upgrade did work, the sendmail configuration for SSL/SMTPAUTH must have changed. Mail no longer worked to mailhop.dyndns.org. Therefore I used the cloned USB boot disk and restored the system as it was cloned from the old system. All is working as it should be. We're just gonna have to live with RHEL4.

Rather you than me; don't forget you WON'T get any security updates.
Make sure your Mgr knows this (in writing...)