I'm trying to install Slackware 9.1 directally onto a SATA drive. The controler is a onboard Promise TX2Plus (i assume its the SATA150 rather than the Fasttrack) on my AOpen AK79G Max.

I have made a custom kernel from 2.6.0 and put it onto a boot disk then passing "ramdisk root=/dev/fd0" at the prompt which sets it up to ask for the other install disks (rootdisks) without an issue. The problem is that i still carn't access the SATA drive.

I assume that i must have missed somthing in the kernel.

I am aware that Promise has official drivers however if there a module i wont be able to boot from the SATA drive since in carn't load the module off the drive also there somwhat outdated and i hear that Promise is doing some stuff with MS so the chances on decent Linux support are low.

So basicly...

Is the TX2Plus controler compatible with the 2.6.0 kernel?
What do i activate for the SATA stuff in the 2.6.0 kernel?
If not am i doomed to run windows

I have sata working on asus sk8n board same promise controller I'm running Gentoo with gentoo dev sources kernel.
The module is listed in scsi low level drivers > sata > promise

Hope this helps

Thanks thats what I was looking for, compiling it now

i totally have no idea how to install linux directly on SATA hard disk...can u list out the steps that i need to concern abt?
note:
my motherboard: abit with built-in SATA connector
my hard disk: seagate SATA 80 GB

This probally only works with slackware (not sure if anyother distros allow you to make a custom boot disk and install off it) but i downloaded the 2.6.0 kernel, compiled a kernel with the supported stuff i needed then turned it into a bootdisk with the script on the slackware cd (in the kernel folder on the cd). Then booted off the floppy and passed "ramdisk root=/dev/fd0" at the prompt screen to make it ask for the normal installdisks (root disks).

In order to do this you will need access to working linux install inorder to compile the kernel, i had it installed on another comp running as my server so i just used that to build it. It might be possible to use a live cd or a micro floppy distro and some temp HDD space (on a normal IDE drive) for the kernel source.

huhhhh....seem like very difficult to make it b'cos i'm very new to linux.

how to compile the kernel and put it into a boot disk?