I am trying to install linux on my new computer, and, unfortunately, I am completely new to the linux world. I have an Opteron 144 in an Asrock 939Dual mobo running the latest bios and a Hitachi Deskstar SATA II HD.

I can't post links apparently so here are links to the two above minus the http part
asrockamerica.com/Products/939DSATA2.htm
newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145087


The trouble is that I cannot find a distro that recognizes my hard drive. I've tried Ubuntu 6.06, SimplyMepis 3.4-3, and Suse 10. None of even seem to detect my hard drive.

I read somewhere that my ULi chipset is not commonly supported by linux distros. So, I'm guessing this is a driver problem of some sort? If so, is there a workaround?

My bios has an option for running the sata2 drive in sata mode or ide mode. I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes, but I tried both, and neither worked.

Thank you for your help.

I have a somewhat similar problem with the ULi M1573. SuSE 10.1 can detect the controller, but not my WD Caviar SE 250GB connected to it. It's even in SATA I mode (The Southbridge only works with SATA I) and it can't detect it.