SATA Linux driver
 

I was wondering if anyone can point me to a site for AMD 64 bit SATA drivers?

Mandrake SATA drivers problem -> different questions!!

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i've read a load of topics and replies on this problem.

dvd in; starting instaling and then the screen shows:
"disk/ide|scsi|hardware_raid|firewire card Nvidia corp."
then, it asks me to choose another driver from a list and doesn't work too.

I know this problem happens because mandrake couldn't find any
drives do access my SATA drive.

My motherboard is a A8N-SLI deluxe.
It has a Silicon Image 3114R RAID controller. The HDD is a Seagate 160GB Serial ATA.

i posted this because, now, i just want to know how to put the damn
driver on the f*cking floppy and then pass it do mandrake to
finally start rocking on linux!

first question: if i have the driver on a floppy can it be in a
folder when i try to use it?? or can it be anywhere on the floppy as
long as it is in ext2?

32 bit linux for a 64 bit amd? that combination isn't here.
so what can i do? install the 64bit mandrake and try a 64bit driver?
but i think that that has even less drivers for the rest of the
devices!!

i've checked "3114 linux": all 64bit linux drivers or only for amd
32 bits.

should a 32 bit amd "only" driver work on a amd 64? help me!

thanks
__________________
AMD 64 3200+ socket 939 (90nm) | Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
XFX 6600GT 128MBPCI-X | Samsung 957MB | 2x512 kingston
Seagate SATA 160Gb 8mb buffer 7200rpm | NEC ND-3520A 16X Dual Layer Preto
Thermaltake Sviking | Revoltec Chromus 450W

To do this you probably need to find the exact module for the kernel to load, and then press some kind of options key indicated on the boot menu to pass options to the kernel.

(and your other questions about 32 vs 64)
Older versions of 64-bit processors only worked with 64-bit software, but recent processors can work with both. That is, you can have 64-bit OS and 64-bit drivers, 32-bit drivers, 32-bit OS and 32-bit drivers, but you cannot have 32-bit OS and 64-bit drivers. That is, the OS needs to know how to run the drivers. 64-bit linux can do 32 or 64, and 32-bit can only do 32-bit. Ergo, I don't think this is a big problem for your system.

Is this your first time using linux (no insult intended if you're a veteran)? Because if you are trying to load the kernel modules in at boot time it might be pretty complicated for a beginner. The hardware supported is directly related to which distribution you have. I haven't used Mandrake in a while, but, I do have an AMD64 processor, an Nvidia Nforce2 chipset, and a Seagate 250Gig SATA drive (which seems similar to your setup), and Xubuntu (and Ubuntu and KUbuntu) works great on it, as long as there is no regular IDE drive connected as well (it refused to see the SATA drive as the first one and wouldn't boot right, so I removed the IDE drive since I never use it anyway).

In summary:
32-bit can run on 64-bit, but 64-bit can't run on 32-bit.
Hardware support is directly related to the distribution, so if this is your first try at linux, you might try a different distro, such as Ubuntu. (I also know that Fedora Core 5 worked on this setup, but that's not as newbie friendly)

I hope this helps you!

PS- if you stick with Mandriva/Mandrake read all the installation documentation on their website, that might help.

What version of mandrake are you using?

The Silicon Images sata linux support has been around a long time. It's surprising that it wouldn't be working with any fairly recent distribution. Is that particular chip release really new?

Thank you
 

Thank you so much for your response. I found out how to finally do it. You guys are the best!

Moved to Linux-Hardware