Hi all!

I am having problem with my hard drive. I first installed Debian on it, but i wanted to upgrade to a new kernel. But when i tried to run it after the compile it says that it can't find my harddrive!

"VFS: Cannot open root device "2102" or unknown block (33.2)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (33.2)"

And since I couldn't upgrade and the version I had of Debian didnt' support 64bit I tried to change my dist to SUSE. So i downloaded the mini iso install for SUSE 9.2 Pro and mad my configs. But when i am gonna start the install in YaST it says the there was no har drive to be found and (of course) no partitions eather.

I have figured that it has something to do with the modules I had loaded, but what module should I have to load, to make it work?

My harddrive is a: Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 160GB S-ATA (8MB Chache 7200RPM).

The module is based on the SATA controller not the drive. If you compiled a new kernel you probably did not include support for the controller.

Check the HCL. If it is an integrated controller post the motherboard and model #.

What is HCL?

My mother board is a RS480M2 from MSI.
Other specs: M-ATX and socket 939.

This is the LQ HCL It stands for Hardware Compatibility List -- J.W.

okey, I have posted it now.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...p?product=2411

Now what can someone just tell me what module I should load?

I allso wonder what CramFS are?

Come on guys i really need help here..Please!!

I wouldn't have thought a module was required at all.
That early in the piece it'd probably need to be in initrd.

For 2.6, check the kernel options - I selected SCSI, then SATA below that, and Intel PIIX/ICH. I've never used SATA below 2.6, so can't offer any ideas if you happen to be there.

Why should i pick a SCSI module when i dont have any SCSI harddrives?

And wich one do you mean? The Generic Mid-level SCSI? driver?

I also wonder wich SATA module i should load there are so many of them..

And at last what about filesystem modules, wish module should i load there?




PS: Could all this be becouse I have the Kernel version 2.6.8?
Is that to low?

And if it is, how do i change it during install?

Yours is not to question why, yours is to do what works. If you dig into it you will find that there are a lot of IDE and SATA products (on Windows too) that are handled through a SCSI emulation. The reasons are technical and have to do with the superiority of the SCSI interface and the desire by developers to have a uniform interface to deal with.

If SCSI works, use SCSI.

So I have to load the: "Generic Mid-level SCSI driver"
and the "SCSI emulationfor IDE ATAPI devices" and then my SATA driver module?
Or do have to load more than that?

and what file system more than ext3 and cramfs do I need to load?


Edit: Tried to load "Generic Mid-level SCSI driver", SCSI emulationfor IDE ATAPI devices" and "K2 SATA Driver" but it didn't work.

Someone have to know?!

So did you a find a fix...
If yes do help me out.
I am trying to install linux on a machine with AMD Athlon64 3000+ on MSI RS480M2 motherboard with SATA harddisk.
I tried to install Suse 9.2, but it fails to detect the sata harddisk. Can anyone suggest any other x86_64 linux distribution that supports this motherboard and sata harddisk...

I dropped off this thread as I thought I might be confusing people.
I build my own kernels, so the options I offered were kernel options to enable a SATA capable kernel to be compiled.
Also requires matching up with the BIOS options on your motherboard.

Hard to advise as all the distros use diffferent kernels, and make use of modules rather than having the support in the kernel. If you need SCSI emulation modules, I'd be looking to set the BIOS to SATA "legacy" (rather than native) mode.
Try that and see if you get anywhere.
Presuming a recent(-ish) 2.6 kernel; I'd think 2.6.8 should be o.k.

syg00,
Thanks for the reply. I installed mandriva 10.2 ( = LE2005) which comes with kernal 2.6.11.6. If i am not wrong, I saw some website saying kernal 2.6.11 supports sata hdd. Now, LE2005 for x86_64 is single CD with bare minimum packages.

I just went and rebuilt a 2.6.11 config from scratch, and yes it does have SATA support (all the options I listed above actually) compiled in by default.
May depend on your controller chipset. The Promise SX4 and SiS 964/180 support is built as modules by default apparently. This implied you'll need to load these to get that support.
However on my box, I don't need those modules as I don't use the Promise RAID.

Hard to know without playing around a bit - might be time for you to get into kernel compiling ...