Hi, im wanting to install slackware on my machine. My main hd is a 120GB SATA and ive got a spare 27GB IDE for linux. I know linux won't recognise the SATA so the MBR has to be on the IDE. But id also read that windows needs to be on the first partition so im a little confused about what to do. Would installing windows and linux on the IDE and using the SATA for a file store be the easiest way? any suggestions would be brilliant!

well everything is as easy as you make it....in the end your still going to have windows/linux no matter what drive it is on...
so on to the sata....to my knowledge sata is officially supported in the 2.6 kernel, but if your kernel is 2.4 then you will need to apply a patch....again to my knowledge this is the case...depends on the sata chip also...i heard about of this such patch for intel sata and via sata anyways..
but to give a personal opinion, i would install your OS's on the smaller drive, and use the big drive for storage, etc regardless of their drive types...i do this mainly because just in case of corruption....its easier for the drive you most frequently use to die, rather than the one that sits there and does nothing until you access it, not saying its impossible for your slave drive to crap out, but its less frequent...just imagine installing linux/windows on the 120 gig and also storing your 50gigs of music on the same drive, and then one day your drive screws up and you have lose everything...that is an example of why i do what i do...
so i guess the moral of this story is either :
a) recompile to the 2.6 kernel
b) patch your existing kernel
c) install on the ide drive

i got a 80G seagate SATA hard disk sunning on a Abit motherboard with VIA chipset(i.e. SATA support)...when i try to install linux, it can found the hard disk.
my question is: how do i recompile the kernel without the linux os?

sorry, i make a mistake for previous post...

it can not find the hard disk when i installing the linux!

well im downloading the latest mandrake i586 for my intel PIV 3.0ghz HT and MSI 865PE NEO2 FIS2R and i hope to god above that mandrake will recognise and install all hardware. the iso's are labeled 11/2003 and the MandrakeMove iso is 1/2004 and i assume the MandrakeMove iso is an update cd,, i ASSUME someone tell me if im wrong.

someone please tell me ill be fine installing linux to this system.

i have 2 160gig SATA RAID drives (which are not the os drives) a and 2 120gig IDE drives hooked to a Sil ATA controller,, IDE RAID controller pretty much the same as the Promise cards. and a 40 gig on the ide bus im installing linux on.

so im praying everything will install and be recognised, including the C-media audio drivers and Intel Gigabit network adapter.

Hi!
I got the same problem as w0000422 (well, my friend has the problem):

How do I install linux on a machine with only a SATA HD?

I'd like to install mandrake or something similar (my friend has no idea about linux, so I think mdk could be a good choice for him).

Should I wait until a version of mandrake is released with a 2.6.x kernel?
would it be possible to do something with a "live linux"?
What can we do?

I feel a bit stupid . My friend (the one who owns this comp. with a SATA hd) uses computers (under windos) since many years; I'm always talking to him about how great, and powerfull linux is. Now, he got a new machine and he decided to try linux, but I will have to say him: "No, you cannot, because of your hard disk" ... (you can imagine the rest)

Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Regards

I'm running an ASUS Mobo, with a Silicon Image SATA controller. Slack 9.1 went straight on to the SATA drive with no patches and a fresh install.

Just thought i'd share

Thank you, evilone for your quick reply; I read in another thread that mandrake recognized a SATA disk... we will see. I'll try mdk, if it isn't work I'll use slack, and I'll post the results...
Regards

It's the kernel version that you need to look at for SATA support. Anything 2.4.22 and better will be ok.

Thanks!
It's nice to hear that; mdk9.2 has the 2.4.22 kernel, I hope it works
Regards

By the way, where can this information be found?
Regards

Look in the kernel changelogs.

run knoppix from the cd drive, compile the kernel in knoppix. There u go. Although my mandrake 9.2 installed on my sata drive, promise chip set, sata card came from maxtor. And yes, atleast windows XP needs to be on the frist partition, as linux will use the ext file system, and xp can even see its pathways.. (so absurd) But I dont know about the other win9x 2k versions.

Yes I supposed that; I checked the changelogs files and I only found:

2.4.23:
- siimage: set a sata flag on the hwif so we can do cable det
- fix cable detect issue with sata
(both under "Summary of changes from v2.4.23-pre1 to v2.4.23-pre2")

2.4.22:
- nothing related to SATA, serial ATA or ATA.

2.4.21:
- add Intel ICH5 Serial ATA (under "Summary of changes from v2.4.21-rc2 to v2.4.21-rc3")

To me it isn't obvious where is the message saying "ok, here is sata support".
What should I look at the Chagelogs files, in order to see it?

(I'm not "trying" to be fussy; just, I feel I'm missing something)
Regards

EDIT: ... or is it just the message from 2.4.21 concerning to "Intel ICH5 Serial ATA"?

woops double post