Installing Mandrake 9.0 on a SATA drive
 

First of all, I'm setting up a new PC. I have Win98SE installed, but I've partitioned the drive up so I can install Linux also (I've left about 20Gb unpartitioned).

I've got 2 CD's for Mandrake 9.0 (for some reason I don't have a 3rd CD, documentation was it? That'd be right!).

I can boot off the CD fine, and it goes into DrakX. The first couple of questions are hunky-dory. Until it get's to looking at partitions (can't remember the name of the stage), where it says I don't have any valid storage devices (I'm running off only a SATA drive).

I've also tried the expert mode (I'm no expert), with no luck. It asks if there are any PCI SCSI adapters present (or something similar), and if I say yes, I have to choose from a list of drivers. I gave it my best (found a Silicon Image driver), but still didn't help.

Now for the specs:
Asus A7N8X deluxe mobo
Silicon Image Sil3112 (or possibly 3112A) SATA/RAID chip.
Seagate Barracuda Serial V 80GB SATA HDD

And as the forum suggests, I'm a fairly big newbie to linux.

Thanks for any help guys,
Radish

BTW I tried to post my question in a more appropriate forum, MandrakeClub, but it costs to join, and I couldn't make an anonymous post.

Are you able to set partitions with any other utility, like DOS fdisk, or Partition Magic?

Yes. That's how I created the Win partitions (FDisk). I think I have another more powerful partition software (DriveQuest or something, or perhaps Partition Magic (is that by DriveQuest perhaps)) somewhere if necessary.
But the problem is that DrakX won't recognize the drive, not the partitions (I'm up to the stage of creating partitions).

Thanks for taking the time,
Radish

I just had another thought. I had similar problems getting windows to install, until I remembered I had to make the partition active (haven't used FDisk in years).

Maybe I have to do something similar with a linux partition?
Perhaps it will recognize the partition, even if it doesn't recognize the drive?

Bump.

But I should also point out that the SATA controller is on-board.

Last bump before I give up.... any takers?

I haven't put LINUX on a secondary controller before. Below are the steps that I might take.

First find a PATA hard drive to temporary install LINUX. This drive will be used to install LINUX on to it. Next connect it to Primary Master of the motherboard. Then install Linux on that drive. After you have booted in LINUX make a boot disk. Then download the drivers from Silicon Image. Test them to see if they work by loading them. If they work then read information on how to compile the kernel. Compile the kernel with the Silicon Image drivers. Next reboot to see if LINUX sees your SATA drives. If it does without including a line to load the SATA drivers in the modules.conf file. Make another boot disk. You are ready to partition the SATA drives. Partition the drives to be ready to transfer linux from the Primary Master to SATA drives. Read information how to copy linux system directories. After partitioning, formatting and reading, restart the computer and insert the boot disk. Copy each partition of Primary Master hard drive to SATA hard drives partitions. After copying,editing your fstab file to load up the appriate partitions, and configure lilo or grub to load up the right partition, shutdown the computer. Then disconnect the power cable and ribbon cable from the Primary Master hard drive. Turn on your computer and set the BIOS to boot to the SATA controller. Linux should boot up, if it didn't restart the process over or re-edit your fstab file until it works.

Thanks for taking the time. I would have thought that this would be a bigger issue.

Anyway, that was far too far over my head, newbie forum and all, so I'll pass for the moment until they release a linux that recognizes sata drives automatically.

As for setting the bios to boot from the sata controller.... there is no option. It had me stumped for ages trying to install win onto it. When I finally remembered to set the active partition, it worked automatically. But I still don't understand how, since the bios (apparently) doesn't recognise the SATA drive.

Thanks,
Radish

I think its a jumper setting to boot from SATA. You can still use SATA in LINUX for storing files.

IMO, using RAID should only be used for data storage and high throughput. It should never be used to store an OS.

BTW, the third CD of Manrake is not all documents. I had to insert the disc for some programs thats needs a particular file.

Go to
http://www.justlinux.com
It has almost everything to learn how to do things in LINUX like compiling the kernel.

Yeah, there was a jumper setting to enable sata, but not to boot from it.
I don't understand how this SATA/RAID fit together, or if they have anything to do with each other. But the chip that supports the sata supports raid, Sil3112A. And it was my understanding you only have a RAID setup if you have multiple hard drives. I don't.

I'm willing to learn about Linux, but as long as I can test out my learning at the same time. I need an operating Linux OS before I start learning about complex stuff like compiling kernels.

Thanks for the input though,
Radish

Hi all,
Thought I might be able to help here. I have an A7N8X with 2 Seagate 120G SATA's on it.

I initially setup a single raid 0 set (F4 or what ever the key is during boot), booted win2000 and setup an 80G partition within it. I was able to get win2000 working just fine with all drivers. Althought I had to add additional drivers during the win2000 installer or it would not see the drives.

I then tried MDK9.0 and RH8.0. Both identitfied the sil3112 controller just fine, however they would not recognise the raid set and thought the drives had out of wack geometry. Ergo - they would not load. I tried MDK 9.1 with same results.

I have since wiped the drives and reinstalled without raid. All distros installed just fine - identifying the drives and being able to setup partitions. Win2000 still required an additional driver to install.

In the A7N8X bios there is no setting to enable or disable booting from the SATA drives. I have mine set as first boot device = CDROM, 2nd - HDD0. I haven't tried disabling the second boot device so I can't tell you if it will still look at the SATA controller.

I'm also going to give this a wiz with SUSE 8.2 although the rpms and kernal in it are a version older than that provided with MDK9.1. I'm interested in trying this because yast (the SUSE installer) has options to setup raid. Also because it is a different installer it may be able to cope with the raided drives, but I'm not holding my breath on this.

Oh, btw, I don't have a floppy drive installed (except for loading win2000) ;-)

Hope this helps.
Derek.

I had no problem getting Win98 to see the drive, but I had to boot off a floppy (something wrong with my 98 cd). I partitioned the drive manually using FDisk.
What do you mean "identified the sil3112 controller"? During the DrakX install? Did you use expert mode?
Frankly I don't even know if it recognised the controller, but it told me I didn't have any valid storage devices...
But you still have 2 SATA drives in there. Only sata, no pata drives?
Win98 didn't ask for any extra drivers to recognize the drives. It did install some RAID drivers, but since I have only 1 drive it doesn't matter.
Yeah, tell me about it. Not very clear about getting it to boot of SATA is it. Nothing in the book about it.

Thanks for the reply, glad to know someone has the same sort of problem.

Cheers,
Radish21

Hi,

During the DrakX install? Did you use expert mode?

I had to use text mode install because I have a 9700Pro and non of the graphical installs will run (I'm still presuming at this stage it is the radeon that is the issue here).

I didn't use expert mode, although I usually select to perform manual partitioning.

What do you mean "identified the sil3112 controller"?

If you look through the dmesg output you will see that the kernel identifies the sil3112 controller. If memory serves me (ooops!) it outputs about 3 lines about it.

cio
Derek.

Many thanks again for taking the time, but I still have more stupid questions ("There are no stupid questions, just stupid people." - SouthPark)

How did you get into this "text mode install"? When I boot off the cd, it comes up with a pretty graphical screen asking if I want expert or (what's the other? Recommended?) install.

And what is this dmesg output? For a while (before the graphical screen comes up) I can switch consoles using alt-f1/2/3, where F2 or F3 are log screens, but they go by too quick, and I couldn't pause them (with the pause button). Once the graphical screen comes up, I can no longer switch to those consoles.

Is there a way to pause them (and scroll back preferably)?

Lastly what does radeon have to do with it? Was it something with your system? I have an Asus GeForce 4 440MX 64Mb DDR SE if that helps.

Thanks heaps, I wanna get this working,
Radish

I DID IT! - But more on that in a bit ...

How did you get into this "text mode install"? When I boot off the cd, it comes up with a pretty graphical screen asking if I want expert or (what's the other? Recommended?) install.

When the first screen appears, you have two options, Enter for a normal graphical install, or F1 for other options. Press F1 - this takes you to a text mode screen where you have various install options. Type in 'text' and press Enter. This will perform a standard install using old fashioned text mode rather than a graphical mode. There is no difference in terms of functionality.

And what is this dmesg output? For a while (before the graphical screen comes up) I can switch consoles using alt-f1/2/3, where F2 or F3 are log screens, but they go by too quick, and I couldn't pause them (with the pause button). Once the graphical screen comes up, I can no longer switch to those consoles.

Once linux is installed you can bring up a command prompt and type in the command 'dmesg'. This displays the log of the boot process showing you such things as kernel imformation, hardware settings, etc, etc. You can browse it by typing 'dmesg | more' which displays it in scrollable pages. You can switch to consoles at any time by pressing ctrl+alt+Fn where n is the console number you want.

Is there a way to pause them (and scroll back preferably)?

Using '| more' at the end of your command will pause it. You can also scroll up or down to previous output by using shift-pgUp and shift-pgDown (thanks I didn't know this either and had to ask a friend ;-)

Lastly what does radeon have to do with it? Was it something with your system? I have an Asus GeForce 4 440MX 64Mb DDR SE if that helps.

Don't know, this is just a guess as to why I cannot get graphical mode installs on any of the distros I've tried.

NOw the I DID IT Bit

I got an install to work.
System:
Asus A7N8X mobo
2 x 512G OCZ EL 3500 memory modules
2 x 120G Seagate SATA drives in a single raid 0 set of 240G
Hercules Prophet 9700Pro

I used SUSE 8.2. It was able to see the raid set where MDK and RH could not and install onto it. The first attempt failed when installing the packages after partitioning. Some installs do this and need to be rebooted if you change the partitions. The second attempt worked fine as the partitions where now setup.

So if you really want to use raid 0 then grab a copy of SUSE 8.2.

My next job is to get accelerated video drivers installed as SUSE by default doesn't install them for the 9700Pro.

cio
Derek.