Hi all,
first of all: I searched forums, used google and found lots of stuff that relates to Suse 9+ and s-ata controllers etc. But nothing really helped me here.
I am sort of new to Linux, and I haven't worked with s-ata drives under any OS much.

Ok, here's the problem.
I have a ASUS P4P800 mainboard that has 1 Ultra IDE Channel/Connector (first IDE, empty), 1 standard IDE (second IDE, DVD Rom as Master on it) and 2 S-ATA (80 GB Harddisk on one).
WinXP is installed on the disk and there's a 30GB free partition left I'd like to install Suse 9.2 on.
The S-ATA controller (Intel ICH5R I take it) is set to native mode in the Bios (not compatible), but I read Suse 9.2 has the 2.6 Kernel that supports native s-ata.

When I start YaST from the DVD it checks the hardware and then tells me <sortofquote> on at least one of the disks found (dev/sda) there's a raid set up in the bios as hardware raid that appearently is a software raid. And software RAIDS are not supported (Check portal.suse.com for infos on migrating). Should you proceed to install Suse on this disk, all the data on the RAID system will be lost</sortofquote>
and I definately do not want that.

Now, first of all, with one disk, how can I have a RAID set up??
Second, if it just means the one s-ata disk, I thought native s-ata is supported in Suse 9.2+ anyway?

If I change the setting for the s-ata controller to compatible mode in the bios, it can't find the DVD Rom anymore... making it hard to boot from the DVD, somehow. WinXP boots fine from the harddisk, though.

I suspect there is something happening with the IDE Channels that when s-ata is changed to compatible mode, it uses the Secondary Masters ressources. Although I think that would be extremly stupid.

But then maybe I'm extremely stupid.


If I proceed with the installation anyway, YaST doesn't seem to recognise the Windows system all all and suggests deleting the existing partitions. When I chose manual partitioning and tell Yast not to delete the Win partitions, but use the last partition for install, it complains it wants to delete the 8mb unpartitioned space that windows leaves when partitioning a drive.
this makes me sceptical about whether WinXP will boot afterwards...

I don't feel like proceeding any further at this point.

Anybody that has a good tip on what the problem is and how to solve it?

I will eventually kick Win off the machine, but at the moment it is not an option, as I still need to work with some win-only software (argh, ESRI...).

Will a second disk be a solution?
I could try convince my boss to sponsor one...

How does XP treat SATA? 9.2 treats it as a SCSI - If you check other forums the Promise RAID controller seems to be grief on Linux 2.6.8 (with the helpful comments about recompiling the kernel). Can you grab a copy of 9.1 and see what happens? The bad news is that 9.1 doesn't treat SATA as SCSI so an upgrade will not be possible. Can you wait to see how 9.3 pans out?

Go to your Bios and disable the Sata Raid, but of course keep the Sata connector enabled.

There is no SATA RAID to be disabled in the Bios, only the S-ATA mode (compatible or enhanced) but this doesn't work out. I'll try to put in a UDAM100 HD and install Suse on that. Once I am ready to kick WinXP, hopefully the S-ATA issue is resolved in 9.3 or 9.4 :-)
I dunno why SuSE thinks there's a RAID anyway... one HD can not be a raid system, if I'm correct.

Thanks for your hints

cheers
Felix

Ok, that works fine.
To be on the safe side, I put the bootloader (GRUB) on the hda (Linux) MBR and can start Linux happily if the hda HD is set to be the hd to boot from in the BIOS.
If I try to start WinXP (on sda), it gives me a 'unknown partition' message and nothing happens.
(I left the MBR on the sda unchanged).
If I change the order of HDs in the BIOS back so the sda with WinXP is first, Windows boots fine.
What would be your suggestion for the safest/best solution to configure the bootloader?
I can't really have Linux write to the sda I guess...

When I did a dual-boot XP/Slack I installed the 'nix bootloader to the 'nix system partition and not the MBR, then I just added the appropriate entry to the XP boot.ini to point to the 'nix bootloader on the 'nix partition. Basically it uses the XP MBR & boot.ini to boot up, when you select Linux from the boot.ini OS choices menu it fires up your 'nix bootloader and you're in.

I installed the 'nix bootloader to the system partition as part of the installation process, so I'm not sure how to do it after the fact.

I tried the trick of remapping the disks in GRUB using map(hd0)(hd1) etc as suggested by Novel/SuSE to boot Windows on a second harddisk, but it doesn't work either.
This is becoming rather tedious...

I'm a little unclear on a few things here, when you try to install you get the error message, after that did you try to install anyway and have the install fail or did you just abort the install at that point? If you 2+ SATA HDDs setup in a hardware RAID setup the 2.6 kernel very likely won't support your RAID. If you have 2+ HDDs on a SATA device but not setup in a RAID setup then you will still get a warning but you should be fine to click "OK" and continue with the install. The warning is mostly there because most new systems are going to SATA HDDs and most (I believe all) SATA devices can be configured in a RAID setup but with most of the cheaper SATA cards, including the ones built into Mobos do not have hardware RAID support under the 2.6 kernel.

For a list of SATA RAID devices and their level of support under the 2.6 kernel look: HERE

Since SuSE sees your RAID it's obvious your device is supported to some degree. Odds are since it is a built in device you will only have support for software RAID. Setup you RAID controller so that the device is on but RAID is turned off (every Mobo i've see with SATA devices have a way to do this, often after you get past the BIOS you should see an option to edit your RAID setup) It sound like you have it turned off. the boot from the SuSE CD/DVD and when you get the RAID message click OK and go ahead and install.

I only have one S-ATA drive and there's no RAID configured. The S-ATA controller is set to 'enhanced mode' (for native OS such as WinXP) in the bios so software RAID is supported for WinXP etc.
But as I said, there's only one HD on the S-ATA controller anyway.
What I did now is put in an additional standard UDMA100 HD and install SuSE on that.
So I have winXp on the S-ATA drive and SuSE on the ata100.
The only thing is GRUP doesn't boot WinXP now, even with harddisk remapping. I have to change the HD order in the bios to select the OS.
I didn't dare installing on the s-ata, but I'll try when I kick Windows.

Ok, I gave up.
Bought a 80GB hd and plugged it to the normal UDMA 100 port.
SuSE is living there now, WinXP on the S-ATA drive.
Let's see what 9.3 can do here...

It will work like it does now on my IHC6 controler.

To recap it all:
Starting with kernel 2.6.11 the Enhanced Mode of the intel IHC5/IHC6 controlers are supported. Prior this, the kernel only supported the PATA mode, but this isn't supported by WinXP. With SuSE 9.2 I had to enter the BIOS setup and change the SATA mode every time I booted another OS. If not, WinXP gave me a blue screen and Linux gave me a kernel panic.

Dirk